American Airlines and Labor Negotiations

[swamt]

Really starting to agree with you about this. Lack of information has had us in the dark, but it appears this mgmt group wants to get over on their employees. The more information given to members, the more people will be able to judge the situation. I'm in DFW and from what I understand mgmt forced out the one guy who was a very good link from mgmt to the unions and had best intentions for all. Other dumb things are happening, and people are saying this place is starting to run like a regional airline. Your description of them sounds like it may be on the money.

Some people always look for SOMEONE to blame.

Pretty bad when your forced to huh racer?? Check the post above yours it's not just me, it's a lot of the membership, including the IAM'ers.
BTW; not blaming somONE blaming many as in, asso. NC, EC, TWU international, IAM international and of course the company, not just someONE, let's get it correct.

The longest "opium flow" I have experienced has beenover 34 years now....

Wow! Usually opium users don't last past a few years as they always try to do more and more and end up overdosing within 5 years. You are tough man lasting 34 years, kudo's brother...

 

[gulfcoast1]

Anti labor party? After 8 years of Bill Clinton, and another 8 years Hussein Obama, I see no difference in how labor is treated by politicians.

I am lucky because I am protected by the RLA. I am nearly certain Democrats will retake the House in November and they will help protect me from most anti-union executive branch actions. They will fight to protect all RLA union workers, even those who vote against unions. Most of us here are probably RLA workers and should be protected. But maybe ask these hard workers how they feel? I don't think they fall under the RLA but I bet they wish they did.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-liar-carrier-layoffs_us_5a57e57ee4b0720dc4c59342

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/18/factory-workers-trump-jobs-345493

 

[WeAAsles]

That was well-written and reasonable.

Mr. Baskett comes across as a strong union supporter. Maybe he will change some minds on the TWU side about the contract but I don't know. Maybe he can get more of his station to support union politicians. Maybe this will have a good outcome. The longer this drags on the better the chances.

I have been sharing Brother Baskett’s updates for the last number of Months on some mostly TWU Fleet FB Group pages and for the most part they have been pretty well recieved.

Mark has even been courteous enough to jump in and chat with the Members from time to time.

 

[Tim Nelson]

That was well-written and reasonable. It is a thorough explanation of why we do not have a TA yet. Unfortunately I doubt it will change the minds of too many people on either side. I think most people on both sides understand why we do not have an agreement. The IAM is working under a better contract and wants to keep it. The TWU is working under a worse contract, and has been since 2003, and wants to get out of it. The pay raises are great but when the IAM has been getting a better deal for a couple years now, the frustration continues to grow. I think both sides understand why the TWU is in a hurry and the IAM is not. Because of the Assocation , and regardless of how good the final outcome is perceived to be, the frustration from the TWU side is bad and prevalent enough to cause problems for years to come. If the IAM loses their medical, they will probably start to feel the same way back at the TWU, except maybe their PT employees. The only good outcome would be for the company to continue the IAM medical and give us a TA soon. That would be great but what are the odds that will happen. I do not see a good ending to this. I am not really that frustrated anymore. I am too tired for that. I do not want to be angry with the IAM at all. The IAM are my union brothers. I will just wait but the longer we wait the more the frustration will grow. We have all seen it here already.

Mr. Baskett comes across as a strong union supporter. Maybe he will change some minds on the TWU side about the contract but I don't know. Maybe he can get more of his station to support union politicians. Maybe this will have a good outcome. The longer this drags on the better the chances.

All BS. Neither him or any IAM Officer supported the TWU picket, and it was discouraged for other IAM members to attend as the TWU was painted as the bad guy not supporting our health care. I picketed and a few of my buddies picketed in MIA and a couple others in DFW who were IAM members. But not with the consent of our leadership.
Baskett isn't on the executive negotiation committee so all of his info is second hand.. Who actually is on the Executive Negotiation Team hasn't been publicly announced but as far as I know, none are LUS fleet service.

