TWU negotiations.........what?
- Thread starter Chuck Schalk
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strikeforce
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Good Luck finding one's that care.
"lead" in the TWU dictionary means.......lead members to AA slaughterhouse. lol 😱
odie01
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Their is plenty of us who still care, if you didn't, you would not be reading or posting on this forum. Time to take the bull by the horns, if not, we get gored again.
odie01
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That's right, do it and others will follow!
D
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Very disrespectfull and disappointing. I dare say "OFFENSIVE". Remember "verbatim" NO deviation folks.
chris perry
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I need a week off come on Kane!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually its JPMorgan that has to approve it and according to the website they have but I havent recieved the check yet, it hasnt been a week.
Not sure what you want me to explain. Why the company did what they did? Could be several reasons.
strikeforce
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I want you to explain why.....after getting a regressive proposal, which is typical of AA's mind games during negotiations, you and the rest of your team just didn't walk out to show your frustrations with the company and nmb.
It should've come as a no brainer on what kind of proposal you were going to get from the company after that two day dog and pony show you attended on April 28-29. Were you surprised by the company's regressiveness? Because I wasn't. Bob, I said it before....negotiations is psychological warfare and AA management may be terrible managers but are obviously pretty clever at bamboozling you and your team. They are WINNING!!!!
The TWU needs to employ out-of-the box tactics and strategies that force the company to negotiate in GOOD faith. Otherwise, these mind games will continue forever.......it doesn't cost the company a dime for everyday that passes!!!!
Let's spend OUR money wisely and hire professional negotiators, psychologists and mind readers because it seems to me that's the only way WE are going to win!!!!!
Well there really isnt an option. The IBT at UPS was doing it for what, 6 years? They asked to be released, got the support of their pilots union and eventually walked away with $50/hr. The APA and APFA have been in as long as we have.
What this comes down to is simple. The NMB is getting what they want, no interuptions to commerce, the company is getting what they want, a continuation of the concessions won in 2003 and a pay freeze for the last three years and counting. So neither party really has a problem with things the way they are. The other groups hardly ever even meet, its as if there are no open contracts. The unions, not just the TWU but all unions, are forbidden from encouraging the members to do anything but if the members dont both the NMB and the company will ride this out until one of two things happen, one the workers settle for what the company is offering, or two the workers start wildcat actions. If I tell you to go out and write the #### out of everything they take legal actions against me, but if the workers go out there and approach their jobs the way the company approaches negotiations, putting forth the minimum effort to resolve the situation, there really isnt much they can do. We dont have too many kids in this industry, you guys know this stuff.
I will say this. I do not think that Mediation will lead to a ratifiable agreement and we need to get to the level playing field of the 30 day clock in order for there to be any chance of getting one. We've asked twice to be released, Stores asks all the time. The NMB has declined our requests because of what I said above.
Some take it personal, and thats natural. We expect our government to treat us fairly but the RLA has been twisted from its original form. The law was crafted by rail unions and the industry with very little government input at the time (1926) but it was put in place because of ongoing wildcat actions by the workers which was causing huge interuptions to commerce. The workers knew that the laws in place made their unions powerless and the Railroads realized that they couldnt do much about Wildcat actions. They had no problem breaking the unions but the wildcat actions were causing huge problems. Better to get them into legitimized unions and deal with them in an orderly controlled process where they at least get 30 days notice that they need to find scabs. Wildcat actions pretty much dissapeared overnight as unions were able to negotiate better wages and benifits. Unions agreed to restrictions in exchange for protections, however those protections have been backdoored away by other laws such as bankruptcy, leaving unions with only the restrictions. One example is what recently happened in New York, depite a long standing agreement that all work loading and unloading of aircraft on the ramp in JFK would be done by TWU members the company recently decided to allow one world partners to outsouce that work, in the middle of negotiations, a time when the company is not supposed to change or alter the status quo. This could be looked at as a move by the company to set up a paralell workforce to be used as strikebreakers. It was thrown out of court, we will never know how the court would have ruled because the International refused to support the suit, therefore the Local, not being a signatory to the agreement had no right to take action.
Since deregulation the negotiations cycle has become longer than most contracts. Our contracts were normally two year deals, we've been in negotiations nearly four years. Mediation used to only last weeks or months. How long does it take to determine the parties arent getting any closer? We are further apart now on the money than we were a year ago when we rejected the TA. Clearly one side benifits from this, the carrier, all they have to do is show up and say "NO" and they get continued labor at a low price, and the longer they drag it out the cheaper it gets for them. When you consider that real inflation is running around 5% AA has enjoyed getting our labor at 20% less than what they were paying us when negotiations started in real terms, they are paying us around half of what they paid us in 2003. They are getting this windfall as their revenues soar, last year they brought in $5billion more than they did in 2003, and fuel isnt using all of that. All they have to do is show up once a month and say NO or they say Yes to giving us $5 million with one hand but taking a billion off the table and the NMB says "The company moved towards you on that" and ignore what they took off the table.
