NEW WORK RULES

[700UW]

According to the contract, the widebodies ARE included in the 50%.

I never said they didnt, I said that they are bringing and have brought some widebody HMV back inhouse, and I stated its probably because of the loss of the 737s because they are being retired.

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

Thank you Frank. This (Deming/Kaizen/TQM...ETC) deserves a thread of its own.

 

[700UW]

We lost receipt and dispatch sometime prior to the 2005 contract. As I remember, it was never a black and white thing. At one time, Mechanics did all the R&D work. Then the company allowed the Utility to help with R&D at a one to one ratio. We lost Utility on 3-2005, so then the Mechanics were doing most of the R&D by themselves. They proceeded to cut so many positions, the Mechanics couldn't be in two places at once, it was then the ramp started pushes and parks.

Maintenance still park, push and move most of the maintenance aircraft, but there is talk now of having the ramp people do the maintenance moves as well.

The contract states ANYONE can park and push.

R&D was done exclusively by maintenance where staffed, after we went on strike in 1992 we went to the 50/50 ratio for R&D with Utility and Mechanics, we did lost some line mechanic jobs, but the CLT hangar was being beefed up and they were absorbed.

R&D was amended in the final offer cba that the ramp would be taking over that function.

 

[xUT]

Thank you Frank. This (Deming/Kaizen/TQM...ETC) deserves a thread of its own.

Yes, it needs a thread of it's own!
Lean processes work fairly well in a production process, and with some aircraft checks, but in a repair environment, it's sadly lacking.
Watch out for the six sigma "Black Belt's" supervisors/managers that will throw everything away that has not been used in 90 days.
When you need that $900 bolt on day 91, you will find it has been surplussed or thrown away.
B) xUT

 

[Bob Owens]

J) Company base maintenance employees will perform fifty
17 (50%) percent or greater of all aircraft base maintenance work,
18 inclusive of narrow and wide-body aircraft, as follows: On an
19 annualized basis, for every billable hour of work from aircraft base
20 maintenance vendors performing Company base maintenance
21 work; modification work; scheduled drop in maintenance; and any
22 drop-in maintenance relating to fuselage damage or any other
23 damage, there will be an equal or greater number of paid hours to
24 Company base maintenance employees. This includes Company
25 Lead Mechanics, Mechanics, Inspectors, Utility and Lead Utility
26 (combined) assigned to base maintenance.
27
28 Deck work for vendor heavy maintenance overhaul will
29 continue to be built by Base Maintenance Planners.
30
31 All aircraft line maintenance work, including phase
32 checks and lower level checks above a daily check (e.g. A & B
33 checks, overnight checks, weekly checks and unscheduled drop in
34 maintenance), preformed by base maintenance employees will not
35 be included as Company base maintenance hours for the purposes
36 of this provision.
37
38 Livery work may be outsourced and the billable hours do
39 not count as base maintenance work, but other work performed by
40 the vendor during the livery visit may be outsourced and the
41 billable hours for such other work will count towards base
42 maintenance work.
Aircraft lease return maintenance visits may be
45 outsourced and the vendor’s billable hours will count towards base
46 maintenance work.
to the union and/or the union’s advisor, documentation
3 necessary to verify the Company’s compliance with outsourcing
4 provisions including a summary of the previous calendar year’s
5 base maintenance paid hours and vendor airframe base
6 maintenance billed hours. On an ongoing basis the Company will
7 provide to the Union no later than the end of the following month a
8 summary of the previous month’s base maintenance vendor’s
9 billable hours including tail numbers of the aircraft.
10
11 In any year where the vendor billed hours are more than
12 fifty (50%) percent of the total combined vendor billed hours and
13 the Company base maintenance paid hours, such deficit hours will
14 be added to the current calendar year required company base
15 maintenance paid hours.
16
17 The Company will not furlough to the street any Base
18 Mechanic who is active as of the effective date of this agreement
19 provided such employee exercises their seniority to the fullest
20 extent. (Subject to force majeure provisions as described in Article
21 5.F and 20.D.2)
22 The Company shall maintain a minimum headcount of six
23 hundred seventy-five (675) active Base Maintenance Lead
24 Mechanics, Mechanics, Inspectors, Lead Utility and Utility
25 employees combined. (Subject to force majeure provisions as
26 described in Article 5.F and 20.D.2.)
The Company may continue to outsource the East 737
29 scribe work ongoing and such work will count towards the vendor
30 hours for the fifty (50%) percent calculation.