Baskett continues to refuse to distance from the IAM Pension and refuses to admit to members that the pension is now projected critical status. The IAM pension is a deal breaker in these talks even though Sito blows smoke and says he will consider all options. I support the company 100% on negotiating a retirement other than the IAMNPF, provided it is more than 9%. But even if we just switch to a 401 instead of future contributions into the pension, I'm still fine with that as opposed to keeping the current situation which is junk. And, no, Baskett can't rightly understand the TWU plight. Dude makes $125,000 a year, expenses every last cent of his medical cost to the members, and gets another $300 a month to blow, and $25 a day while he is at home, plus expenses and yet another pension. In fact, he can't even relate to me or ANY other members regarding retirement since he is part of a separate big fat retirement pension for him and other officers which collect 2% a year of his annual salary. So, he isn't as forthcoming about our IAMNPF. Next time he post, I'llsk Charlie Brown why he won't tell his members that the IAMNPF is officially projected critical status (Worst status).

 

[Fleetoffoot]

That and having and anti-labor union party in control of the executive and legislative branches does not help either. Yet many people who complain about not having a deal here and corporate greed continue to strongly support it. If they did not have the protections of the RLA they would probably feel differently but as for now they are somewhat protected even though they vote against their work rules.

I really don’t like talking about politics but since you brought it up Governor Andrew Cuomo who is a Democrat just contracted out all of facility maintenance in LGA including the port authority. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound friendly towards labor.

 

[Tim Nelson]

I’m not so sure the unborn will be treated exactly second class? Yea they might take a little longer to reach the promised land to TOS but at the money they’re going to be making is that really a tragedy?

B Stations on the other hand you already know my thoughts on that. No problemo por favor.

Be honest with me here Tim. That item is sitting on your desk for a John Hancock approval. Are you a YEA or NEA?

Neither. I can't vote. But I think B stations, if done right to expand true opportunities for OUR Association members, as opposed to what happened at United with United Ground, is something that can be done fairly. I was in a B station prior and it wasn't fair or fun. It was basically a dues grab.
But if B stations has similar pay, albeit more flexibility, and the same benefits, then that could be fair. Just doing it to expand dues is a joke and that's what happened at Alaska and United.

 

[dfw gen]

IAM CLT AGC Mark Baskett update.

Briefing for 8-12-18

NEGOTIATIONS: I want to start this briefing with a few personal comments. While this briefing originally started for just the clt IAM employees, I am glad to say that it has now grew to go out to the whole system. It is also shared by many of our brothers and sisters on the twu side.

So first let me say to those twu employees that THINK I don't feel your pain, you couldn't be more wrong. I am in my 36th year as a Piedmnont, Usair, Usairways, AA employee, that has been through 2 bankruptcies, and many concessions. So believe me, I along with many IAM employees do feel your pain working under a bankrupt contract minus the pay. I say minus the pay, because you, unlike myself along with many other IAM employees, we never could say while going through our 2 bankruptcies that we were top of the industry in pay. Yes you have made many sacrifices to keep this company going, and I assure you, those sacrifices by the IAMside of the negotiating team do not go ignored. We ( and I am speaking for the IAM negotiators ) all have many years with this company. We have been through the bankruptcies with this company more than once. We do feel your pain.

Yes I know many TWU employees are sore that there was no vote for the association. And also that the IAM didn't participate in your picketing. With all do respect to the TWU brothers and sisters, there was just a disagreement on if and when the info picketing should be done. Lets just say that it was not a decision that was made by the " association". Having said that, there were IAM employees that were present at the picketing. No there wasn't hundreds like the TWU, but there were a number of IAM employees at these pickets all wearing TWU shirts and holding TWU signs. Please keep in mind, that these info pickets were held in what I would call huge TWU stations, and very small IAM stations, so unless our members made themselves known ( which I know at least one that did ), then you wouldn't know that we were there. I am not saying this was the right thing to do, I am just stating the facts that we did have members there even though the " association " wasn't in agreement with the right time to hold the info picketing.

