IAM and Northwest reach "tenative" T/A

[Kev3188]

FWIW, we were told the same things today out here from a member of the negotiating committee. I did not hear the 55 flight number specifically(that would be good news for a lot of places.).
Roughly 40 stations "live" under this agreement. I'm guessing almost-if not all- C stations will be outsourced. Not sure how the larger 4 hour rule stations (DSM, eg.) will be affected.

I also heard from another person (this part is *unconfirmed*) that those in affected stations will get 20 weeks of severance. As for the vacations, it's my understanding that whatever step you're currently at, you lose one of those accrued weeks.


Other lowlights of the proposal:

Stock clerks only in MSP/DTW
Food Dock in MSP going "poof"

NH/BB--

We were told "one payscale across the board." Hopefully, that was accurate.

Anytime the IAM would like to post some specific info would be just great! What's the holdup?! :angry: :angry:

P.S. RTB-- My crew and I just took a 12 minute short hour; gotta get 'em while we can, I guess.....

 

[Bob Owens]

Northwest's ideas irk unions
The bankrupt airline has something distasteful for each of its big three.
By Joshua Freed
Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS - For each of its big unions Northwest Airlines Corp. has a big idea, each one so odious to workers that they're threatening a strike that could put it out of business.

Like that will ever happen, the only real union on the property already took a stand.

The bankrupt carrier is pressing to shift midsize jet flying and some baggagehandling work to subsidiaries, angering pilots and ground workers. And it wants to shift thousands of U.S.-based, union-covered flight attendant jobs to foreign hires.

The centerpiece is the idea for a new regional carrier, which Northwest has dubbed "NewCo" for now. "NewCo represents the cornerstone of our domestic renewal," Tim Griffin, executive vice president for marketing and distribution, said in a recent newsletter to employees. Northwest declined to provide anyone to discuss NewCo.

AMR Corp.'s American Airlines did something similar when it formed AMR Services in the 1980s. It eventually grew to serve more than 200 airlines when it was put up for sale in 1998. Airline consultant Robert Mann said it helped American avoid using union workers at smaller airports.
At Northwest, the IAM has scoffed at the proposal, which it says could cost it 5,000 of its 14,600 workers. But on Saturday, without releasing details, union officials announced they would soon send their membership a concessionary contract for a vote.

The IAM will cut a deal where the new subsidiary company employs IAM represented workers at half the pay they get at NWA, thats exactly what the TWU did twenty years ago. So once again we see TWU negotiated concessions at AA destroying the careers of workers at other airlines. AFL-CIO affiation did nothing to protect any of us but it did protect the TWU from being attacked by other unions. AA workers would have dumped the TWU in a heartbeat for the IAM or Teamsters at any point in time over the last twenty years. The TWU undermined the whole labor movement in this industry and did so with AFL-CIO protection, if only the AFL-CIO was as good at protecting workers as they are at protecting corrupt union leaders that are in bed with the company. It stinks,but then again, "You voted for it".

 

[Red Tail Bear]

FWIW, we were told the same things today out here from a member of the negotiating committee. I did not hear the 55 flight number specifically(that would be good news for a lot of places.).
Roughly 40 stations "live" under this agreement. I'm guessing almost-if not all- C stations will be outsourced. Not sure how the larger 4 hour rule stations (DSM, eg.) will be affected.

I also heard from another person (this part is *unconfirmed*) that those in affected stations will get 20 weeks of severance. As for the vacations, it's my understanding that whatever step you're currently at, you lose one of those accrued weeks.
Other lowlights of the proposal:

Stock clerks only in MSP/DTW
Food Dock in MSP going "poof"

NH/BB--

We were told "one payscale across the board." Hopefully, that was accurate.

Anytime the IAM would like to post some specific info would be just great! What's the holdup?! :angry: :angry:

P.S. RTB-- My crew and I just took a 12 minute short hour; gotta get 'em while we can, I guess.....

Probably due to a delayed inbound thanks to PTO and his SCAB maintenance buddies. They just can't seem to get those planes fixed in time for an on-time departure.

 

[Kev3188]

[/u]
Probably due to a delayed inbound thanks to PTO and his SCAB maintenance buddies. They just can't seem to get those planes fixed in time for an on-time departure.

That's exactly what it was for....

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

Red Tail Bear, Kev3188.

I'm appalled at both of your attitudes !!!!!!!!

You MUST "go the extra mile" for Dougie Stealin', and Neil Coh...en.

I'm glad PTO has managements "best Interests" at heart !!!


NH/BB's

It will be interesting to see what they will do if NW is UNABLE to get contract workers, at all the under "55" stations.

Mabey they may have to go back to the 4 hour rule, using NW employees.

Fingers crossed !


NH/BB's

 

[Kev3188]

The latest update....



January 17, 2006 2100CST
IAM, Northwest Discuss Part-Timers

Your IAM NWA negotiators and financial advisor Tom Roth today gathered at the District 143 offices in St. Paul, MN to review details of the contract settlement proposal presented by Northwest Airlines on January 13, 2006.

Tom Roth had been researching a discrepancy in the proposal and upon advising your full Negotiating Committee of this discrepancy, we contacted Northwest Airlines. Northwest executives immediately sent their negotiators to the District 143 offices for further discussions with your Committee and Tom Roth, and those discussions are continuing.

The Company’s proposal includes increasing the use of part-time workers. The method for calculating the amount of permissible part-time workers is inconsistent with what we understood it to be when we left New York last week. Your Negotiators have advised Northwest that our membership would not ratify their proposal in its current form.

We are still in discussions with the Company on this issue, but the membership will have the last word in this matter.

The rollercoaster ride these entire negotiations have taken us on is apparently not over yet. Be assured that your representatives are doing everything in our power to bring this to a conclusion satisfactory to the membership.