So your language is much more restrictive than ours, 50% of OH work by hours must be kept in house is how I read it.

With us it goes by maintenance spend, including parts *(and Line Maint). So lets say they outsource OH to the max and they find a place that costs them half as much as they are paying in house there is no limit on the hours they can outsource, just the spend, so the cheaper the MRO and the more they spend on Line maint the more heads they can cut in Tulsa. If Line maint, plus parts makes up 65% of total maint spend then they could concievably layoff every single person in OH and outsource all that work. We have no minimum number of base (or line) workers they must keep or any furlough protection, at least you guys have that. I guess if AA and US do merge our OH would be better off under your language than ours.

The Company will not furlough to the street any Base Mechanic who is active as of the effective date of this agreement provided such employee exercises their seniority to the fullest extent.

Ok, so even US has furlough protection, UAL has furlough protection and 95% of the Pilots at AA were offered furlough protection under the deal they rejected but ZERO mechanics at AA have furlough protection, our contract gives us about as much job protection as Jet Blue's gives them. In other words, for the Line at least, we are paying dues to work under terms that are prevelent in Non-union workplaces, but we get paid much less than those Non-union workplaces.

What do you have as far as Line job protection? can they outsource Line Maint work such as Bcks, A cks etc?

 

[700UW]

US doesnt farm out line checks, those are done in-house at the line stations.

Line maintenance stations will include at a minimum
33 BOS, CLT, DCA, LGA, PHL, PHX, LAS, LAX and at least seven
34 (7) other stations as determined by the Company.

 

[Bob Owens]

US doesnt farm out line checks, those are done in-house at the line stations.

Line maintenance stations will include at a minimum
33 BOS, CLT, DCA, LGA, PHL, PHX, LAS, LAX and at least seven
34 (7) other stations as determined by the Company.

So not only is outsourcing of OH limited to 50% of hours, not spend, whereas at AA as long as they do not exceed 35% of total mantenence (parts included) spend they could outsource all of our OH, but your language does not allow them to outsource 15% of Line maintenence work either and none of the AA stations are locked in with contract language.pretty much the only station they could not threaten to outsource would be DFW.

So tell me how does our contract help the IAM get USAIR mechanics a better deal than they have now?

We just made your contract look "onerous". Think they may threaten BK #3 to take some more away? Not to worry, maybe they will give away a few more cars next year and everybody will be sooo happy right?

You stood here as a cheerleader for concessions for the last nine months and you got your wish. You guys are ahead of us in pay, in holidays, in vacation, in work rules, in benefits and in scope, but you are still thousands of dollars below the mid range for the industry. Congratulations, you guys beat us by not winning the race to the bottom, for the moment at least, makes you feel proud to be a Unionist I bet.

So yes your contract is better than ours, and I'd still say that USAIRWAYS is the last carrier I'd like to see AA merge with.

 

[Frank Szabo]

Yes, it needs a thread of it's own!
Lean processes work fairly well in a production process, and with some aircraft checks, but in a repair environment, it's sadly lacking.
Watch out for the six sigma "Black Belt's" supervisors/managers that will throw everything away that has not been used in 90 days.
When you need that $900 bolt on day 91, you will find it has been surplussed or thrown away.
B) xUT

I told some "Galloping gods" in a meeting 10+ years ago that any setting involving rework cannot be treated as production on any level (any more than an airframe) unless the intent is to treat all components as roached out and in need of repair, running them all through the same processes. At that point, you have a "production" situation and the "theories" thereof are applicable. Needless to say, that ain't what the darlings did nor do I believe it was ever their intent. Plain and simple, that was pacification of the rabble.

