Contract negotiations between American and the TWU-IAM Association continue. The company’s July 2017 comprehensive proposal has been enhanced over the last two bargaining sessions and now includes:
Highest pay rates and premiums in the industry
Beyond the increases from August 2016 (varied between 15 – 55%, averaged 24%), increase base pay to higher than the current industry leader at signing with additional 2% increases in each following year of the contract’s duration. All members would receive a sign-on bonus of $3,000.
Members with 15 years of service who no longer want to work at American could take an early out to include approximately one year base salary severance.
Significantly increased paid time off package
10 paid holidays; any holiday worked paid at 2.5 times the current rate; 6 weeks of vacation at top of scale; 10 annual sick days paid at 100% on the first day of sick leave; 20 on-the-job injury days, if necessary.
Industry leading 401(k) plan
All TWU-IAM-represented team members would transition to an enhanced 401(k) plan. Company contributions would be an automatic 5% of your annual salary (no matching funds required by members), which is a higher contribution toward retirement than the current IAM pension plan or the current TWU 401(k). In addition, the company would match employee contributions up to 4% of the team member’s salary, for a total company contribution of up to 9%. IAM pension plan participants would retain any benefits already vested in their pension plan.
Competitive medical plans consistent with the industry
Association members would participate in the American medical plans as all other team members do. These are highly competitive plans that provide cost sharing that is in line with or better than other large companies. Average annual out-of-pocket costs (what you pay at the doctor + what’s deducted from your paycheck each pay period) for legacy US team members would increase by $1,600/year. All plans have yearly out-of-pocket maximums that cap what team members pay in the event of a catastrophic illness. Moving from the legacy US plans to the American plans, as all other team members have done, provides more contemporary coverage for things like free preventative care/screenings, infertility treatment, behavioral therapy treatment for autistic children (ABA therapy), family/marriage counseling and hearing aids.
Keeps more Maintenance and Fleet Service jobs
in-house than any other airline
American employs more fleet service team members and mechanics than Delta or United (about 7,000 more). Offer maintains the most restrictive Scope clause among our competitors and American will continue to employ more fleet agents and mechanics than either competitor. American also employs more full-time fleet service team members (relying less on part-time workers) than Delta or United.
Delta and United do much of the same work with lower paid third-party contract workers. Although we plan to retain the vast majority of our currently insourced work, over time, certain functions could be moved to third parties based on competitive need. This work is listed below. However, any transition would occur over time and through attrition over many years, and we will provide system wide job protection to all members. Team members performing this work today will complete their careers with American.
Outsourced work down the road could include:
- Deicing; no one today is employed solely to deice aircraft so there is no job loss.
- Catering at 5 stations; vendors today manage this function at all but 5 stations. Current catering workers move to other fleet service positions at their current station. No job loss.
- Keep GSE and Facilities/Plant Maintenance in stations where we have it today; possibly transition some of this work to vendors as those team members retire from or leave American. Carve-outs include GSE work at our 12 largest stations. No job loss.
- At some of the 40 stations where one legacy carrier performs fleet service work in-house, the other legacy carrier uses a vendor to perform that same work. In those 40 stations, we would remove the vendor and move the work in-house to American employees.
- Cargo will remain as it is today at all of our hubs. No job loss.
- Tulsa engine overhaul work remains as it is today. No job loss.
- Component work continues as is; as team members retire, this work could transition to a vendor. No job loss.
- Aligns outsourcing percentages to today’s TWU Line and IAM Base outsource criteria, and establishes a Base Maintenance minimum headcount requirement to ensure we maintain a world-class Base Maintenance operation. No job loss.
