Once again take a look at most of the major airlines and see who works there fights in there small cities. Its not there own people becasue they understand its not smart bussiness.
As far as DFW is concerned so what if thats what it would take to get real wages back to our group than so be it. And where do you see it being 5 years before we get a new deal.
What I have seen is 2011 being the extension thats only 3.
Once again all we are tring to do is merge our work groups why do we need to get everything all at once. Just the important stuff such as wages and sick time and the 60 day rule should be whats important here.
Fuzz, just because other airlines have followed Canale's stupid lead and eliminated all small stations doesn't mean we have to. Remember, Canale's UA contract started all this by eliminating many stations, then he did the same thing at US EAST which forced Delta to follow and also Northwest.
You have mentioned Southwest alot, what do they do? I know non-union Continental works many of their stations because their management realizes the true additional cost of having sub contractors in alot of stations. I personally think it is a manufacturization that gives the illusion that having sub contractors is beneficial. I know in ORD, Continental is the subcontactor for the freight and mail and they are much more costly than having company workers. But when you're dealing with a management team that thinks its own employees are the enemy [just looking up at the scoreboard] then it makes sense.
Having our own workers in El Paso, MCI, SAN, DEN, etc is incredibly valuable and not an expense OR BURDEN when measured on the whole. It's called professionalism. The problem comes in with the laptop boys who do some objective numbers without putting in other cost variables due to the human predicament. Is Hemenway willing to cost out 'professionalism' or other abstract things that cant be measured concretely enough for him to get another feather in his cap? The problem isn't the workers in the small cities, the problem is that we have had a management team that doesn't care about this airline, or its service, and only worried about getting their next bonus/employment contract/ or adding to their resume. I mean if this airline started caring about optimizing profit by offering professional service then you would have more business travelers instead of internet people like me going online confirming the cheapest fare.
At any rate, nobody is asking for anything unreasonable that will have to shut down the 19 west stations. What we are asking for is very modest. I tell you what, if you want to compare other airlines then compare in 'totality'. Those other airlines are paying workers much more, up to 7 weeks of vacation, double time, yaddy yaddy yaddy.
If Hemenway wants to contract out 19 stations because that's what other airlines do then give the industry standards on vacation [6-7 weeks vacation], holidays [10-12], double time, shift differ, a real company contribution to our pension, $20-$24 hr, full sick pay, etc., etc., then he wont have a problem getting what he's asking for.
In the context of the current talks, there is no convincing reason to eliminate up to 1,200 jobs. I personally would call that profane since it violates basic union principles of 'one for all and all for one'. It's just profane to give up these people so those who survive can divy up their spoils with a better wage. Unfortunately, Boss Canale has been the biggest advocate of this techique.
regards,
Tim Nelson
IAM Local Chairman, 1487, Chicago
