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2-17-2006
CWA’ers, IBT and management met for three days to discuss transition of the America West employees into the CWA US Airways contract...
Meetings took place at CWA Headquarters in Washington DC on January 9-11. US Airways agents were represented by CWA local presidents John Hanson (1171), Betty Grove (4404), Jim Drummond (13302), Barbara Tobin (13301), Sean Linehan and Frank Spencer (2252), Vonda Hardy (3640), Jimmy Chastain (3641), John Tyler (3140), and Vickie Di Paolo (9400 local officer), CWA Attorney Nick Manicone and CWA Staff Velvet Hawthorne, Tim Yost and Rick Braswell.
Management was represented by VP Al Hemenway and by attorneys and senior management from labor relations, operations, customer service and reservations.
IBT was represented by their negotiating committee members and staff.
Each day the sessions were in two parts: 1) face-to-face meetings with management to discuss what parts of the contract, if any, need to be phased in due to difficulties adapting America West operating procedures to the US Airways collective bargaining contract and; 2) caucus meetings between CWA and IBT committees in which the CWA’ers explained the contract provisions and trained the IBT committee in its practical application.
Management stated that they believe very little of the contract needs to be phased-in and that they don’t foresee many, or any, difficulties or delays in applying the total contract to America West operations.
On the union side, we told management we will take the opportunity of these discussions to propose improvements in a couple of areas – notably swaps – where we have been trying to make increases for some time. There may be other proposals we want to make if there are opportunities, but we are unwilling to open the contract for full Section 6 negotiations. That means any changes would have to be minor and subject to a Letter of Understanding.
Management then began a discussion of the issue of lack of uniform seniority policies at America West. They pointed out that over the years various stations have used various policies to adjust America West hire-date for transfers, for leaves of absence, for quit and rehire, and for union represented employees (ramp for example) transferring into America West passenger service.
In spite of those inconsistent past policies at America West, there is now a single hire-date seniority list for all America West locations. However, IBT representatives at the meeting said they intend to go back and try to re-adjust that list for inconsistent policies used in the past. Management stated that if America West employees’ seniority relative to each other is adjusted at this point it may cause conflict among those employees. IBT representative said they would take responsibility for that.
The CWA US Airways Passenger Service seniority list is not affected by the issues described above because our seniority list is well established and described in the contract.
On Tuesday, CWA National President Larry Cohen joined our CWA/IBT caucus meeting and led a discussion of the airline industry and the situation at US Airways. These are some of the points made in that discussion:
Two rounds of concession bargaining has been very tough, but we have emerged with what is still one of the best pay scale / job protection contracts in the industry.
We will regain most of our concession through snap-back language at the end of our contract term, but we should use every negotiating opportunity to try to regain them earlier.
The industry is still in a major consolidation mode (Independence Air liquidation; Continental/United merger rumors; three majors in bankruptcy).
US Airways is stabilized for now, and in fact looks like one of the best capitalized ($3b) and well-positioned airlines with its new east + west structure.
We should use our contract to press hard on a couple of major issues affecting agents at this airline and the whole industry: outsourcing and understaffing. The key to this effort will be a focus on the value that customer contact employees bring to the company.
To be successful in any of these efforts we will have to quickly build up our unity and solidarity within the CWA/IBT Association.
The Association now represents all US Airways passenger service employees – no matter if they are former US Airways or former America West. We are all one group now and we need strategies in common for the good of all agents.
The first and most obvious goal was to bring the America West employees up to US Airways pay levels – this is more than a $5 an hour gain and it is unprecedented in the industry. The fact that we also made gains for US Airways agents in the process is remarkable in this industry environment.
CWA is very optimistic about this US Airways passenger service group, and this new alliance. We are going to put a lot of effort and resources into making it work well for the agents of US Airways. (We also represent the combined US Airways / America West Flight Attendant workgroup. AFA is part of CWA).
The meeting adjourned on Thursday. Management committed to give us, in advance of our next meeting, a list of proposals and issues they think need to be addressed in order for the America West employees to be transitioned into the contract. They implied the list will be short. Any issues of transition that are not resolved will be submitted to an arbitrator for final resolution. We’ll keep you informed of any further meetings.
CWA Local Officers and Staff