My point of this is, is to try and explain the IAM side of the issue from one Mark Basketts point of view. If we were to hold a info picket in CLT NC, the IAM would do so on behalf of the association, and we wouldn't expect one TWU person to show up, since it is a IAM stronghold. Any TWU persons that would show, we would simply look at as " icing on the cake" . We would never look at our info picket as not a success. We would expect to, and carry the torch so the speak, on behalf of us all.

Yes, if your TWU, I can understand your frustrations on being the majority workgroup. I can also understand your frustrations on not getting to vote on the " association". However, are we gong to sit and complain about these issues that are done and in the books, or are we going to move forward as a united group?

Now getting to the negotiations!! This past week while many people on social media are confused by the different updates from the association on the progress from one week to the next. Keep in mind, that the association updates can and are inclusive of the mechanics as well as fleet. So while last week, the update can say there was good progress made, they would be talking about the mechanics group. And while this week it seems to be negative and that no progress was made, they are talking mostly about the fleet group.

So I am gong to speak about the fleet group now, since that's what I am on the negotiating team for. First and foremost, regardless of what you are reading on any public forums, fleet is NOT done. Whether you choose to believe people that are not part of negotiations, are you can believe a person that is, its totally up to you. But I will say that I wouldn't take the time to send out these briefings to update everyone on the status of negotiations, if I didn't care for you to have the correct information. So you choose who you want to believe.

But fleet has several issues still to deal with. EX: Scope, insurance, wages, retirement, not to mention several smaller issues that are pending based on the bigger issues I just mentioned.

On the IAM side of things, the company's latest proposal wants to not only get rid of our insurance, but also take away jobs, specifically catering, and also some others like cargo. While again I feel and understand the TWU, s frustrations, the IAM side at this time in my opinion is looking at a cost negative contract for our members. So the issue is not that we don't feel for our TWU brothers and sisters, again we do, many of us have been there more than once. The issue is that we can not and WILL NOT agree to bring back a cost negative agreement to our members that we represent. I would assume that any TWU person, if on the negotiating team would feel the same way, if you were truly there for your members.

In our latest scope proposal to the company, as I have said before. We presented a proposal for fleet that preserved all the work that we are currently performing today in our 40 stations. I ask all of you that reads this, while the company is making a profit by letting us do this work today, if this is unreasonable??

In addition to what I mentioned in the above sentence, we also have presented on a separate list a number of stations that the company would in source, that once was occupied by either the IAM or TWU. These stations would be under different scope parameters than the 40 that we are in today.

So for all IAM employees out there that know they want to take your insurance, as well as the TWU employees. Not only will the company not agree to the work we are performing in our current 40 stations, they aren't even considering the additional stations, even though we are willing for these to be at a different scope proposal than our existing 40 that we have today.

BOTTOM LINE: The bottom line for everyone, no matter if your TWU or IAM reading this. The current proposal that is on the table while it might not be a cost negative proposal for the TWU since your in a bankrupt contract, and its very easy to make a cost neutral offer when your in bankruptcy. It is a cost negative for the IAM employees. What is the IAM negotiating members suppose to do?? Are we to accept a cost negative contract for our IAM members just to get the TWUmembers out of a bankrupt contract?? I am one person, speaking for myself, And again while I feel for all the TWU brothers and sisters out there, because I have lived and felt the pain and I have sacrificed as well as many of my brothers and sisters that I represent through more than one bankruptcy, I can not, and will not accept a cost negative contract for our members.

And in closing let me add, that its not only the IAM brothers and sisters that I am fighting for, its also to get the TWUbrothers and sisters what they truly deserve as well.

I don't know where we go from here. Will we get something good enough to put out in the next few weeks? Or will we go to section 6? Either way, I am confident that we will do whats best for our members as a whole.

