Negotiations Update

 

 

 

This week the parties met in Chicago to round out Phase 1 – (non economic) reconciliation talks. We are on schedule at this point and have discussed every article in the Phase 1 agenda. Other than a few remaining reconciliation issues that may have room for some further discussion, Phase 1 of the process is nearly complete. The credit for the success of this first stage goes to the subcommittee groups of both sides who with the help of senior mediator Pat Sims and the NMB were able to outpace the language writers for this course of action.

Next week in Chicago, a small group from the Teamster committee will focus on constructing and tightening language to reflect the agreements reached in committee discussions. This language will then be available for analysis, review and edits by the entire committee the following week prior to moving forward. During this final week in February, the parties will also have the opportunity with the assistance of the NMB to attempt to reach agreements in principal on the few remaining outstanding Phase 1 issues before the process moves to Phase 2.

The process of Phase 2 is expected to begin on schedule in early March. In Phase 2, we will discuss all the components of the economic portions of the agreement including pay, job protections, and benefits such as pension and medical options. There will also be discussions on any of the Phase 1 language we could not agree on carried over in to Phase 2.

 

In anticipation of economic discussions, this week the negotiating team was introduced to economist Dan Akins. Dan has worked closely with Dr. Jim Kimball, the IBT’s Director of Economics and Research as well as the Airline Division.  He brings his 30 years of experience as an airline economist to assist the committee in the negotiating process and has built his distinguished career working primarily for organized labor. Dan has a deep appreciation and understanding how airline companies operate and negotiate. His area of expertise and assistance will come in the form of dissecting the financial data requested from the company and offer suggestions moving forward. 

 

Actuaries

 

During the week a small subcommittee met with Cheiron, to discuss health care options. Chieron is a highly regarded full-service financial analysis and actuarial consulting firm located in Chicago and has dedicated two of their top rated actuaries, John Colberg and Gaelle Gravot to assist the Teamster negotiating committee with the benefits process.

Data provided to the actuaries was created by the benefits committee.   The actuaries from Cherion will take the data along with additional data requests from the carrier and provide recommendations to the Teamster benefits subcommittee.  

 

Cheiron and others will help to ensure that the subject of our benefits do not become “incompacilated.” This made up word was created during one of our long breakout sessions that generally describes the tendency of some company officials who attempt to dilute our expectations. The committee will remain diligent to ensure a watchful eye for these types of actions and will create other words to describe them as needed.

The committee is very appreciative and would like to express our thanks for the support and guidance we have received from the various in-house and outside individuals and firms that have been brought in to assist in these discussions.

 

Committee Member Health Report

The negotiating committee is pleased to announce that the latest conversation with Allen Cosides finds him on his way to recovery. Allen suffered a heart attack recently which has him sidelined for the time being. Today, Allen and his wife were able to get outside for a bit of fresh air. We will keep him involved as much as possible while he recovers and look forward to his return as a helpful part of this committee.  Our special thanks goes out to all who offered assistance to Allen and who have kept him in your thoughts and prayers.

Negotiations Update

This week the parties met in Chicago to continue Phase 1, non-economic reconciliation talks. The focus was on Articles 3 - (Classifications), Article 17 – (Overtime) and Article 12 – (Field Trips).

The Union committee was missing a very important member due to health issues for this session. Allen Cosides suffered a heart attack last Friday, but is currently home recovering. We would like to ask you all to keep Allen and his family in your thoughts and prayers. We on the negotiating committee are looking forward to his speedy recovery and return.

The bulk of this week's work focused on Article 3 – (Classifications). Because of the difference in the way the San Francisco base has operated in the past, the transition to the new agreement has been difficult. The Union subcommittee presented a detailed report to the Company subcommittee describing what was believed to be a current view of the bid areas. The report also included what the Union committee believed was the best path forward. The Union committee would like to thank all of the stewards and members that helped to provide this useful information. While progress was made on this Article the work will continue next week.

