I have verified, to the best of my abilities, the following with the IAM;
1. Severance - Article 10:A of the 1999 Fleet Service Agreement states The Company shall not be liable for furlough allowances where reductions-in-force are the result of an act of God, war emergency...etc. The latest term sheet''s (iam141.org) war/terrorism contingency states an additional 5% paycut will be applied if the US begins a sustained aerial bombardment of Iraq outside of the current no-fly zone, or introduces ground troops, or there are additional acts of terrorism. I asked should these two texts be read as one, and the answer is YES. If conditions of the term sheet are met, Article 10:A is applicable. In brief, severance pay and benefits are not guaranteed.
2. Mainline Conversion to Express - See Term Sheet, Attachment C. In short, if a mainline station currently handles express flights, and is converted to an express station, the express language is applicable to agents in that location. You will retain your seniority for pay and bidding purposes, and will be covered under the scope of the 1999 Fleet Service Agreement. I have been advised there are few stations that fit that description. There are also three HUGE caveats;
a. If your station is ''expressed'', you will likely need fewer agents than you currently have, so junior agents will still be furloughed.
b. If you''re in a station where express agents already handle express flights, all bets are off. You are not guaranteed to retain your seniority - the language in the first round of concessions merely says the Company will ask the express operator to hire you. Some express operators are already covered by CBA''s, further complicating this matter. Much more detail needs to be provided to the membership on this issue. Any additional info here would be appreciated.
c. The Company can adjust the ratio of CWA to IAM agents. Assume in your current mainline station you have 20 fleet service and 20 CWA agents, for a total of 40. After, ''expression'', the company determines they only need 30 total agents. Don''t assume 15 will be CWA and 15 will be IAM. It could be 20 CWA and 10 IAM agents, regardless of seniority. I speculate the company will finesse this to get the lowest seniority, hence payroll, possible.
3. Voting - The latest round of fleet service furloughs takes effect January 5, 2003. Voting on the latest round of concessions is scheduled for January 10th. Furloughed members will not be allowed to vote, per District 141 bylaws (see iam141.org, and read the latest update). The CWA initially was to complete voting 12/27/02, until further negotiations warranted an extension until 1/10/03. We could have accomplished a vote prior to 1/10/03.
4.Who, how many and where gets furloughed, or reduced to express. There is no answer to this question. There is a spread sheet for mechanics at iam141m.org. Mechs already know, prior to voting, how many furloughs, at what locations, which classifications, etc. There is no comparable document for fleet. The best info I could get was the company initially said only 6 stations would be reduced from mainline to express, and then amended it to 17. Refer to the 1999 FSA, page 122. If 6 is accurate, this gets all the remaining class II stations that are not long distance operations (SFO, SEA etc.) If 17 is accurate, the company can get all of the short distance class II''s, use the express/seasonal language to get the long-range class II''s, and whack some current class I stations. I got, strictly second-hand, that at least 4 current class I''s are slated for class II.
5. Language vs. paycuts - it''s union 101 that you conceed dollars, not language.
The company said they needed $14 mil. annually from fleet, so let''s do some numbers.
Each employee is paying, very conservatively, an additional $30 per month in health insurance costs.
4900 employees x $30 x 12 months = $1,764,000 annually.
That leaves $12,236,000 the company is looking for, annually.
Article 26 of the 1999 FSA says 35% of the work force may be part time. Of 4900 total employees, 3200 may be full-time, 1700 may be part-time (I don''t have the acutal figures, but this should be close).
3200 agents x 2000 hours annually = 6,400,000 man hours.
1700 agents x 1000 hours annually = 1,700,000 man hours.
Total 8,100,000 man hours.
$12,236,000 divided by 8,100,000 = $1.51
We could have given up an additional $1.51 an hour, instead of any jobs, and the company would have gotten its $14 mil.
This is a bit simplistic, but you get the idea. I have no facts as to why we lost language, and the jobs that go with it, instead of dollars. If anyone else has some, we''d be glad to hear it.
Sorry for the long post. Gotta go; running out of gas.