We remain in solidarity,

Your NWA Negotiating Committee

 

[upsilon]

[

They [the West Coast Dock Workers (Longshoremen)] are also pretty savvy in other ways too. That strike was largely over including the "High Tech" support jobs on the union side of the equation. ... I don't know the particulars but I have to believe they got most of what they wamted since the ports are open.

I take some issue with your memory. Technically, it was not a “strikeâ€￾ but was a “lockoutâ€￾. However that was an employer maneuver in the face of a threatened strike. Following is an excerpt from CorpWatch, a very liberal union activist publication:

Longshore workers went into negotiations last June with three goals in mind, according to [Steve Stallone, communications director for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). They wanted to preserve their healthcare benefits in the face of demands by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) that they pay part of skyrocketing costs. They wanted increases in their pensions. And they wanted to ensure that employer proposals to implement new technology wouldn't result in the loss of jobs.

The new agreement preserves longshore workers' health benefits with no co-payment by workers, at an estimated present cost to employers of $220 million annually. By the end of the six-year agreement, that cost is estimated to rise to $500 million. The pension settlement will increase benefits by 60% over the same period. "This is the biggest pension increase in the history of our union," Stallone pointed out.

But both provisions came at a cost. The PMA will implement a new system for tracking container movement using scanners and other computer-aided devices, replacing the system under which longshore clerks manually enter information into the shippers' database.

That will eventually eliminate about 400 jobs, out of a total clerk workforce on the west coast of 1200. No clerk will actually lose his or her job, since the contract guarantees 40 hours of work a week for the career of every current member. But in the future, the number of jobs covered will be reduced. In return, the union was able to win jurisdiction over jobs planning the movement of containers on trains and in yards on the waterfront. Those jobs were previously outsourced.

Employers wanted to keep workers using the new technology out of the union entirely. Workers in these categories also included vessel planners, who tell the cranes where to put containers on the ships, and clerical workers in company offices. A few hundred of them have already joined the longshore union in many ports, attracted by its high wage rates. To make up for the potential job loss among the clerks, the union sought to include them in all ports by extending its jurisdiction. Now it will have to organize them.

"There are problems with the settlement, as you might expect from any contract negotiated under the gun of Taft-Hartley," Stallone noted. "The wage differential between the highest- and lowest-paid increased, which we've always fought against." In addition, there is now a new differential between the wages of drivers in the huge container cranes, and those operating cranes used to load and unload bulk cargo. "That opens the door to what happened to the International Longshoremens' Association (which represents dockers on the east and gulf coasts), who now have separate contracts for each category."

The six-year agreement is also unusual. Unions normally seek to limit contracts to two or three years, since inflation can spiral out of control, taking large chunks out of paychecks. The ILWU agreed to the long term in order to space the large pension increase out over a number of years.

The new technology was implemented; and I note the emphasis was not so much on jobs, per se; but union jobs, meaning union dues jobs.

 

[Kev3188]

The latest update....
January 17, 2006 2100CST


The Company’s proposal includes increasing the use of part-time workers. The method for calculating the amount of permissible part-time workers is inconsistent with what we understood it to be when we left New York last week. Your Negotiators have advised Northwest that our membership would not ratify their proposal in its current form.

Apparently, the "method of calculating the amount of permissable part-time workers" was as follows:

NW wanted: 50% of the total IAM membership systemwide to be part time.



P.S. Yes, I know it's lame to quote your own posts....

 

[PlayTheOdds]

[/u]
Probably due to a delayed inbound thanks to PTO and his SCAB maintenance buddies. They just can't seem to get those planes fixed in time for an on-time departure.

That's exactly what it was for....

That’s very interesting.

A mechanic called over the radio today for a MAP to come and marshal an aircraft in that had been sitting for about ten minutes. The MAP's response was "no". There had been a lot of chatter on the radio and now there was dead silence. I was stunned myself, my feelings were almost hurt. I love it when we get the call to marshal an aircraft. I don't do anything but wing walk and set some chocks and cones, but it is still fun because you never know what is going to happen next. Most of the time there is a really entertaining show afterwards. Well it just so happens that the other day the mechanics marshaled in an aircraft and this one got particularly nasty. A chief/lead ramper came out hollering, cussing and threatening the MAP. The MAP had his videophone rolling on this one and sent it higher up the ladder. The ramper was terminated. Then it came down that we are not to marshal any aircraft without the approval of the Director of Maintenance.

I thought the termination was a bit stiff myself but this guy had two levels already against him. I found out that NWA has a "Red Book" I have yet to see this book for myself but I was told that there was a list of things in there that you do not do that will lead to instant termination. Cussing another individual, I am told, is close to the top of the list.

 

[Kev3188]

NW doesn't issue a copy of the Red Book at new hire training anymore?

 

[PlayTheOdds]

I have not received one. I am scheduled for orientation next week, maybe I will get one then.

 

[Kev3188]

Lesson #1:

Know the rules, so you can break them properly....

 

[PlayTheOdds]

Did you know or had you heard of this ramper?

 

[Kev3188]

Did you know or had you heard of this ramper?

No.

I don't work in DTW. Remember?

 

[Kev3188]

Well it just so happens that the other day the mechanics marshaled in an aircraft and this one got particularly nasty. A chief/lead ramper came out hollering, cussing and threatening the MAP. The MAP had his videophone rolling on this one and sent it higher up the ladder. The ramper was terminated. Then it came down that we are not to marshal any aircraft without the approval of the Director of Maintenance.

The "threatening" if it was in fact true, is what would make this a termination offense. Swearing alone will not do it. In fact, there was an arbitration hearing awhile back that basically said one could expect to hear a fair amount of profanity at NW as "shop talk."