Field Trips (Article 12) talks continued until Wednesday when an agreement in principle was reached on the Phase 1 issues. The same subcommittee then moved on to Article 17 – (Overtime) and was able to reach an agreement in principle.

A major winter storm in the northeast caused the negotiations to wrap up on Thursday evening in order to allow the Union negotiators to get home ahead of the massive flight cancellations that were instituted. The NMB will be with us next week when the parties resume talks on Monday. The Article 3 subcommittee is slated to continue its work and a review of the status of several articles will occur to determine which other sub committees will meet. 

New Website of the Teamsters Airline Division

 A brand new website for the Teamsters Airline Division has been launched this week. This is your one-stop shop for all news and information about Teamsters in the airline industry. Check out Teamster Air online today: www.teamsterair.org

The new and improved website is designed to keep members connected and to provide you with the tools and information you need to stay informed and involved in the union.

Teamster Air features complete Airline Division information, an interactive map to Airline Division locals, an active news feed, and staff bios. You can also link to other Teamster airline campaign web pages and filter for news stories related to specific carriers and crafts in the Airline Division.

Mechanics Dispatch

Negotiation Update

 

The third consecutive week of meetings between the parties began on Monday January 21, 2013 with an internal union caucus. The purpose of the caucus was to discuss the activity of the previous two weeks and to assess the progress made to date. In addition, the negotiating committee discussed the recommendation of the seniority integration committee (SIC) and how that committee’s findings would impact bargaining moving forward. Once consensus was reached on how to proceed with the findings of the SIC the committee, the negotiating committee moved to preparation for this week’s session.

The parties worked on the following articles over the course of the week with the assistance of the NMB; Seniority, RIF and Recall, Field Trips, Overtime and Training. An Agreement in Principal on Phase 1 items was reached on Training and significant progress was made on the other articles. The parties were assisted this week by mediator Andy Nordgren. While not as many articles were agreed upon this week, a review of the progress shows that the parties have concluded Phase 1 discussions on approximately one half of the full agreement.

In attendance for the Union were rank and file negotiators Allen Cosides, Steve Olsen, Vinny Graziano, Jay Koreny-(Local 210), Anthony Ybarra, Joseph Prisco, John Pangelinan-(Local 986), Mike Moats-(Local 964), Mike Pecoraro-(Local 781), Paul Becerra-(Local 769), John Laurin-(Local 856) Mike Nerren, Jack Harran-(Local 19) and Mitch Hunt (Local 455). Business Agents Angel Cantu, Dave Saucedo, Ralph Salzano, Justin Muraki, Dave Elmore, and George Graham were also in attendance, with the Airline Division represented by Clacy Griswold, Paul Alves, Bob Fisher and attorney Ed Gleason.

 

FAA Paper Certificates Expire March 31 – Get Your Replacement!

For those of you who still hold a paper license, stop procrastinating. Your paper license will no longer be valid on March 31, 2013. That means you can’t work! The good news is that it’s easy and painless to replace and it only costs $2.00.

Click here to get your FAA Paper License Replacement.

All paper certificate holders cannot exercise the privileges of their PAPER certificates after March 31, 2013. This includes all certificates that are issued under 14 CFR Part 63 and 65.

 

14 CFR 63.15(d) and 65.15(d) reads:

 

Duration of certificates. Except for temporary certificates issued under §63.15 and 65.15, the holder of a paper certificate issued under this part may not exercise the privileges of that certificate after March 31, 2013.

Get your paper license replacement today!

If your airman certificate was issued after July 2003 and is a plastic certificate, it already meets the paper-to-plastic rule as specified in 14 CFR Parts 63 and 65 and you may disregard this notification.

For more information, contact TAMC Chairman and Airline Division International Representative Chris Moore at 202-409-6038.

United Airline fleet plan as reported to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. You can view the complete report by clicking here.

