What happens to our Union?

The National Mediation Board ("NMB") certified the Union as the representative of US Airways Passenger Service Employees during the merger with America West. That certification remains in effect following the recent US Airways-American Airlines merger announcement and will continue to remain in effect throughout the merger process. In other words, your Union will continue to represent you.

Assuming the merger proceeds as planned, there will come a point where the operations and business activities of US Airways and American are integrated to a sufficient extent that the Union will request the NMB to make a determination that the two airlines constitute a “single carrier.” Only the Union or another union with a sufficient showing of interest can ask the NMB to make a single carrier determination. If, after the Union makes the request, the NMB does determine that the operations and business activities of the two airlines have been sufficiently integrated and they are a single carrier, then there will be an election ordered to determine what union, if any, will be the representative of the combined US Airways and American Passenger Service Employees.

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 We all want answers and we are working on a draft of Questions and Answers that our Legal dept has to review, since we DO NOT want to put up incorrect information. We are protected under our contract, up to and until an election occurs, which could be at least a year or more from now, so please know that, and we will continue to bargain. More details to come.

Stand strong and unified and be ready to help when the time comes to fight to keep our job security, work rules and benefits we currently enjoy and improve on them in negotiations.

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Here is the Merger Press release.  There will be a live broadcast of the press release today on CNBC and other networks at 10:00 AM CST.

Doug Parker began the meeting with a slide presentation sharing the quarterly report. We made $192 million the past quarter, the second highest profit in company history.
The fuel costs are down 1%. We believe we will make a profit close to $400 million this year, which is 4 times the profit we made last year. Read more >>>

 Jan Vail reported on the stations recently converted to workbrain 5; In CLT there has been some confusion on swiping the badge or typing in the number. CLT had 24 employees whose finger images did not transfer over and they were unable to clock in the first couple of days- the team found the reason and that has been addressed. Read more >>>

 Your IBT/CWA Association Negotiating Committee met this month in Tempe, during the period of September 18th thru September 20th.

On Tuesday, September 18th, we met with the Company and questioned them on the delay responding to our request we gave them in June for information on the staffing model they use. We requested they answer it point by point.

 

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 Your IBT/CWA Association Negotiating Committee met this month in Tempe, during the period of August 7th thru the 9th.

On Tuesday, August 7th, we met with the Company and passed a proposal for Article 23-Uniforms. We proposed to change the way the company replaces uniforms due to inconsistency throughout the system. The Committee also passed our counter proposal for Article 5-Hours of Service.

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 Jan Vail, who is over the workbrain group, said that CLT and PHL are the last two locations to get the new Workbrain.

She also admitted that the DCA clocks were not working but they recently fixed the problem. They have budgeted for this year and next for ATO’s to be able to access the ETM at home. No date for it being completed as of yet.

I asked if there was any way to have a workbrain message sent to a manager on duty or the admin. Manager, in case someone comes up as a no-show? We would like to ask that the company place a call to the employee to advise them they were a no-show within an hour of the start of the shift. This is done in some locations or done if the manager or shift manager likes you. I told them about an IAM member in CLT that no showed and a manager and co-worker were worried about him after calling him and went to his residence. Sadly, he was found dead. We are asking that the company show that type of compassion for all of their employees. Donna said they do care about the employees, she will look into it. Read more >>>

 Doug Parker stated that the 2nd quarter was fantastic, the best ever and he asked the Union representatives to thank all of the employees we represent for the great job.
It was three times better then last quarter. The cost of fuel helped. We should all see a nice profit sharing check in 2013.

D0, Completion factor and the mishandled bag numbers the lowest we have ever seen.

The Unions recently formed the ULC-Union Labor coalition and sent Doug Parker a letter about our concerns with a potential merger with AA.
Doug responded to our letter and we had the TWU Representative, Danny Pursuit speak for the ULC in the meeting. Read more >>>

 Your IBT/CWA Association Negotiating Committee met this month in Tempe, during the period of May 1st thru the 3rd.

On Tuesday, May 1st, we met with the Company and they gave us a proposal for Article 5-Hours of Service and Article 31-Part-time Employees. The Committee discussed counter proposals for the Articles. There were many proposed changes in Article 5, for example, the Company proposed that part-time shifts should be able to have more varied shift lengths, both shorter and longer than what is currently allowed. The Union did not agree with this. We also proposed to have paid breaks vs an unpaid lunch included in part-time shifts and to go back to the 1999 language for our shift 3 full timers, which included a paid lunch.

