Survey Information Update March 24, 2016

 8 Days Remaining to Complete the Membership Contract Survey! Your Local Union Principal Officers have approved this survey of the UAL/CAL/CMI mechanics to be used for the benefit of your negotiating committee.

When you respond to the questions in the survey, we ask that you take the time to provide a well thought out, honest, and informed answer.  Please make sure that you answer every question. If you do not finish the survey in one sitting, you can save your survey, return later and pick up where you left off.

This survey will be available online and will remain available through 5pm Eastern Time, Friday, April 1, 2016. The survey consists of contract topics containing multiple-choice and fill in the blank questions. In addition, at the end of the survey, text boxes are available for additional comments that have not been addressed.

To access the survey simply follow these steps:
 1. Go to https://BallotPoint.com/IBTADsurvey
 2. Login with your Employee ID and PIN, Your initial PIN is the last four numbers of your SSN.
 3. If this is the first time you logged in, you will be asked to change your PIN. Simply follow the prompts. Otherwise, you will skip this step.
 4. Click on the "Take Survey Now" button to start your survey.

TEAMSTER MECHANICS THREATEN STRIKE AGAINST UNITED AIRLINES AT JP MORGAN INVESTOR CONFERENCE

 Mechanics Picket, Warn Conference Attendees of Labor Unrest

(NEW YORK) – Hundreds of aircraft mechanics who traveled from 10 airports across the U.S. protested their employer, United Airlines [NYSE: UAL], at JP Morgan’s annual Aviation, Transportation & Industrials investor conference today.

The protest follows two weeks of picketing actions by United Airlines mechanics and technicians at airports across the country, including San Francisco, Los Angeles (LAX), Chicago O’Hare, Newark, LaGuardia, Washington Dulles, Cleveland, Boston Logan, Houston and Orlando.

Last month, the mechanics voted down United’s contract proposal by 93 percent, and also voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. Over 9,000 mechanics at United are represented by the Teamsters Union, which is petitioning the National Mediation Board for a strike release.

The mechanics held picket signs that read, “United Airlines Execs: Don’t Loot Mechanics’ Healthcare & Profit-Sharing” and “United Airlines Mechanics STRIKE – Not Yet.” They also distributed leaflets to conference attendees that read, “Investor Alert: Risky Stock Buyback May Trigger Costly United Airlines Strike.”

“United’s mechanics overwhelmingly authorized a strike because the company’s executives are lining their own pockets, while failing to keep the promises they made to employees who took major concessions during United’s bankruptcy,” said Capt. David Bourne, Director of the Teamsters Airline Division.

“United mechanics are only asking for a contract that does right by their families. These workers sacrificed to save United and now that the company is making billions in profit, it needs to recognize that sacrifice. The Teamsters are ready and willing to strike if United will not agree to a fair contract for these workers," said George Miranda, Teamsters International Vice President At-Large and President of New York’s Joint Council 16.

“We voted down United’s proposed contract and authorized a strike because United betrayed us,” said Jay Koreny, a 29-year mechanic at Dulles Airport in Virginia. “We sacrificed so much, including our retirement security, to save United and help it come out of bankruptcy and earn record profits. United promised that when things got better, we would all see better days. Now top executives are enriching themselves while asking us to basically pay for our own raises. I hope they’re ready for a strike, because we sure are.”

In United’s bankruptcy, mechanics lost their pensions and stock, and many lost their jobs to massive outsourcing.

“United promised employees that it would make it up to them when good times returned. Now United is earning record profits and spending billions to buy back stock, yet it wants to slash mechanics’ profit sharing by two-thirds and is offering mechanics only, on average, a 73-cent-per-hour net wage increase annually,” Bourne said.

“United’s top executives get nearly 40 percent of their compensation in stock, and spending company cash to buy back stock will certainly increase the value of their shares. Eight UAL executives have reaped more than $6.5 million from cashing in options and buybacks over the past year, and that’s not right when the company refuses to give the mechanics a fair contract,” said Ken Hall, Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer.

“Why is United in a rush to buy back stock? Investors should be wary, especially since United has announced plans to spend as much as $2.9 billion on new aircraft and other capital expenditures in 2016— and it also needs to invest in its workforce,” Bourne said.

“Many of us have given our entire careers to United and stuck with them for decades. We traveled from all over the country to send United a strong message today: After everything we gave up, it’s time for the company to start keeping its promises to us,” Koreny said.

The Front Line

A message from YOUR Negotiating Committee

March 1, 2016

On Monday February 29^th, the full negotiating committee met for the first time since Mike Bond’s last best and final turd was overwhelmingly flushed down the toilet. The purpose of this meeting was to organize the next steps and how to best proceed moving forward.

The meeting opened with a short recap of the various station protests that have happened over the lasttwo weeks. This topic was raised first as it is of paramount importance. This committee is only as strong as the support we are given by the membership. 93% of our membership voting NO was a huge message to the company, and it should be a sounding message to all of us. Our task is to keep that momentum moving in a positive direction. Our support at these rallies was generally good and many members turned out to protest, however, we are still very far from a 93% turn out at these rallies’. 

Make no mistake about it: The Company declared war on this union and this membership with their close out proposal. The demands for concessions during a time of consistent record breaking profits shows a new level of contempt for those of us who keep this airline flying. The show of solidarity from our fellow Teamster members raised a great big middle finger at the company. We need to continue this and raise the other hand in defiance as well. We have just begun our struggle and will continue with an aggressive campaign against the company until they give us what we truly deserve: An Industry Leading Contract

We continued the first part of the day re-establishing our processes, strengthening our communications chain, and planning on how to best battle this company’s blatant lack of good faith bargaining with this membership. We spent some time strategizing our upcoming demonstrations.  When you hear of future rallies, do your part and show up. Its fun to direct our years of pent up frustration with this Company right back where it belongs. 

The rules of engagement in our battle for decency have changed. We ended this first day with a conversation on how these changes would affect how the committee will proceed. We spoke about different ideas and general housekeeping efforts, all with the idea of maintaining the momentum YOU created.

The second day started with a conversation on the different thoughts and opinions from across the system. There were a variety of reasons for the “no” vote.  Thoroughly vetting and understanding these reasons is the best place to begin building a new proposal.  It is important that we take the time to weigh in with as many opinions as possible. What might not seem important to one group at the moment may prove invaluable at a later date.

A Principal Officers meeting was held at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Headquarters in Washington D.C on February 17^th to discuss how to go forward. A brief description of the outcome was given to the negotiating committee. This will be shared with the membership in the coming days.

A 93% NO vote from this membership was a shocking blow to the companies’ fictitious view of an industry leading agreement. But this was just the first step. The company minions are hitting the ground at all stations gathering intel to try to continue their delusional fantasy of forcing another substandard agreement upon this membership.

NOW is the time for us to end their fantasy