Mainline Aircraft in Scheduled Service
		YE 2012				1QD				2Q D				3Q D				4Q D				YE2013				FY D
B747-400			23				—				—				—				—				23				—
B777-200			74				—				—				—				—				74				—
B787-8			5				1				—				1				1				8				3
B767-200/300/400			56				(5	)			—				—				—				51				(5		)
B757-200/300			154				(3	)			(1	)			(8	)			(10	)			132				(22		)
B737-500/700/800/900			238				4				(2	)			6				6				252				14
A319/A320			152				—				—				—				—				152				—
Total Mainline Aircraft			702				(3	)			(3	)			(1	)			(3	)			692				(10		)

Mechanics Dispatch Jan 18

 

Negotiations Update

 

The parties met for a second consecutive week of bargaining this week in Chicago. We tackled some of the more substantive phase 1 portions of the agreements. The articles discussed were Article 3 - Covered Crafts, Classifications, and Bid Areas; Article 4 - Seniority; Article 13 - Training; Article 7 - Hours of Service; Article 17 - Overtime; and Article 18 - Union Security and Representation.

Agreements in principle on non-economic issues were reached on Articles 7 and 17, and progress was made on the other four subjects. Also present at the start of this week’s session was Peter Hardcastle, a Cheiron actuary hired by the IBT to assist in these negotiations. Mr. Hardcastle was on hand for continued preliminary discussions on pension and other benefit-related matters.

Discussions will continue with the remaining articles when bargaining reconvenes on Monday for the third consecutive week. Originally this third week was going to be done without the aid of the mediators, however, considering our progress and at the parties’ request, a schedule change was managed and the NMB will be present during next week as well.

We will keep you updated as progress continues.

 

Seniority Integration Committee

 

The Seniority Integration Committee was called together to finalize the draft of suggestions for the Negotiating Committee. As we have made faster-than-expected progress, the Committee was called together to vote on and discuss any final remaining issues on the draft that has been building over the last few months. This draft will be a template to be used by the Negotiating Committee in resolving the many differences on the subject of seniority within the three groups. Discussions with the company on the seniority article began immediately after receiving the final draft.

One of the long anticipated information items, the combined Teamster Roster, was delivered from the company to the SIC during the meeting. The final task for the SIC is to look over the roster and make any necessary corrections. Some of this can begin immediately while other changes will require agreements in principle between the company and the union Negotiating Committee. It should be stressed that any of these changes or corrections will not be valid without a fully-ratified agreement voted on by the membership.

 

 

UAL Mechanics Dispatch - January 11, 2013

Negotiating Update The negotiating committee began year 2013 with formal meetings the week of January 7th. These meetings started off with a day and a half of training courtesy of the National Mediation Board. This Board required training for the expedited facilitated problem solving,  or FPS,  process placed the company and the union in the same room listening to course instruction lead by senior mediator Pat Sims assisted by mediator Michael Kelliher. The purpose of these exercises was to get negotiators familiar with facilitated problem solving. Training was well received by both parties and all participants including upper management and union leaders took part. The first step towards beginning the process is for the parties to come to an agreement of guidelines. This Protocol Agreement was completed by the parties just prior to the start of negotiations. The full protocol agreement can be found by visitingwww.Teamsters.org and tabbing to the Airline Division section. http://www.teamster.org/content/united-mechanics-negotiations-update-protocol-and-other-agreements-made According to the agreement, these talks will be divided into two phases. The first phase is the reconciliation phase and will be the process of taking the differences in the contract books for the three companies and amalgamating them in to one. It is this first phase that will consume the majority of our initial meeting time with the company. To accomplish this phase, we have divided into small groups of negotiators and Business agents who are tasked with certain articles. These small groups meet with similar company groups and the two parties run down the entire article. In many cases the language is taken as is and agreements can be made immediately. Combining three contracts, however, will obviously bring about some points of disagreement.  The points that are not immediately agreed to are worked out using the process taught through the training earlier in the week with the goal of resolving the differences. Each of these sub-committee meetings have been presided over by members of the Board to help move the process along. The specific articles discussed this week were Articles 2, 8, 9, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and the Savings Clause. In phase two of the negotiations the parties will discuss new work rules as well as the entire economic package. The progress that was made in these last few days ordinarily may have taken months and we look forward to continuing the sessions next week.  One Teamster resource that should not go unnoticed is the legal department. Our IBT legal representative, Ed Gleason, has been personally on hand and available during the entire process to help us when needed. The entire negotiating team has progressed with the help of his expertise and dedication. Agreements in principle of non economic issues were reached on Definitions, Holidays, Vacations, Grievance Procedure, Arbitration, General and Miscellaneous, Apprentice Mechanics and Transportation. Negotiations are scheduled to resume next week in Chicago followed by the week of the 21st. The week of the 28th will be used for internal committee work. For the entire month of February the parties are scheduled to meet every week in Chicago. The negotiations update and protocol agreement have been posted on the Divisionpage and the UAL/CAL/CMI Mechanics Weekly Update page: http://www.teamster.org/content/ualcalcmi-mechanics-weekly-update-january-11-2013

