Morning, This is a couple of days old but I wanted to get this update to you. Peace, Derek Bohon President IAM Local Lodge 2765 Rich Delaney, 01 November 2013 Today, November 1, 2013, the members of District Lodge 141 have finally and fully come together. Through the past few years, we have worked towards bringing all of the employees of the New United Airlines, what has been missing is feeling that we are truly all in this together. It has been too easy for some to continue an us vs. them approach to our Union; maintaining a hold on old ways and avoiding the coalition that is at the heart of unionism. Today, as our first contract that addresses the wages, benefits, and working condition of ALL United ground employees takes effect we recognize that references to past airlines and contracts, and policies end. All conversations in the future will be about IAM members as one connected and interchangeable group. That is an amazing thing, made possible by the action of the majority of members that have ratified this contract. You have the gratitude of your Union and the respect of your Company. The reality of making this new agreement work and work correctly for the members that will live with it has begun. Discussions began quickly this past week to make sure implementation of the agreement would proceed without delay. The first concern was that the agreed upon wage rates would be in effect beginning today. It may seem like a simple thing but our concern has been over the company’s timing of revamping their payroll and employee records systems at this critical time. We have been assured that although there continues to be technical concerns by the company as to the readiness and accuracy of their combined systems the pay of employees is the absolute priority and is in place. We continue to work with United to provide accurate and timely payment of retroactive/signing bonus payments. Our goal is to make sure that every person that is due payment receives the right payment and those that are not suppose to receive additional money are removed from the eligibility list. The Company has committed additional resources to this project and we will work together to follow the commitment of the agreement in issuing these payments as soon as practical – which means without any unnecessary delay. Both the Company and the IAM know how important the issuing of this payment is to our members. Discussions also began regarding the new provision in our agreement that allows the Union to request bargaining on behalf of specific stations that have been slated for contracting out of work. We notified United this week we want to expedite these discussions and look at TUS, GRR, MDT, ROC, ALB, and CVG immediately to determine if any modification of the new agreement would allow our members to continue working in their home stations. Additional discussions are scheduled for early next week to see if any or all of them can remain United/IAM stations. We will have more information by mid-week. We expect to receive Arbitrator Javits’ decision and recommendation by the end of next week regarding the integration of seniority. The following week we expect to have received the first integrated seniority list for review. Members will have access to that list and be able to appeal their position on the list directly to Mr. Javits for a 30 day period following the publishing of the list. Mr. Javits will address each appeal and render a decision on the specific cases within the following 30 days. Discussions were also held concerning the results of the Early Out Program and its impact on each work group. Each group, except the Ramp classification, reached some level of participation that will allow members to retire/exit from United with one time payments ranging from $25,000.00 to $60,000.00. We are extremely happy for those members that are able to take advantage of this program, as we have always seen it as a job security component that will reduce the need for potential involuntary furlough. We are still concerned that the level of participation, especially in the Ramp group, has not created the number of openings we originally hoped for. We have committed to United that we will continue to work with them to find ways to minimize or eliminate the need to consider involuntary reductions in all groups and in all stations. As you can see ratification is not the end of the process it really is the beginning of everything. The solidarity and collective action of our members is what has gotten us to this point and it is what will continue to take us into the future. We appreciate the support you have given us already and will rely on your continued unity as we go forward together.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 17:38:14 +0000
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