WN Mechanics seek mediation

topDawg said:
I think they are going to stall with everyone. WNs costs are supper high now, waiting for the legacies to catch up some IMO. 
 
PS Hey swamt, how about those UA mechanics? thats a big big deal for you guys. 
 
nothing the NMB does anymore is for labor. Labor now is getting kicked from the company and the government. 
 
Unions will have to evolve and start future proofing contracts so that management will have less insensitive to drag talks out.     
Hey Dawg, I forgot to respond to your part about waiting for the other airlines to catch up.  You are correct. The company told us that in the very beginning that they would like to wait for that, they also are postponing for ROIC back to the investors as promised by the co for 14 and 15. Now that were past that I think we will see an uptick on the co's side in nego's.  Not all the airlines are caught up, but UPS will be shortly, but heck, they are already at 53 plus along with Fed-Ex, Delta is caught up, and I think even slightly passed us (great for them) pretty sure UAL will be first now that the CEO will get involved with meeting with the union leadership (but hey, it's the teamsters, they may get yet another TA voted down as they are in tune with the membership, they are only in tune with themselves) Someone has told me that the company wants contracts done in 2016. I still do not expect anything prior to late or end of 2016 as far as we are concerned.  The UAL guys need to be screaming loud about what it will take to get something to pass before the CEO meets with the union leadership.
 
swamt said:
Did I miss some good news somewhere?  Is this a seperate check from our PS check coming on April 29? I haven't read SWA life in a few days so maybe I missed this announcement, please elaborate a little.  As always, good talking to ya Sharon...
 
Hi swamt! My apology, I was thinking all employees would receive a small
profitability bonus check in addition to our profit sharing, funding on Apr. 29.
As it turns out it is a little extra check, negotiated by the IAM for the CSA's.
Looking forward to our profit sharing for all of us. :)
 
SharoninSAT said:
 
Hi swamt! My apology, I was thinking all employees would receive a small
profitability bonus check in addition to our profit sharing, funding on Apr. 29.
As it turns out it is a little extra check, negotiated by the IAM for the CSA's.
Looking forward to our profit sharing for all of us. :)
Oh, ok. Well that's very good news for the CSA's congrats to all them and enjoy the bonus check.  Maybe in our next contract.
 
I guess the company is still not in any kind of hurry to get to an agreement.  Only TA'd on one article?  At this rate we will not have a contract for 3 more years, WOW!  New stations opening language changed to help the company will help grow the membership and add headcount and more jobs and work.  I do like the temp sups going from 90 to 75 days. The paid rest rules are completely 100% started by the company for "safety" reasons. Now they are seeing how much paid rest is being paid. Well, if they had more manpower for the jobs we do they would not have as much paid rest as they have now. Tell the company to increase the manpower and the paid rest would take care of itself in the long run, would it not?  Plus paid rest needs to still be used for mando ot, downlines, as well as the 24 hour rule (again companies rule).
 Gentlemen, the company said; that "we do not have the barganing leverage to break the ice on such issues"   Sounds like a threat to me. Let's show them just how much barganing leverage we do have when it comes time, just like our fellow mechanics just did over at UAL with a 93% HUGE NO vote.  Let the co know that it's 100% retro or no contract. It's time to stop this delay tactic by the co. In order to get the co to start nego in good faith we must hold them to the retro they owe us. If we do not it will be another 5-10 years to get new contracts. If we hold them to the retro this time, and upon the next contract notify the company that retro will once again be paid to our members before nego's even start.  By doing so this time with the mediators that gave it to us last time will change the way SWA nego's our future contracts. We have got to put a stop to this 5 years to get to a contract and this is the ONLY way we can do that.  He!!, why wouldn't the co drag out nego's for 5 years with a no cost "free" 5 years of no pay for us?  Then they are going to want a 5 year contract, so basically they just got a 5 year contract that spread their cost to 10 years, plus all the years that they would take again to get another contract which would be another 5 years IF we let them.  This is getting out of control.  We must hold out for the retro, just like the pilots are.  Sure let the co call it a signing bonus, whatever, it will equal the same or more as the retro pay do to us for however many years and months they want to take to get to a contract.  Sorry for venting but I feel it needed to be said, these "freebie" delays the company is trying to take advantage of must stop and the 3 groups to stop it are still without contracts, Mechanics, Pilots, and F/A's.  We are at 3 1/2 years, Pilots are at 4 years, F/A's are also at 4 years or more. We would be absolutely stupid to let the co get by with no retro or just a small percentage of what retro is due to us and all groups still without a contract...
 
