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US FA's Stapled to the Bottom

beachboy said:
Not to mention stapling is illegal now after congress passed a law back in December 2007.
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No. Your statement is incorrect. The McCaskill Amendment only requires good faith negotiation and if not successful, binding arbitration. There is nothing in the amendment which would prevent the arbitrator from deciding to staple one group below the other. Though that is highly unlikely, it is not impossible.
 
Well, I will look that up. You certainly do your research out there in AA land. You guys are just downright COLD in your history of mergers. Sorry but history speaks volumes. I am not going to get into why you think it's appropriate to staple, as it seems to be a culture and right at AA
AA F/A's are like the Borg. Do tentacles fly out as your enter a merger and just assimilate or deactivate who you perceive as a threat in the AA world? AA just gives me a the creeps all around. Not good Karma.
View attachment 7468
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Less than a week after Lufthansa agreed to purchase 19% of Jet Blue, a struggling U.S. carrier, U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill and Kit Bond today secured a provision to the Senate’s omnibus spending bill to provide air carrier employees with a base level of protection during mergers. With 1,253 former TWA employees still at risk of losing recall rights five years after being laid off from TWA’s merger with American, McCaskill and Bond are seeking to prevent similar scenarios from occurring in the future.

The provision would ensure a merger process by which airline employee seniority lists can be integrated in a fair manner. If a dispute occurs, the parties can engage in binding arbitration. This provision would make it harder for one airline or union to add the employees of another airline or union to the bottom of the seniority list. Thousands of former TWA flight attendants lost their seniority after American Airlines acquired TWA and were furloughed after September 11. This provision would help prevent such occurrences in the future.

In addition to the recent news about the Lufthansa investment in Jet Blue, news reports are fanning rumors about the potential for other major commercial airlines to engage in mergers. McCaskill, who successfully offered a similar amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act in May, believed that the recent talk of mergers raised the level of urgency to sign such protections into law. She was pleased to work with Bond, along with U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Il), to ensure the provision was included in the omnibus spending bill. The bill is expected to pass in both chambers and to be signed into law by the holiday recess.

“This provision is an important piece of the puzzle to ensure workers in the future don’t suffer the same fate as the TWA workers. I’m also hopeful it will aid in negotiations towards a final settlement for those workers,â€￾ McCaskill said.

“Our TWA workers were given promises and only got pink slips, this provision is a critical step in protecting airline workers from this fate in the future,â€￾ said Bond. “It was a pleasure to work with Senator McCaskill to secure these protections.â€￾
 
beachboy said:
WASHINGTON, D.C. —The provision would ensure a merger process by which airline employee seniority lists can be integrated in a fair manner. If a dispute occurs, the parties can engage in binding arbitration. This provision would make it harder for one airline or union to add the employees of another airline or union to the bottom of the seniority list.
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First off, where did I say that I thought stapling was appropriate? (You're earlier slam at me.) All I said was what you posted is incorrect and not factual. FWIW, I'm an AA f/a who does not believe that the former TW f/as were treated fairly.

I'm just trying to keep f/as from pinning their hopes on a non-existent law. It was an amendment to an appropriations bill. Note the phrases from your own post which I have bolded or put into italics. What you posted is exactly what I said in the first place. If there is a dispute, binding arbitration is required.

Also note that it states that "this provision would make it harder" to staple. It does NOT say that it is impossible or illegal. Forget what Sen. McCaskill says. Go with what her amendment says. She is a politician. What she wrote in amendment and what was passed by Congress is not what she is claiming. She did not "prevent" another AA/TW mess; she just "made it harder."

With all that is going on right now, we ALL need to be cognizant of what the laws really are, not what some politician or galley gossiper said they are.
 
This same debate happened the last time UA/US tired to tie the knot. Here is part of the AFA Merger Policy, word for word.

SECTION X
MERGER POLICY AND RELATED EMPLOYEE
PROTECTIVE PROVISIONS

A. Scope and Purpose


The fundamental scope and purpose of this policy is to provide protection for the employment rights of flight attendants. This policy shall be applicable when two or more AFA-CWA-represented carriers engage in any MERGER, CONSOLIDATION, ACQUISITION OF CONTROL, PURCHASE, SALE, LEASE OR OTHER SIMILAR TRANSACTIONS OR ARRANGEMENT between or among them, involving their previously separate airline operations or services previously performed by them as separate airlines, in a manner that may affect the seniority rights of the flight attendants (all hereafter referred to as "merger" for purposes of this policy).




The policy is then outlined. Including DATE OF HIRE. I, recall UA fa's saying that since they where buying us during the last attempted merger that the policy did not apply. As you can see from the above that is WRONG!


As for binding arbitration....our pilots are a shining example that the bigger carrier's employees don't always make out so good!
 
IMisstheAladdinTrays said:
The policy is then outlined. Including DATE OF HIRE. I, recall UA fa's saying that since they where buying us during the last attempted merger that the policy did not apply. As you can see from the above that is WRONG!
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As I recall, there were some UA flight attendants that were guilty of thinking that, but they were rather quickly corrected, even by their own union reps at UA, as to the fact that it would be strictly DOH with US. However, I do remember that there was a move afoot among their FA's to get rid of AFA and form another union so they wouldn't have to give us our DOH. But my understanding of it at the time was that even that wouldn't have prevented a DOH integration because they would've had to honor the rules that were in place at the time the merger was announced.
 
What has me scratching my head is why ANY merger, particularly after this train wreck, is considered a good idea around here?

I also think that any other system other than DOH is completely amoral and results in lawsuits, mess and wasted capital for the company and affected workers.

Imagine if ALPA hadn't been so greedy, and just kept DOH. US might not be at the bottom of the barrel, we might all have had contracts, morale might not have been in the toilet, the MIGHTs just keep adding up.

AA has a history of being amoral and cut throat. I would expect them to play dirty. UA basically rubberstamped DOH when AFA confronted the US-AWA f/a issue. They can't back away from it now.

The thing is, for basic reasons, such as benefits, schedules, personnel losses etc. why would any US employee want to wade into the merger mess again?

Having said that, Parker doesn't make his fortune running us as-is, so undoubtedly he is out there on his knees begging for a merger, but the industry KNOWs how messy mergers are. I predict a "wait and see" as they watch DL-NW sweet talk regulators.

That and $2.50 will get you a coffee!
 
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