1. Severance - Article 10:A of the 1999 Fleet Service Agreement states The Company shall not be liable for furlough allowances where reductions-in-force are the result of an act of God, war emergency...etc. The latest term sheet''s (iam141.org) war/terrorism contingency states an additional 5% paycut will be applied if the US begins a sustained aerial bombardment of Iraq outside of the current no-fly zone, or introduces ground troops, or there are additional acts of terrorism. I asked should these two texts be read as one, and the answer is YES. If conditions of the term sheet are met, Article 10:A is applicable. In brief, severance pay and benefits are not guaranteed.
2. Mainline Conversion to Express - See Term Sheet, Attachment C. In short, if a mainline station currently handles express flights, and is converted to an express station, the express language is applicable to agents in that location. You will retain your seniority for pay and bidding purposes, and will be covered under the scope of the 1999 Fleet Service Agreement. I have been advised there are few stations that fit that description. There are also three HUGE caveats;
a. If your station is ''expressed'', you will likely need fewer agents than you currently have, so junior agents will still be furloughed.
b. If you''re in a station where express agents already handle express flights, all bets are off. You are not guaranteed to retain your seniority - the language in the first round of concessions merely says the Company will ask the express operator to hire you. Some express operators are already covered by CBA''s, further complicating this matter. Much more detail needs to be provided to the membership on this issue. Any additional info here would be appreciated.
c. The Company can adjust the ratio of CWA to IAM agents. Assume in your current mainline station you have 20 fleet service and 20 CWA agents, for a total of 40. After, ''expression'', the company determines they only need 30 total agents. Don''t assume 15 will be CWA and 15 will be IAM. It could be 20 CWA and 10 IAM agents, regardless of seniority. I speculate the company will finesse this to get the lowest seniority, hence payroll, possible.
3. Voting - The latest round of fleet service furloughs takes effect January 5, 2003. Voting on the latest round of concessions is scheduled for January 10th. Furloughed members will not be allowed to vote, per District 141 bylaws (see iam141.org, and read the latest update). The CWA initially was to complete voting 12/27/02, until further negotiations warranted an extension until 1/10/03. We could have accomplished a vote prior to 1/10/03.
4.Who, how many and where gets furloughed, or reduced to express. There is no answer to this question. There is a spread sheet for mechanics at iam141m.org. Mechs already know, prior to voting, how many furloughs, at what locations, which classifications, etc. There is no comparable document for fleet. The best info I could get was the company initially said only 6 stations would be reduced from mainline to express, and then amended it to 17. Refer to the 1999 FSA, page 122. If 6 is accurate, this gets all the remaining class II stations that are not long distance operations (SFO, SEA etc.) If 17 is accurate, the company can get all of the short distance class II''s, use the express/seasonal language to get the long-range class II''s, and whack some current class I stations. I got, strictly second-hand, that at least 4 current class I''s are slated for class II.
5. Language vs. paycuts - it''s union 101 that you conceed dollars, not language.
The company said they needed $14 mil. annually from fleet, so let''s do some numbers.
Each employee is paying, very conservatively, an additional $30 per month in health insurance costs.
4900 employees x $30 x 12 months = $1,764,000 annually.
That leaves $12,236,000 the company is looking for, annually.
Article 26 of the 1999 FSA says 35% of the work force may be part time. Of 4900 total employees, 3200 may be full-time, 1700 may be part-time (I don''t have the acutal figures, but this should be close).
3200 agents x 2000 hours annually = 6,400,000 man hours.
1700 agents x 1000 hours annually = 1,700,000 man hours.
Total 8,100,000 man hours.
$12,236,000 divided by 8,100,000 = $1.51
We could have given up an additional $1.51 an hour, instead of any jobs, and the company would have gotten its $14 mil.
This is a bit simplistic, but you get the idea. I have no facts as to why we lost language, and the jobs that go with it, instead of dollars. If anyone else has some, we''d be glad to hear it.
Sorry for the long post. Gotta go; running out of gas.
42 AM deltawatch wrote: 
