Why Tim Nelson is Dangerous to IAM-represented employees at United Airlines

[Tim Nelson]

I couldn’t agree more. I was referring to the never-ending voice of posters saying, “membership approved it”

Sorry, I quoted the wrong thing John John. I'm losing my eyesight, must have been the two "J"s  that I saw.  Jet Job and John John. sorry. 
 
At any rate, at Delta,  Delta Above the wing does almost all of their stations with their own employees, just like at US AIRWAYS CWA members.  This new passenger service agreement at United only protects 7 stations as United management continues to contract out stations.  Most lose their jobs.  Like the 6 stations that just got contracted out.  Nothing in the current agreement protected those souls other than forcing management to give a station to transfer to.  So management gave ROC's 38 agents,  HNL and SFO to transfer.   4 took transfer and 34 took lay off. That's how it goes.  The IAM gave management the rights to pick which stations so management picked HNL and SFO which are at least 3,000 miles away.  ORD announced last week that all probationary employees will now be laid off. That's between 50-100 when considering ramp and PCE.  Those probationary employees had to be eliminated by management so management can start the process of 'rightsizing' ORD since it has only 60 part timers and 2,000 full timers.

 

[737823]

I couldn’t agree more. I was referring to the never-ending voice of posters saying, “membership approved it”

The membership approved it because they were intimidated, given half truths and misinformation. People at sUA have been waiting for four years and were likely tired and worn out from the process. IAM 141 fumbled negotiations so bad and gave away tremendous leverage, it wasn't likely they could get much of that back if they tried. And as Kev said the voter turnout was awful.

Josh

 

[737823]

Sorry, I quoted the wrong thing John John. I'm losing my eyesight, must have been the two "J"s  that I saw.  Jet Job and John John. sorry. 
 
At any rate, at Delta,  Delta Above the wing does almost all of their stations with their own employees, just like at US AIRWAYS CWA members.  This new passenger service agreement at United only protects 7 stations as United management continues to contract out stations.  Most lose their jobs.  Like the 6 stations that just got contracted out.  Nothing in the current agreement protected those souls other than forcing management to give a station to transfer to.  So management gave ROC's 38 agents,  HNL and SFO to transfer.   4 took transfer and 34 took lay off. That's how it goes.  The IAM gave management the rights to pick which stations so management picked HNL and SFO which are at least 3,000 miles away.  ORD announced last week that all probationary employees will now be laid off. That's between 50-100 when considering ramp and PCE.  Those probationary employees had to be eliminated by management so management can start the process of 'rightsizing' ORD since it has only 60 part timers and 2,000 full timers.

Tim, Rich Delaney and everyone can carry on about how great the agreement is but if people in all these smaller stations slated to get contracted out don't wan to move to EWR/IAD/ORD/SFO/etc what is the value of the protection? Not everyone has the luxury to pick up and move across the country. Family, spouse's job, children, difficulty selling a home, etc can hold many people back. Its very said to see it come to this. Do you think anyone from UA will take jobs with Swissport and Eagle?

Josh

 

[Tim Nelson]

Tim, Rich Delaney and everyone can carry on about how great the agreement is but if people in all these smaller stations slated to get contracted out don't wan to move to EWR/IAD/ORD/SFO/etc what is the value of the protection? Not everyone has the luxury to pick up and move across the country. Family, spouse's job, children, difficulty selling a home, etc can hold many people back. Its very said to see it come to this. Do you think anyone from UA will take jobs with Swissport and Eagle?

Josh

It is just ridiclous to not get scope for more than 7 stations, especially at a time when airlines are prospering. What is done is done but the usairways negotiations team isnt convincing to me as i expect delaney to be persuasive to them.

 

[ChockJockey]

So now you are calling the UA/CO employees pathetic, because they voted it in?
 
Go back to your bridge.

 
It's funny for me to watch you being so careful not to criticize the job-cutting TA they passed or the members who voted for it while in the US forums you take every opportunity to remind people how crappy the 2008 Fleet Service TA was and how the people who voted for it cared only for their thirty pieces of silver while throwing their union brothers and sisters under the bus.

 

[737823]

Any update on UA receiving bids to outsource stations? I'm sure they are not wasting anytime on this, especially with the forthcoming announcement of $1 billion in cost cutting at investor day. I imagine PVD will get hit with the axe soon as will the sCO operation at MIA along with many others. Really speaks volumes about the value of IAM representation to the newly organized.

Josh

 

[700UW]

 
UA was not newly organized.
 
UA has IAM representation for ramp, csa, stores and res for a long time.
 
CO's ramp and CO CSA were fairly new, and CO's ramp has been paying dues to the IBT.

 

[737823]

 
UA was not newly organized.
 
UA has IAM representation for ramp, csa, stores and res for a long time.
 
CO's ramp and CO CSA were fairly new, and CO's ramp has been paying dues to the IBT.

CO passenger service is newly organized. IBT ramp election was in 2010, fairly new as well. They pulled the same BS as your IAM got a POS CBA to begin collecting dues.The IAM has the past 18 months been collecting dues to administer the IBT agreement for ramp, nothing from sCO passenger service.

Josh

 

[cltrat]

I think we could conclude this thread by saying Tim's endangerment of the membership pales the the danger caused by Sito, Roach Bartz etc

 

[737823]

I think we could conclude this thread by saying Tim's endangerment of the membership pales the the danger caused by Sito, Roach Bartz etc

+1000

But those cronies are untouchable. They are enjoying the cushy DL and GL lifestyle, haven't actively worked in the industry for years, or in Roach's case decades.

Josh

 

[WorldTraveler]

and of course some want to put the thread to rest before it becomes apparent that what Tim was warning against becomes reality... as it most certainly will.

Quick, let's drop the subject before UA's investor day presentation when they announce sweeping cost cuts that no one saw coming.

 

[Kev3188]

Cltrat's last comments aside, I haven't seen any actual calls to put it to rest. Where are they?

 

[737823]

Looks like the IAM members at Boeing cooked their own goose rejecting the proposal, now the company will go to other (right to work) states and continue to wind down their presence in Puget Sound. I wonder if in a few years/months they will want to be given this offer but at that point it will be too late. I bring this up because like UA the IAM ranks at Boeing will diminish considerably in 5-10 years.

Josh

 

[Kev3188]

They clearly felt this latest offer was untenable. Will it bite them in the end? Who knows? Are you saying they should've just rolled over and accepted it?

 

[WorldTraveler]

untenable or not what they wanted?

What labor can't grasp is that there isn't a closed labor pool in the US or the world and there are alternatives if the costs are too high.
 
AMFA learned that lesson the hard way at the hands of NW mgmt.
 
In UA's case, the company has a cost problem - you can't call UA's situation anything else when they have a direct network competitor with a mainline CASM 10% lower than UA's. 
 
UA's labor unions better be prepared for the cost cuts which UA has no choice but to impose in order to turn the ship around.  They can't continue to trail their peers in financial performance and be the highest cost carrier in the US.