TWU or IAM in a Merger

I’m so disgusted with the TWU pushing this merger, that I may even vote for the IAM. What I lost, I’ll be losing everything with the merger. The only benefit for voting for the IAM is that those FAT CATS at the international don’t benefit.

I've been screwed by both the IAM and the TWU. I'd thought I could finally pull my pants up when I retired, but now I'll lose my retirement medical in AA Bankruptcy..

God bless The USA..
 
At least the IAM at US Air has a retirement and retire medical. As a matter of fact 2.00 dollars an hour goes into the IAM pension plan for a 142.00 + a month per years of service not bad.

Nope. No retire medical, and I don't know where you got you numbers, but for Mechanic our multiplier is $85.64 as of '12 and worth $369 per month if we retired in '12, but we aren't vested until '13.

Stock clerks: $64.09 multiplier and $269 per month.

Utility: $48.43 multiplier and $214 per month.

Fleet-- unsure of their rates.

Maybe the $142 was Dispatch or Maintenance Control?
 
I've been screwed by both the IAM and the TWU. I'd thought I could finally pull my pants up when I retired, but now I'll lose my retirement medical in AA Bankruptcy..

God bless The USA..
Don't worry. AA will take the other part of our prefunded medical and set up a VEBA for you. That means we will not get it back, then I want HighSpeedSteel to post that he was wrong and we were right when we said we'd never see the other half of the prefunded medical. How long the VEBA lasts is another matter.
 
In the debate of who sucks more as a union--TWU or IAM--I will gladly concede that the TWU sucks more than a very sucky IAM--but that both of these unions really do suck--just not nearly as much as the Teamsters suck--because the Teamsters not only suck more than the TWU and IAM--but they cost us a lot more dues money while they suck. :D

Having been a member of both unions. I am still a member of the TWU. When I was with the IAM working for EAL, the IAM was a great union. They provided the best representation, a clear and easily understood CBA with no side letters, strike pay and 2 bags of groceries a week while we were on strike. That was over 23 years ago. For the past 22 years and still going forwards I'm a member of the TWU which has never had anything close to the IAM's of contracts past. Now it is almost 2013 and it is time for a change. I will proudly vote for AMFA if the opportunity is available if not and the choice is either IAM or TWU my vote will be IAM.

It seems to me that we would stand a better chance of having AMFA as our choice of Union with regards to a merger is to vote them in prior to the merger. I would apreciate your opinions. Thanks and I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year.

Kind Regards,
Harvey West
 
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Don't worry. AA will take the other part of our prefunded medical and set up a VEBA for you. That means we will not get it back, then I want HighSpeedSteel to post that he was wrong and we were right when we said we'd never see the other half of the prefunded medical. How long the VEBA lasts is another matter.

I hope we get it and HSS says we were wrong.

What I think this will all come down to is whether AA feels that they would rather get the Good PR of announcing how they are the only carrier to take care of their retirees in BK or the Goodwill of the employees that they have already screwed over and not take the risk of cheating us out of this being the straw that broke the camels back. Either way AA is playing with our money, although all through negotiations Burdette maintained it was the companies money. So they could use our money to make themselves look good as far as the retirees, who really cant do anything to help them, but it may cost them operationally by antagonizing their current workers who they already screwed over and put at the very bottom of the industry. We will see what they think of us by what happens. The fact that they backed off on the OT rules a little, the RIF a lot and were taken aback by the fact they have unfilled vacancies in the system gives me the feeling that they may realize they went too far but if we do anything to make them feel confident that there will be no penalty for screwing us yet again then that money is gone.
 
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Keep in mind that under the current IAM fleet service contract that if you are a part time agent and you are upgraded to full time you automatically loose half of your seniority for layoffs, bidding work schedules and vacation lines. You only keep your hire date for payscale, vacation accrual,retirement and non rev boarding.
So say your are part time for 2 years and are upgraded to full time you loose 1 year of seniority.
You can find this on page 33, article 7, paragraph A. This goes back to the Teamster days of the 1970's and needs to be changed. This could be a major deciding factor in the event of a run off election.
 
Keep in mind that under the current IAM fleet service contract that if you are a part time agent and you are upgraded to full time you automatically loose half of your seniority for layoffs, bidding work schedules and vacation lines. You only keep your hire date for payscale, vacation accrual,retirement and non rev boarding.
So say your are part time for 2 years and are upgraded to full time you loose 1 year of seniority.
You can find this on page 33, article 7, paragraph A. This goes back to the Teamster days of the 1970's and needs to be changed. This could be a major deciding factor in the event of a run off election.

Ok but when there are bids do the part timers bid along with the full timers using their part time seniority or do they have to wait till after all the full timers bid?
 
I believe in Fleet Service Part Timers have their own bid, since its not a full time line they are bidding on, and in Maintenance there is no part time.
 
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Have any of the mechanics been told what will happen if there is a merger with AA/US as far as the senoirity integration goes? What is the TWU's verbage on integrating after a merger? Anyone know the IAM's verbage in senoirity integration? If you guys deside to go AMFA prior to any merger you can be involved ALOT more with the integration proccess as we were here at SWA with the AT integration. If you guys realy want to run your own union and futures, you guys need to take control and vote AMFA in, in 2013....
 
