To all Mechanics and Related at US Airways East and West:
Yesterday, November 16' 2005, Doug Parker, Rick Ohme, and Al Hemenway held a morning and afternoon meeting with the mechanics from Airways West at the company's Flight Center in Phoenix. The meeting's purpose was to answer questions and concerns about the direction of current IBT contract negotiations. IAM / IBT contract integration, and monetary increases for the mechanics and related versus the documented monetary increases for the upper management team at the new US Airways. The mechanics that attended feel compelled to share his message from these meetings with all of the mechanics and related throughout the Airways system.
First, Doug stated over and over that his focus is to keep the costs of labor as low as possible as well as keep the costs of the two mechanics and related contracts (IBT / 1AM) the same. When asked about the specific differences between the IBT /1 AM contracts, he had no idea of the specifics, just that the cost to the company per employee under either contract was the same. So as far as he was concerned, it didn't matter to the company which contract prevailed from the standpoint of payroll and benefits. His focus was to not let the cost of the two contracts get out of line with each other. He fails to understand that while the cost to the company may be the same, it doesn't necessarily mean that the employee receives the same pay and benefits. This could be due to a difference in the cost to the company for health and dental insurance, or other costs the employee doesn't see in his / her paycheck. Either way, the contractual base wage rates, sick time compensation, number of holidays and vacation time are different between the two mechanics and related contracts.
"Industry Standard" We had a lot of discussion on what industry standard meant for management and mechanics. In our opinion. Doug feels that his management should be compensated at the current industry standard, yet his mechanics should continue to work for less than industry standard wages because in "2 years'' he feels this industry will set a new standard at our less than standard wage level. At which time he doesn't want to have his mechanics compensated at a level out of alignment with his selected samples of airlines that are in the process of taking back wages from employees who have for years enjoyed much higher wage rates than AWA mechanics.His select airline examples didn’t include Southwest, Jetblue, American,or Airtran
"We Want A Contract" Doug’s response to our request that the company get serious about our negotiations was basically if we commit to negotiating a contract that didn’t increase the cost of labor to the company, they would sign it. Meaning, don't expect any immediate increase in your wages, despite the upcoming $84.00 per month increase or $0.49 per hour pay cut for our 2000 AWA health benefits. He wasn't responsive to the fact that cost of living,(gasoline, groceries, insurance, etc.) are rising while our wages are not. We made the point that the Teamster Southwest Health insurance plan would be an immediate cost savings to the company and a $1.34 per hour raise to each employee because of the no monthly premium (Family UHC Platinum and Metlife dental $232.38 divided by 1 73.3 hours per month.) He stated he wasn't aware of that and followed with the standard "we'll look into that and get back to you†answer. That is an empty promise because the very same point had been brought up to him in past meetings with the same "we'll get back" to you response. We made the point that the 25 months we have been negotiating this contract is far longer than the 7 months it took to close the merger, to which his only response was that AWA would be in bankruptcy if it were not for the merger. He and Al Hemenway also stated the company wants to work towards one contract, you can guess what that means for our contract negotiations.
Doug's message was loud and clear: There is no money for us. In spite of having 2.6 Billion dollars in the bank, his management team receiving raises, and it being over two years since we started negotiating, he wants to build "the best airline in the world" without taking care of his employees.
THROUGH SOLIDARITY, WE WILL RECEIVE THE RESPECT WE DESERVE.