 

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 We have started a facebook page for our  Dues paying CWA members at US Airways to keep them up to date on negotiations, arbitrations and potential merger news.

 The page is for information. We will post updates from meetings and from our negotiations. It is a place to ask questions and to give input on what is happening in our work locations across the system. We DO NOT want it to be used for negative comments, Please keep your postings on topic and respect one another as Brothers and Sisters of the Union. Your questions may not be answered right away, but we will try to get to them in a timely manner. We will use this site as a mobilization tool during bargaining when things get tough and we need the support of all the members.

IF YOU ARE NOT APPROVED FOR THE PAGE IT MEANS WE COULD NOT FIND YOU ON THE DUES LIST.  IF YOUR NAME IS NOT THE SAME ON FACEBOOK AS IT IS ON YOUR MEMBERSHIP CARD, THAT COULD BE THE PROBLEM.

Click the "read more" link to find the page name and link.

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Doug Parker, CEO started out the meeting by introducing and welcoming Capt Gary Hummel, the new President elect for USAPA to his first meeting.

He stated that the revenue environment is doing well due to the fact the entire industry environment is very strong. They will be releasing the quarterly earnings on Wednesday, April 25.

He continued to say the Company is doing well, there are no surprises, we lost money in 2011 in the 1st quarter, we are loosing less in 2012's 1st quarter. We are not going to have a profit this quarter but we feel strongly we will make money overall in 2012, as we did for the full year of 2011.

The operations report is stellar and all of your members are doing a fantastic job in each of the workgroups. Records were set for fewest mishandled bags this past quarter and the ramp is doing a phenomenal job. We are very proud of the Industry award from Aviation Week and Overhaul & Maintenance magazine for technical excellence during the publication's annual aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) awards.

Scott Kirby, President, noted that it is great that we are making up for last year, it comes from industry consolidation, capacity being reduced and no one is growing into new markets. We are able to pass the cost of fuel prices off to the customer which is a big help.

Doug stated that another project we are working on is an investigation with doing something with AMR. We hired advisors and we have asked them to figure out if something made sense, that work continues. This will go on for a long time due to BK taking a long time.

The IBT/CWA Association representatives raised the following issues in the meeting on behalf of the membership;

We again advised the company that the attendance policy needs to be relaxed and that they should deal with the employees who have serious attendance issues. We advised the members of the labor committee that we presented Donna Paladini a comparison of the two different attendance policies for the customer service group, ATO and RES in an earlier meeting. She advised us she would review and consider our input.

The following was addressed directly to Doug Parker and the 3 Board members regarding our recent bargaining session;

We want to express our concerns about “customer service” Yes we represent the members of “customer service” but we are also concerned about the slow and steady loss of our jobs to automation (Kiosks, gate readers and Wally in RES) which in turn causes a loss of the “human touch” to our customer's service. Yes, we know that automation is the future and has been and will be for many years, but we don’t have the means to cover the holes in customer service when things go awry when the “automation” fails or has a glitch with the current staffing numbers.

The company did not increase headcount to cover the additional weeks of vacation and holiday weeks from our snap backs.

Response from the company in the meeting as we mentioned this;
“yes we have been given the ok from finance to increase the headcount through transfers from downsized ATO’s and upgrading PT to FT in many locations, we also did not reduce the numbers as we normally would during the recent schedule changes and reduction due to the slot swap in LGA and the ATO’s we flew to out of LGA”.

We understand when weather causes havoc in the operation, but in many of the mandatory overtime cases we have been made aware of, the weather, irregular operations or unusual events, had nothing to do with mandatory overtime. Poor planning on management’s part when putting together a schedule, such as the DCA Inauguration meltdown a few years ago, is one example of what causes our staffing shortages. Sick calls and special events a manager was not aware of or did not plan for that brought a higher passenger load to a particular airport is also a major problem we deal with in smaller ATO’s.

We need to look at the cost of hiring more employees’ vs. the cost of the complaints from customers and the loss of their business.

Our bargaining team predicted we would get some outsourcing proposals in bargaining and sure enough, the company bargaining team recently proposed a new “ready reserve” article. It is clear from this proposal the Company’s desire to allow non-Union workers to make up 25% of our workforce, which in turn means furloughing the very people who sacrificed to make this company the success it is today. This proposal would bring in a “B” scale group of workers who would work without benefits, without earning seniority and without regard to our member’s right to earn a decent living. The proposal was to allow these non-union workers to be scheduled up to 30 hours a week. We have union workers right now in some small locations i.e.; SRQ, TUS, working 2 hours a day, not by choice. It is not worth driving to work based on the price of gas today for 10 hours a week.