By extending negotiations the company has extracted over $1billion more than we agreed to in 2003, we only asked for around half of that. They still would be saving, just not as much. Their greed has no bounds.
Basically, today, we are in the same situation that rail workers were in prior to the passage of the RLA and if workers want to fix that they will have to do what Rail Workers were doing for many years prior to 1926, engage in Wildcat actions, because the unions legally can not do it.
The fact is we are at an impasse. The company has lowered their offer, nearly cutting the rejected TA in half. They did this because they know that the union cant do anything about it. I think they are testing the membership to see how far they can go. If we were under the NLRA they never would have been this bold, but hiding under the skirts of the RLA they can do as they please.
I disssagree with the NMB when they said that "The company moved towards you guys, they added two Holidays". They also added two years to the agreement with no pay raises. They also added a littany of new concessions such as gutting our Scope language, allowing AA to do more A,I and CFP checks overseas by foreigners, some not even AA employees. They know the TWU could never accept that. The TWU constantly bashes AMFA at SWA for allowing WN to send work overseas. As it stands now they can only work items overseas that have to be done to get back to the US. They took away prefunding from everyone and basically offered no plan. The lump sum for the bases was increased one percent but offered a year later, retro was eliminated, so was the Wage Adjustment provision. Under the rejected TA the company was offering a chart rate of $28,86 in 2013 but under the new offer they cut it to $28.44. That alone is a $10 million reduction right there, more than offsetting the two additional holidays. They pushed the sick leave accrual rate increase back a year, thats potentially another $800 per member off the table. And they wanted even more concessions on the Medical.
So they threw two days worth maybe $5 million on the table and took a Billion or so off the table and the NMB says "They moved towards you guys on the Holidays so you are not at an impasse". So despite the fact that the company added huge concessions to the rejected TA the simple fact that they added two Holidays is viewed as 'movement" by the company. A few more movements like that and the question will be how much are we willing to pay AA to be allowed to fix their airplanes!
I agree, enough is enough. The NMB needs to release us. We've asked twice, now we need you to ask.
Infoline@nmb.gov
Send them these.
http://movieclips.com/ADSBW-the-ten-commandments-movie-let-my-people-go/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCZO9xeYA8g
strikeforce
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Let's stop wasting time! .....sending the nmb letters will waste my time and accomplish nothing. Instead, let's get all AMT's on the same page by holding SPECIAL Membership Meetings and then YOU explain to each membership exactly what you just posted and then let US decide on how WE, as a group, move forward. Maybe set-up meetings with the pilots and F/A's, and then put out press releases that your doing something proactive. You might get the company's ear? Get Chicken Little to pay for a ROAD SHOW!!!
eolesen
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Again, your version of the facts are quite questionable, Bob...
Show me the "long standing agreement" because it's nowhere in Recognition & Scope for either Fleet or M&R...
Second of all, Qatar is not and never has been a oneworld carrier.
Lastly, I suggest you go ask for a copy of the lease agreement with the airport, and read it cover to cover. When Eastern failed in 1991, the Port (and other airport operators) was stuck with vacant facilities they couldn't lease out even though there was demand. Since then, just about every airline lease in the country requires tenant airlines to sublease space they are not using, and in many cases, it is explicit that the subleasee cannot be compelled to use the leaseholder's employees or services. That's how AA got space at Love Field a few years ago, and it's been used by other airlines at other airports where one airline was hoarding gates but not using them.
I suspect the company knew what the fine print said going into court. It's too bad that it didn't go any further, because then we'd know for certain if Local 501's ducks were in a row or not.
It would have taken you less time to send those clips to the NMB than it did for you to send that post.
I have to be back in Tulsa Monday for the stores negotiations.
Let me get this straight, you want leaders to lead, but then want to deliberate on whether or not you should follow?
What needs clarification?
First of all Qatar is not the only work in dispute, its the first thats been put in place and triggered the lawsuit. Secondly there may or may not be an agreement in writing but meetings most certainly did take place and the company did agree that all Ramp work (not maintenance) would be done by TWU members and has been the policy for at least the 25 years I've been there. As you well know not all agreements are in writing and there's a thing called "past practice". While harder to enforce than a written agreement they are enforcable.
I never mentioned Qatar.
The one World issue is bigger because we expect a lot more flights and the company came to the union asking for political help from the unions to get anti-trust immunity and saying that it would not have any negative impact on jobs. well when AA and BA have an alliance and regulators tell them they have to shed slots and now AA has fewer slots and BA and others bring their own workers over what happens to AA workers-they get shed.