EVERYONE HAVE A GOOD AND SAFE WEEK

MARK BASKETT

I have been begging peterson to put out more information, just to get blown off. The "disagreement" is what caused the division. When the iam leadership stayed home, beleive me it would have been noticed if sito, regan and the leaders of the iam where seen on the picket line with samulsen and peterson, unfortunately it was noticed they werent there. So until the iam strong points were threatened it became a concern. If we would have received the support from the beginning instead of at the "crisis" point i would be more then ready to fight. Unfortunatley the impression is "the many can sacrifice for the few" the "disagreement" was a critical mistake made at a critical time.
If the twu is not interested in representing us, **** it ill join the mickey mouse club or whoever else us willing to steal our money.

 

[dfw gen]

If it takes years for an agreement, so be it.i havent invested thousands of dollars in tools and years learning the trade to PAY for this bullshit.

 

[Tim Nelson]

First of all Al I doubt Tim became a dues objector, I doubt he will become a dues objector and I doubt he’ll make a video about it. I’m sure when the time comes Tim wants to have that JCBA vote counted. And it also doesn’t take an Engineering Degree to figure out how to go on agency fee, hand delivery.

And obviously I agree with you on the information coming from the “Official” source. Either they need to ratchet it up or stop doing them until there’s something worth saying. The retreads are honestly getting tiresome and people have begun to ignore them.

I like what Gary and Mark added to the picture though. That’s more like it.

I did. 2 hour voting is disappointing and the thorough lack of enforcing our contract and other contracts are reason to spawn other Labor Organizations and to refrain from supporting this miserable Labor Organization. But mostly because the IAM simply isn't democratic and is a top heavy organization that doesn't seek change into this century.

Sent certified letter as well. I actually went further than just being a dues objector, I resigned my membership in this miserable union. And I am going to do a video as well. It was either that or become a member in bad standing since I was charged with something like 'interest unamicable to the IAM". I'm moving on outside of the IAM constitution.

 

[Tim Nelson]

Anti labor party? After 8 years of Bill Clinton, and another 8 years Hussein Obama, I see no difference in how labor is treated by politicians.

Obama hammered Union members by having their employers bail out on the previously strong Health care. All through the threat of his Cadillac (excise) tax on employer excellent medical plans to union members. It's one reason why 80% of American now has a chit plan and a reason why Parker wants our health care cost expanded (along with Baskett's vote to expand United IAM health care by 400%).

Then toss in Obama's war against union members by agreeing that Union Bosses can cut the checks of retirees who are union members already collecting a pension. THAT is so anti union it is pathetic. Non Union members still will get their full protections and not have to get cuts if they are already collecting. Only union members. Thanks Democrats.

 

[ALUS78]

I really don’t like talking about politics but since you brought it up Governor Andrew Cuomo who is a Democrat just contracted out all of facility maintenance in LGA including the port authority. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound friendly towards labor.

AND they are planning to replace our guys in the new building when they knock this building down

 

[ALUS78]

If it takes years for an agreement, so be it.i havent invested thousands of dollars in tools and years learning the trade to PAY for this bullshit.

Yeah but years and years and we dont get anything better than they are offering now.Could happen

 

[ALUS78]

I did. 2 hour voting is disappointing and the thorough lack of enforcing our contract and other contracts are reason to spawn other Labor Organizations and to refrain from supporting this miserable Labor Organization. But mostly because the IAM simply isn't democratic and is a top heavy organization that doesn't seek change into this century.

Sent certified letter as well. I actually went further than just being a dues objector, I resigned my membership in this miserable union. And I am going to do a video as well. It was either that or become a member in bad standing since I was charged with something like 'interest unamicable to the IAM". I'm moving on outside of the IAM constitution.

ORD is going to be TWU anyway

 

[Tim Nelson]

Yeah but years and years and we dont get anything better than they are offering now.Could happen

or less

 

[Tim Nelson]

ORD is going to be TWU anyway

Yea. My local is great with the iam, and ive known some of the Local leaders at the TWU for decades now. Great TWU local.
My complaints have always been higher than a Local.