Al Legheny
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- Jul 21, 2009
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Here are some comments on the proposed State of the Airline meeting coming up on the 28th. I smell a Rat!! A company road show or state of the Airline meeting can quickly become an attempt at negotiating which is strictly prohibited by the Railway Labor Act.
THE RAILWAY LABOR ACT
TITLE 45 - United States Code
Chapter 8 - Sections 151-188
1996 Edition
This section is referred to in sections 153, 157 of this title.
§ 152. General duties
First. Duty of carriers and employees to settle disputes
It shall be the duty of all carriers, their officers, agents, and employees to exert every reasonable effort to make and maintain agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, and working conditions, and to settle all disputes, whether arising out of the application of such agreements or otherwise, in order to avoid any interruption to commerce or to the operation of any carrier growing out of any dispute between the carrier and the employees thereof.
Ninth. Disputes as to identity of representatives; designation by Mediation Board;. secret elections
If any dispute shall arise among a carrier's employees as to who are the representatives of such employees designated and authorized in accordance with the requirements of this chapter, it shall be the duty of the Mediation Board, upon request of either party to the dispute, to investigate such dispute and to certify to both parties, in writing, within thirty days after the receipt of the invocation of its services, the name or names of the individuals or organizations that have been designated and authorized to represent the employees involved in the dispute, and certify the same to the carrier. Upon receipt of such certification the carrier shall treat with the representative so certified as the representative of the craft or class for the purposes of this chapter. In such an investigation, the Mediation Board shall be authorized to take a secret ballot of the employees involved, or to utilize any other appropriate method of ascertaining the names of their duly designated and authorized representatives in such manner as shall insure the choice of representatives by the employees without interference, influence, or coercion exercised by the carrier. In the conduct of any election for the purposes herein indicated the Board shall designate who may participate in the election and establish the rules to govern the election, or may appoint a committee of three neutral persons who after hearing shall within ten days designate the employees who may participate in the election. The Board shall have access to and have power to make copies of the books and records of the carriers to obtain and utilize such information as may be deemed necessary by it to carry out the purposes and provisions of this paragraph.
1. It is the duty of the carrier and the union to make agreements. It is the law, the Railway Labor Act says SHALL!
2. Upon receipt of such certification the carrier shall treat (deal) with the representatives so certified as the representatives of the craft or class for the purposes of this chapter. ( AFA is your certified represntative)
A lawyer familiar with RLA, when asked about the rules on the company attempting to by-pass the negotiating committee answered; “It is a fine line of distinction, but the company is allowed to communicate with employees.” “They cannot however negotiate directly with the employees.” You need to watch how they criticize or comment on negotiations and specifically if any of the answers to the questions invite a “quid pro quo” or answer back to the company from the union. If company comments seem to invite a response from the union, then the company is breaking the law. The company is snot allowed to negotiate directly with the employees of the craft and class. It is against the black letter law of the railway labor act.
Consider who they have at this meeting. Chip Mayer, the director of scheduling. This is the company’s main scheduling guy, a former pilot now firmly in the management ranks. You also have the director of in-flight, Alder. The company reads the web boards and gets emails forwarded to them. They know that TA without me-too is in trouble. What are they trying to do here? Someone needs to attend these meetings and figure out what they are up to.
Putting something out that invites a response from the union has the effect of putting out an offer and requesting acceptance or a counter. That is negotiating and it is flatly prohibited. As shown in highlights above the company can treat (deal) only with the REPRESENTATIVES SO CERTIFIED AS THE REPRESETATIVE OF THE CRAFT AND CLASS.
This means the company can only negotiate with your properly elected representatives, at the bargaining table not at a “State of the Company road show”. You have an AFA constitution that determines how your negotiating committee is staffed and the Railway Labor Act says that the company is bound by law to negotiate only with them.
You can file a complaint with the NMB outside of AFA channels so consider that it may be posisble to take an action yourself if necessary.
You can derail this thing before it gets off the ground by ensuring that everyone at the meeting understands that the company can only negotiate with your negotiating committee and that any suggestion or comments from the company that invites you to tell your union to counter their comments, “counter or respond”, can be construed as negotiating and that is strictly prohibited.
Simply standing up and stating “my negotiating committee speaks for me”; “and you are skating on thin ice we will file a claim with the NMB for a violation of Railway Labor Act Title 45 Section 152 Ninth not treating with the certified representatives.” This will put them on notice and if you raise enough of a stink they will back off. Otherwise watch for more road shows at other bases.
AFA may be attempting to sell this package to the membership and that you need to slap your reps up side the head and get it through their skulls that you don’t want the company’s scheduling offer, if that is in fact the case of the majority of Flight attendants. AFA may not be in bed with the company on this but it doesn't look like they are defending your rights and someone needs to call them on it.
