And they will do it again in 2017 and 2018. The concessions just keep rolling in with the TWU/company union and the Company working together once again agreeing to more and more concessions...
Probably not. The two key groups in getting the concessions passed for the last twenty years were Tulsa and Title II. Title II went relatively unscathed in 2003, there were 2000 then and there were 2000 when the company filed BK in late 2011, now there are around 1500 T-II, Aircraft maintenance lost over 3500 jobs over that same time span.
I've seen several different leaders come out of Tulsa, but in the end they were all the same. The latest that I dealt with, John Hewitt was OK with the concessions as long as the Line didnt get a penny more than the bases and Tulsa got as much from AFW as they could handle, even though the company made it clear that they felt they were paying above market rate for OH and acknowledged that they were paying below market rate for the line, in the end he screwed his own guys by getting them to buy off on a deal that would shrink Tulsa permanently, if not lead to its total demise. He was too busy making sure that the line didnt get any more than the line and trying to strike a deal where Tulsa could work 3-13 hour shifts and dropped the ball on the language that would really offer Tulsa protection. Then he actually put out a Video saying that he felt that the behaviour of those who were against the deal as "downright criminal'. Sam, despite being an FSC was far more reasonable that Hewitt.
I have to laugh when Overspeed comes here and admits that our headcount will drop to around 6500 by the end of this contract, but then claims that our current language will force the company to bring in work once their total spend on outsourcing increases above a limit thats anything but clearly defined sometime during the next contract. He fails to look at the reality of what will happen in 10 years when the line and Taesl(if they still exist) will by far outnumber whatever remains in Tulsa. Lets look at the situation where the line and Taesl far outnumber Tulsa and Title II combined.(lets also see what happens with "AFW Solutions", will they start competing with Tulsa for OH work in a facility thats much closer, newer and more attractive for recruiting?)
RR wants quality and productivity, if they can't retain mechanics that can deliver both they will either raise compensation (above what AA will be willing to give Tulsa) or abandon the only facility they have in the America's. My guess its easier to raise compensation.
The line guys will still lag everyone in the industry by a wide margin, while the mid term wage adjustment will help a little we will still be pretty deep into the bottom once all premiums, vacation, Holidays, sick pay, Health and retirement benfits are factored in. And the work rules, well we will still be more like JetBlue and Delta than United or Southwest with our Juniority Lists, management selected CCs, management controled CS policy, no DATS, 1.5x OT, straight time for training, etc etc. We will want an industry leading contract. I'm betting Videtich and Gless wont be around telling us to "lower our expectations" unless of course in order to avoid working under the terms they helped put in place they jump into management, at least
we wont be paying them $150k to $190k to destroy our careers anymore. If the company proposes that we continue to accept bottom of the industry wages so they can bring work in house thats currently (that that point in time) outsourced and restaff Tulsa, how do you really think the guys are going to vote? Will they vote to allow work thats outsourced to continue to be outsourced but bring compensation and workrules up to industry standards (including furlough protection for those on payroll) or be willing to continue to accept bottom of the industry so AA can try and hire people who right now arent even in High School yet? Even those who are left in Tulsa will vote for indutry standard wages before trying to get language forcing the company to bring work back in house that they are at the time outsourcing, more than likely the pendulem will swing the other way by then and the company will be looking to bring work back in house anyway where they have more control over it.
Although many claim its not possible, we may see positive changes in the TWU by the end of this month. Is it too Llittle too late? Will the changes be enough to put us in a position to undo the damege that we have done? Time will tell, my guess is at best the TWU has one year to make changes or they will be replaced. Clearly if Gless and Videtich retain any appointed position in the Union (I'm sure they will run around blaming everything on Jim Little but that does not excuse what they did, the worst Little could have done to them was have them work under the terms they pushed on all of their former coworkers) then those people who say we cant change the TWU are right.
Three weeks from today the TWU will open their Convention and that will give us a pretty good idea where this union is headed. Promises and goals are a frequent product of Conventions but most go unfulfillied. IMO we need structural changes that bring about transparency and accountability. Electronic ballotting so members can see how the people they elected to be delegates actually voted is a good start for the entire union. On a more parochial level we need to have the same control over our contracts at AA, as far as negotiations, enforcement and modifications that pretty much all the rest of the TWU already has, where elected officials speak directly to the company, not through apointed ATD officials and deal directly with top levels in management instead of an AATD that strips the locals of authority, conducts all conversations with the decision making levels of management, decides who sits on the board of system grievances, forms their own committees with the ability to speak on behalf of the Union and signs binding LOAs with or without the consent of the members or elected officials. One example of that is how the AATD, namely Gless and Videtich decided to settle a grievance by agreeing to eliminate the two year experience requirement for Line Maintenance. The company had put themselves in a bind and the TWU let them out of it by lowering the threshold to become a line mechanic. Sure they had a vote, but the Vote included Fleet Service Presidents who didnt represent any Line Maintenance mechanics. An example of International committees not accountable to the members or their elected representatives is the Benefits Committee, when Local 565 wanted to add a Line Mechanic to the Committee the International blocked it and said that the Presidents council had no say in the composition or existance of the Benefits committee, it was "Their committee". (One member of that Committee, from Tulsa, is running on the pro-Jim Little, pro status quo teaam for the International Treasurers position-obviously not an agent for change). The Benefits Committee not only reports what the company says about benefits but they act as the voice of the Union in meetings where elected officials are not present, elected officials who may dispute what the company is claiming, instead the company claims whatever they want without any challenge from elected Union officials. This may have played a part in the fact that the company grossly overcharged us for our benefits from 2003 to 2011, If not for the fact that a couple of Local Presidents actually did the math and brought it to light and pressured the International into greiving it we never even would have known about it, as it is we are only going to get pennies on the dollar of what we lost in addition to what we agreed to back in 2003 because the settlement has been rolled into the BK settlement. Perhaps if we had a benefits committee that was accountable to elected leaders this would have been caught and challenged before the company pocketed additional millions out of our pockets. The Benefits Committee does not work for the elected Presidents, they are appointed and they work under other appointed officials and are above and have authority over the elected Local Presidents. This is wrong and must be changed. The Presidents Council wanted to add a guy from the line, the committee was against it, International Rep Bobby Gless told the elected Presidents they have no say in who the International puts on the Committee. A Committee that meets witth the company essentailly to negotiate our benefits. All this has to change as well, its not enough to change faces, some of these people on these various committees are capable people and do as good of a job as the structure and administration allows them to do, still they need to be accountable to the membership, not appointed ATD officilas with very cozy relationships with management. The structure must be changed because people are fallable, even if you place good people in a failed structure its inevitable that they too will fail the members. The people I will support at the Convention have committed to making changes and giving the power to the Locals. By the end of this month we will know if this organization can be changed to suit our needs or if for us its beyond hope and our only real alternative is to leave. For me the bellwether will be whether or not Gless and Videtch remain in appointed positions or are told to return to the jobs they were instrumental in destroying. Getting rid of them is an essential first step, management should be informed that all the dealings they conducted with Gless or Videtich will be done with the appropriate Local President. During the BK process only those selected by the ATD were allowed to take part in secret "high Level" negotiations, Local Presidents were excluded-that should never be possible to repeat.
