West Employees Get There 3% Taken Away By The IAM

[700UW]

There is no status quo when a group first organizes anymore.

When AMFA organized the mechanics at Atlantic Coast Airlines, the company made unilateral changes, AMFA took them to court and lost.

This is a bit differant then what is going on now at HP, but you are not in the union yet as the transition agreement has not been negotiated, you are an employee at will and the company is free to make changes as they seem fit.

You are not protected by the benefits and procedures of the CBA yet.

 

[EricLv2Fish]

All the above are good points. At AWA, most of the "at will" employees were treated well, received annual pay raises and other perks. Taking away the 3% merit pay raise (Merit pay raise is based on the previous year's performance)for the at will employees who are going to be creted is crap and sends a clear signal how the company feels about unions. The sad part is that it's no fault of these at will employees who are going to receive a "gut punch"..."kick in the crotch", call it what you will...from management IF they follow thru witholding an earned merit pay increase. :down:

 

[High Iron]

Amen to that, I spent some time at HQ this week, and all I heard was HP folk talking about the easties whining about how "entitled" they were and the endless "suffering" the endured and how they treat the HQ personnel like crap. Wonder who they would complain to if the take over (er, merger) never occured?

Probably someone at Wal-Mart.

D*mn but you're bitter! Are you a "retiree" or not?

 

[Dog Wonder]

D*mn but you're bitter! Are you a "retiree" or not?

He is wishing he had a life.

 

[AIRWOMAN]

First of all the IAM does not take salaries away.

Only the MTC instructors are under the CBA, all others at HP have to be negotiated and transitioned to the CBA.

The IAM CBA calls for raises every year, so how can they be frozen till 2009 when the CBA becomes amendable?

If you are not under the CBA nor paying dues and are employees at will the company can do as they please to you.

Once again the company sets the wages and pays you, not the IAM, if you are under a CBA which you are not yet, then the company has to follow the terms of the CBA.

Seems like BS to me, since I have poked too many holes in your post.

True, the IAM did not take the merit raises away. But because of the impending unionization of non union employees, the company delayed performance reviews until AFTER the representing union was announced. Funny....could the company have known when the announcement was to be made?? (Dripping with sarcasm.) The "canned" reponse when asked about the reviews was that the company was waiting for the board to meet. That meeting took place towards the end of June. The reviews and merit increases were never consistent but they have NEVER been this late. Board meeting or union announcement?? :unsure: :down: Corporate giantism. :angry:

And true, the CBA calls for raises every year BUT when your pay is "red circled" there are no raises. Same as frozen. So........the CBA does nothing for those that have salaries above those in the CBA. The same thing happened to quite a few employees that hired in prior to the mechanic contract going into effect.......years and years and years and years of "red circled" or frozen pay. So AWA employees have already seen this scenario and the nightmare is reoccurring.

And again, it is true that as "at will" employees, the company can treat you as they wish. But AWA never did this before. The ONLY new part of the equation is unionization.

Very sad for those that will not see their merit increases based on LAST YEAR'S performance. And a very cold and calculated move on the company. Not to mention the possible losses that may occur with the transition agreements.

But does ANY of this make it the RIGHT thing to do?? I think not. JMO

 

[BeenThereDoneThat]

But does ANY of this make it the RIGHT thing to do?? I think not. JMO

The Company doesn't care what is right, only that they keep cost down. At least on the bottom end of the ladder.

 

[Awa Contract]

Well said

 

[john john]

The pay and benefits reductions were before the union was voted in not after. They company claimed they wanted to unfreeze our pay but couldn;t since we had voted in the CWA and the pay increase would have to be negotiated.

Once the union is certified as the bargaining agent, the employee is no longer an at will employee.

Management made changes to the PPG after the OCT 91 pay cuts passenger service was well on it's way organizing a union vote and more changes were made to paid and work rules this help passenger service organize and get more cards sign wile the company try ever tacit possible to kept the union out courts anti union campaign stalling it took from 91 to DEC of 99 to get organized and get a contract. But you are right the 91 pay cuts that the passenger service group took were after we voted out the IBT and the USWA and the IAM all 3 were trying to organize passenger service before 91 and passenger service voted NO this gave the company free will to change what ever they wanted. This is why the CWA/IBT alliance exist today afraid that the same thing would happen that did in 89-90-91-92-93-94-95-96-97-98-99

 

[BeenThereDoneThat]

... But you are right the 91 pay cuts that the passenger service group took were after we voted out the IBT and the USWA and the IAM all 3 were trying to organize passengers service before 91 and passengers service voted NO this gave the company free will to change what ever they wanted. This is why the CWA/IBT alliance exist today afraid that the same thing would happen that did in 89-90-91-92-93-94-95-96-97-98-99

Had Management treated the working force with "RESPECT" (sound familar) and a pay raise here and there, the UNIONS wouldn't have gained a foot hold to begin with. Prior to the "Bankruptcy is not in our vocabulary" fiasco, we were a pretty happy "family" that took care of business, the customers and our fellow workers. After being :mf_boff: out of our "bonuses (they now called it advanced Pay), lost our stock options, saw our stock go down the toilet, took pay cuts, most everybody decided that we needed some type of protection, ie the UNIONS. We still haven't caught up to where we should be and now we get "cost neutral" crammed down our throats all the time. Management is going to screw this company up once again at the employees expense. SOP!!