Monday, July 7, 2014

Mechanics Dispatch

New Work in SFO

Normally we don’t report on United Daily articles but the article titled, “Base teams begin historic heavy maintenance on Airbus” found here is different. This is a story about the first HMV visit in SFO in twelve years. As part of the company’s cost reduction efforts they determined that bringing this work in would save money. 
As reported in the article, “This is the first of what will be a nonstop parade of Airbus heavy checks and other services.” Kudos to Business Agents Rich Petrovsky of Local 986 and Javier Lectora of Local 856 for their efforts to help make this happen.

Arbitration Update

On Thursday, June 26th the Resource Utilization Letter arbitration case continued in Newark. The Union rested its case subject to rebuttal. The company will begin its case when the panel is scheduled to reconvene on September 16th.

Sub UA Joint Board Held in SFO

On Tuesday, June 24th a Joint Board session was held in SFO. One case was heard at this Board session as agreed by the parties. The case involved a discharge of an employee and an answer will be given to the parties shortly. There are several discharges currently on the system and the Board is in the process of scheduling these hearings.
For those that have never been involved with the Board there are three different decisions that may make. The Board can sustain a grievance, in which case the grievant wins his or her case, or the grievance can be denied, in which case the grievant loses his or her case, and finally the Board can deadlock a case. If the Board deadlocks the matter it can then be moved to a neutral third party arbitrator. The Board can also remand the grievance to the parties for resolution. A remand means that there is generally enough evidence on each side of an issue that it is apparent the parties should try to settle the issue prior to the grievance proceeding through the process.