Gary Peterson dropped by the DFW hanger breakroom yesterday for a little Q & A session. All of Tim Nelson's rumors were put to bed. Gary stated that the company "so far" is balking at recommending their contract proposal be put up for vote. The company has to recommend it be voted on, then if the Association doesn't like what's in it, they can recommend a NO vote. Ideally it would be at least an agreement in principle or AIP that both sides agreed on - put up for vote. The scope is still an issue because of definitions on hours worked by a licensed AMT overseeing 10 unlicensed repair persons at a maintenance vendor. Company was trying to pull a fast one by not including the labor of the unlicensed repair people - as an example. With title II being sunsetted, the issue of who will be doing building maintenance in the future needs to be defined as well.
On vacation, the company wants 5th week at 25 years and 6th week at 30 years seniority. Union is pointing out that nobody in the industry has to wait that long, not even within AA in other groups. Asking for 5th week at 17 years, and 6th week at 25 years. 7th week was traded for SWA pay plus 3% - much higher than UAL.
Profit sharing was to match Delta's.
Company is sticking with the very weak $3K signing bonus, and doesn't want to pay RETRO. They also want to force all LAA into this weird $3K interest free loan situation, to cover the week or two for our pay to match up with the Workbrain System. Turns out, Workbrain can handle all the payroll as it is now, and there is absolutely no reason to force the change, it is only because some genius at HDQ wants to put everybody through this unnecessary process.
Company is pushing for title III to accomplish aircraft moves, which system wide could reduce line AMT headcount by over 700. That's a non starter.
Anyway, Gary stated they are not done trying to get something done before the end of 2019 per Doug Parkers statements last week. Tenative dates for continued talks are being set for mid January. That's about it.