The Mechanic's Dispatch

Negotiations Begin This Week

The negotiation committee will be in Chicago the week of January 7th to begin the required training provided by senior mediator Pat Sims and mediator Michael Kelleher. We will be employing a new process created by the National Mediation Board in 2010 called “Expedited Mediation.” This process uses the Interest Based Bargaining model rather than the more traditional Collective Bargaining method that has been the norm for most of our past agreements. The goal is to assist in shortening the time normally taken to negotiate contracts under the RLA as has been written about in past issues of the Dispatch.

Immediately following the training, on Wednesday January 9th the process will begin to create a new amalgamated contract for the Mechanics and Related at United Airlines. The rank and file steering, seniority integration, benefits, and negotiating committees have worked hard to prepare for these upcoming negotiations. A final report of advisory recommendations from the seniority integration and benefits committees will be provided to the negotiating committee shortly in order for the negotiating committee to develop proposals to the company.

This negotiating process is different from previous contracts in a couple of ways. First language is not passed back and forth, rather concepts are discussed and when agreement is reached on a concept language will be drafted to capture the intent of the parties.

Second the negotiating committee will be broken down into several sub committees that will each have areas of responsibility to discuss with the company. For instance the committee dealing with the Seniority article will most likely also discuss Classifications, Vacancies, RIF and Recall and the Consent Decree. And lastly because of this structure a detailed written opening proposal will not be provided to the company.

Negotiation updates will be provided at the end of each session of bargaining so please look for them in the Dispatch on your local bulletin boards and on the Division and Local websites.

Renew Your License

As stated in a previous Dispatch, your paper TAMC A&P certificates will no longer be valid after March 31, 2013. If you do not change your paper license to the new credit card type by this date, you will have to make your license active again by taking the written and practical at an approved FAA training center. If you don’t want to try to study and retake these exams it is advisable that you renew your certificate now.

 TAMC

We have begun our new season with the Teamster Aviation Mechanics Coalition. The TAMC is a non partisan group formed to address the needs of all mechanics in the aviation field. With over 18,000 aviation mechanic members, The Teamsters have dedicated resources and funding to our cause. Our goal is to take a stand and create a collective voice to government processes that affect our industry, careers, and livelihood. Examples of the types of issues we get involved in are foreign outsourcing, and new government policies regarding aviation maintenance. While many of our subjects deal with aircraft maintenance, the issues of GSE and facility maintenance are an equal concern.
Participation with the TAMC is open to all and only works with member involvement. If you would like to become a more active part in the TAMC please see or contact your Local Business Agent or Local TAMC representative. If you would like to follow the progress of the TAMC and sign up for the Newsletter, visit Teamster.org and tab to the Airline Division page. Once there, the link to sign up for the TAMC Newsletter can be found on the right hand side of the page in the “About the Division” information box.