With ya on the retro. Also not giving up paid rest. And the temp sups are already held to 75 days, I think they're trying to make it more restrictive, and have language to ensure the bump up's spot is filled with OT - which I'm good with too.
 
That bump up sup position no doubt should be backfilled by OT.  Paid Rest needs to be looked at by all for our daily, weekly and monthly commuters.  Sometimes it is hard for most working at big stations to realize how much our commuter mechanics as well as smaller out station mechanics really need the Paid Rest.  Some of our mechanics also need to talk with our stores employees and get an ear full on how they are forced to work mando overtime and also need the Paid Rest to stay.  So in a nut shell I am also with you on the Paid Rest it is as high of a QOL issue as our day trades are, in other words "don't touch them"  "hands off".  I do know our nego team knows this about the day trades.  Maybe some time this year we might have something to look at, but I have my doubts with how slow this mediated nego's are going.
 
As we headed back to the nego's table, some articles are just now starting to mention something about the mechanics still without a contract and nego for a new one.  I think AMFA National needs to do a much better job with their media parts to get more info out there.  There has been numerous articles that only mention the Pilots and F/A's and nothing about the mechanics.  I have heard that the media sources have stated that they have no contact info from AMFA therefore they just continue to avoid trying to get any info., for this I completely blame AMFA.  AMFA should have every single media contact known in order to counter all the co's bs they have posted in the past. Pilots do it, F/A's do it.  An intelligent person would have about 3-5 major media contacts that they know once they release it will hit about 10-25 media outlets throughout the media ranks.  
 
Southwest Airlines heads back to bargaining table with pilots and mechanics this week
 
 
 


Southwest Airlines Mulls Labor Contract

 
 
 


Southwest Pilots Seek Top Industry Pay With 7-Year Gain of 33%
 
I see there are a few aircraft maintenance supervisor positions posted are they trying to gear up management type positions in case negotiations sour on the mx side?
 
No.  SWA is adding several new maint lines in several different cities. Starting next month, a sup currently in Dallas is moving to Denver to start up one of the lines of maint. being started in June, just one of the new lines starting.  We also are a little short on sups in Dallas currently.  They have just posted several new mechanic positions for Denver as well as some already done and awarded this past week.
 
Must be nice to get a 15% and 24% raise for one year. And this is just after a 24% increase not too long ago for the CEO.  This alone should change the ask and future raises for the mechanics and Pilots, not to forget "Full Retro".  There is no tax laws restricting to paying out retro, NONE. We received retro before, UPS is going to get retro as well. The co. claiming they cannot pay retro due to tax laws is a complete lie.  As with our Pilots, it's full retro or no contract.  Here's the article on the raises;
 
BRIEF-Southwest Airlines CEO total 2015 compensation $5.9 mln
 
I don't begrudge our CEO or corporate underlings their wages as anyone's worth, including ours, is simply based on what they (we) can get. On the surface a 65:1 CEO to mechanic wage ratio might seem excessive but the arguments will certainly fall on deaf ears. It's our hope that the mediator will sort out what is and is not lawful or appropriate and we will get a fair and equitable agreement a large majority of us can live with. 
 
They don't want to give retro because of the 'me too' argument. They say that they will then have to give it to all workgroups, which I think they should.
 
Iv'e seen it happen over and over thanks to the RLA it is in the airlines best interest to drag out a contract in effect a wage freeze during that whole time then offer a signing bonus which employees jump at since they haven't had a raise in so long. Another thing that's bad too is when we are in good times profit wise like now it gives them another incentive to drag it out to a point where maybe times get hard again then the company uses the excuse that times are tough we can't give you those kind of big raises. I know it is easy to say but until everyone digs their heels in and demands no contract without full retro this will keep happening. In a way its almost better to be non union the RLA and the NMB really take any strength that would otherwise be there take the longshoremans union for example they don't jack with them they will shut the port down and they are not easy to replace either
 

Latest posts

Back
Top