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I believe in Fleet Service Part Timers have their own bid, since its not a full time line they are bidding on, and in Maintenance there is no part time.
Im glad you have no part time positions in A/C maintenance.
We have or had a provision in our contract for part time positions but was never officially utilized. The OSM or SRP pretty much gave a part time AMT a new meaning without calling it Part Time.
 
Ok but when there are bids do the part timers bid along with the full timers using their part time seniority or do they have to wait till after all the full timers bid?
They each have their own seperate bid. Usualy it takes place on the same day and starts the same day. Also catering is a closed department and they have their own seperate bid. You have full time lead, full time agent, part time agent, full time catering and part time catering. And in some cities they have a full time tower lead bid.
I worked in a small station for 4 years part time.They rarely if ever upgraded to full time unless there was a full time lead position opening (USAirways has no part time lead positons in fleet service). I transfered to a hub and before I unloaded my first aircraft I was upgraded to full time agent and slotted in on a shift. When the first full time bid came up I lost 2 years seniority and I dropped nearly 50 slots for bidding and layoff purposes. Their were agents with 3 years seniority that basically got full time within a few weeks of being hired that moved ahead of me even though I had 4 years with the company in fleet service. I have been thru 3 mergers (PSA, Piedmont, America West) and if anybody thinks there will not be layoffs they are fooling themselves. Seniority is everything in a merger and now is the time to get it corrected. Not after the merger !
 
They each have their own seperate bid. Usualy it takes place on the same day and starts the same day. Also catering is a closed department and they have their own seperate bid. You have full time lead, full time agent, part time agent, full time catering and part time catering. And in some cities they have a full time tower lead bid.
I worked in a small station for 4 years part time.They rarely if ever upgraded to full time unless there was a full time lead position opening (USAirways has no part time lead positons in fleet service). I transfered to a hub and before I unloaded my first aircraft I was upgraded to full time agent and slotted in on a shift. When the first full time bid came up I lost 2 years seniority and I dropped nearly 50 slots for bidding and layoff purposes. Their were agents with 3 years seniority that basically got full time within a few weeks of being hired that moved ahead of me even though I had 4 years with the company in fleet service. I have been thru 3 mergers (PSA, Piedmont, America West) and if anybody thinks there will not be layoffs they are fooling themselves. Seniority is everything in a merger and now is the time to get it corrected. Not after the merger !

Ok then it makes sense that they lose half their time.

One of the first things that Unions do in order to establish a unified culture is try to get rid of part time language altogether. Why have guys who have businesses on the side just show up for a couple of hours per week for the benefits? I realize that many would prefer to be full time but with the language they cant. If some guy works 10 to 20 hours a week and gets benefits as a suppliment to their real jobv they are more than likely willing to vote in favor of crappy wages and other concessions. They are a scab force in place. All in or all out. As long as you have a sizable PT population you will continue to see your living standards as full timers deteriorate.
 
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Im glad you have no part time positions in A/C maintenance.
We have or had a provision in our contract for part time positions but was never officially utilized. The OSM or SRP pretty much gave a part time AMT a new meaning without calling it Part Time.

OSMs aren't "Part Time", they are "Part Pay"

They have/had a Title II guy somewhere, or at least thats the excuse we were given for not removing the language.
 
Ok then it makes sense that they lose half their time.

One of the first things that Unions do in order to establish a unified culture is try to get rid of part time language altogether. Why have guys who have businesses on the side just show up for a couple of hours per week for the benefits? I realize that many would prefer to be full time but with the language they cant. If some guy works 10 to 20 hours a week and gets benefits as a suppliment to their real jobv they are more than likely willing to vote in favor of crappy wages and other concessions. They are a scab force in place. All in or all out. As long as you have a sizable PT population you will continue to see your living standards as full timers deteriorate.

Even worse than part-time the IAM facilitated and encouraged Hawaiian Airlines to add part-time reserve, where they top out at ~$10/hour, do not count towards the part-time ratio negotiated in the CBA, receive no benefits beyond flight passes, and must be full dues paying IAM members. If this isn't divisive I don't know what is, this is no different than ready reserve at DL that the IAM decried during their failed vote at DL.

Josh
 
Keep in mind that under the current IAM fleet service contract that if you are a part time agent and you are upgraded to full time you automatically loose half of your seniority for layoffs, bidding work schedules and vacation lines. You only keep your hire date for payscale, vacation accrual,retirement and non rev boarding.
So say your are part time for 2 years and are upgraded to full time you loose 1 year of seniority.
You can find this on page 33, article 7, paragraph A. This goes back to the Teamster days of the 1970's and needs to be changed. This could be a major deciding factor in the event of a run off election.

WTF?!

Ok then it makes sense that they lose half their time.

One of the first things that Unions do in order to establish a unified culture is try to get rid of part time language altogether. Why have guys who have businesses on the side just show up for a couple of hours per week for the benefits? I realize that many would prefer to be full time but with the language they cant. If some guy works 10 to 20 hours a week and gets benefits as a suppliment to their real jobv they are more than likely willing to vote in favor of crappy wages and other concessions. They are a scab force in place. All in or all out. As long as you have a sizable PT population you will continue to see your living standards as full timers deteriorate.

I don't think the answer is to get rid of PT per se, but rather to put hard/fast caps on the numbers. As far as FT guys just mailing it in, I'm with you 110%; either work it, or get out of the way of someone that wants the upgrade. The NW CBA's had language capping the number of unrepaid trades (I think it's called "CS" at AA?) as a way to stop people from dropping all their hours...