As for your $900 bolt - I could retire comfortably with one day's waste in my pocket years ago - and today, half a day's waste would suffice.

 

[700UW]

Never was a cheerleader for concessions, you wont ever see that in my post.

I voted no and campaigned for a no vote, that they took me off the property for a bit and assigned me full time ub.

That CBA that is better than yours was three rounds of concessions in two chapter 11 cases, yes some was modified after the merger, but the IAM M&R are in the first section 6 negotiations since both chapter 11 cases.

 

[Bob Owens]

Never was a cheerleader for concessions, you wont ever see that in my post.

Thats not how you came across to me.

So what was your gig, do what you can to get us to accept the worst contract in the industry so if we merge the guys might pick the IAM instead of the TWU?

Like I said, your contract is much better than ours, but it still sucks. I'd rather see us merge with Jet Blue than USAIRways

 

[700UW]

I have no gig, and no hidden motive nor agenda.

Never advocated concessions.

Jetblue is non-union, you would still be working under your :LBO CBA and B6 isnt under any obligation to do anything except whats in the CBA till the representational issue would be settled.

And B6 outsources ALL HMV

 

[Bob Owens]

I have no gig, and no hidden motive nor agenda.

Never advocated concessions.

Jetblue is non-union, you would still be working under your :LBO CBA and B6 isnt under any obligation to do anything except whats in the CBA till the representational issue would be settled.

And B6 outsources ALL HMV

If your agenda isnt hidden then what is it? Surely you have a reason for posting here.

How much HMV does Jet Blue have with the newest fleet in the industry?

Arent they building a hangar in Florida?

And they pay $40/hr and give a lot more PTO than AA does.

We would still be working under our current LBO:CBA if USAIR took over as well. How are those pilot contracts at US going?

 

[WorldTraveler]

This is probably a good time to throw in actual statistics from the DOT that show actually how much outsourcing is done by carrier.

For 2011, it was 59.7% of total maintenance spend for B6 compared to 57.8% for US.

US' outsourcing as a percent of maintenance spend is in line with the LFCs including WN and higher than any of the other network carriers - AA, DL, UA/CO (who reported separately in 2011)

http://web.mit.edu/airlinedata/www/2011%2012%20Month%20Documents/Employees%20and%20Productivity/Individual%20Employee%20Data/US%20Airways%20Employee%20Data%20and%20Analysis.htm

http://web.mit.edu/airlinedata/www/2011%2012%20Month%20Documents/Employees%20and%20Productivity/Individual%20Employee%20Data/Jetblue%20Airways%20Employee%20Data%20and%20Analysis.htm

http://web.mit.edu/airlinedata/www/default.html

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

Yes, it needs a thread of it's own!
Lean processes work fairly well in a production process, and with some aircraft checks, but in a repair environment, it's sadly lacking.
Watch out for the six sigma "Black Belt's" supervisors/managers that will throw everything away that has not been used in 90 days.
When you need that $900 bolt on day 91, you will find it has been surplussed or thrown away.
B) xUT

The ideal situation is that the $900 bolt would be sitting at the manufacturers stock (only overnight package delivery away) while the $900 is earning interest for the company. Just in time works in an aircraft heavy check environment. Line maintenance, not so much.

 

[Buck]

The ideal situation is that the $900 bolt would be sitting at the manufacturers stock (only overnight package delivery away) while the $900 is earning interest for the company. Just in time works in an aircraft heavy check environment. Line maintenance, not so much.

Just In Time in OH is not perfect.. They keep parts at the Hub cities and fly them to TULE as needed.