The IBT/CWA Association will not sign a tentative agreement that allows ANY outsourcing of ANY kind, including allowing managers to perform our work on a regular basis.

If you want us to reach an agreement in a timely manner, not 6 or 7 years from now, recognize the sacrifices this group has made in the last decade and make comprehensive proposals we can bring back to our workgroup that the Union leadership and the elected negotiating team can endorse without fear of what happened in the Flight attendant group recently.

We have a very good history of working with the company, we negotiated an integration agreement in 6 months during the merger and we represent the largest group of employees on the property.

Do not slight this group and do not waste our time with any proposals that demand we give up our jobs or take anything less then we have today.

Doug, we want you to know that the news of this one proposal has lit a fire under the IBT/CWA Association membership and they are now asking the Union leadership when they can take action.

We have always come to this table and been brutally honest with you, today is no different. Show respect to the workers for their sacrifices in the past at the bargaining table and they will work harder to make this the best company there is.

(The labor committee is held every quarter with representatives of each of the labor groups at US Airways and 3 members of the board of directors who serve on the labor committee, Doug Parker and members of management).

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 Your IBT/CWA Association Negotiating Committee met this month in Tempe, during the period of March 27th- 29th. Read more >>>

CORRECTION: 7:49PM 2/9/2012

Your IBT/CWA Association Negotiating Committee met this month in Tempe, during the period of January 31st thru February 2nd.

On Tuesday, January 31st, we met with the Company and gave them proposals for Article 10-Temporary Employees and Article 11-Seasonal Employee Transfer. The Company gave us counter proposals of the integration of Letters of Agreement into Articles 12, 14, 19, 20 and 36. The Committee stayed to put together counter proposals to be submitted the following day.

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The meeting was held on January 18, 2012 at 3:45PM in Phoenix, AZ

The meeting began with reports from;

Scott Kirby-President;

The industry is doing remarkably well even with the high fuel prices which we were able to pass on to the passengers and we are going to be profitable this year which is unusual. The revenue environment is very strong and fuel prices are elevated even more and the industry is doing well passing that on. We are running the best airline in the industry. If something happens in Iran we may have some major issues regarding fuel.

Doug Parker-CEO;

In flight service has improved greatly. Newer food products introduced have been popular. The profits for the year will be around $85 million. We are not going to loose much in the 4th qtr, which is good news with the fuel prices highest in history.
We are very happy about that.

Delta slot swap project updates will be discussed in the board meeting.

There has been immense speculation on the AMR bankruptcy and what might be our role. What the board will hear is AMR creates new opportunity verses where they were outside of bankruptcy. Of course, bankruptcy allows companies to do things to their cost structure. Their labor costs were so much higher then ours. They could not produce a profit. There has been huge speculation. We are doing what you would want us to do which is staying abreast of the situation. We have hired advisors and we want to be sure they are accurate with the reports. Bankruptcy is a long process as most of you are aware. Speculation does not mean things are going on; they are the result of people looking at the industry.

The speculation is also caused by the history of the past few years where we talked about a desire for consolidation. We have an obligation to see if anything makes sense and studying it diligently.

I don’t want to get distracted from running this company and we need to focus on that at the same time as looking into consolidation. We are in a position that we can do something or not about a merger, we are currently in a good position to stand alone as well.

 

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Your IBT/CWA Association Negotiating Committee met this month in Tempe, during the period of December 14 and 15. Read more >>>

 Tell Congress to support The United States Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Bill

With American families struggling, it's time for companies to bring good jobs home. Foreign call centers not only ship jobs abroad, but they endanger our confidential personal information because they operate without US data regulation.

You can tell lawmakers to support the US Call Center Bill. The Bill would build jobs in America by:  

Creating a customers' right to know - Ending the secrecy about call center locations, so outsourcers and offshorers can't hide anymore.

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Your IBT/CWA Association Negotiating Committee met this month in Tempe, during the period of November 8 thru 10.

On Tuesday, November 8, we met with the company and gave them a proposal for Article 1-Purpose of Agreement. We also proposed the integration of some of the Letters of Agreement into the CBA.
On Wednesday, November 9, we met with the company and gave them a proposal on Article 8-Seniority, Article 22-Probation and Article 30-Safety and Health. The company delivered its counter proposal for Article 22 and Article 30.

On Thursday, November 10, we met with the company and gave them our response to their counter proposal for Article 22 and 30. We also proposed additional incorporations of the existing Letters of Agreement into the CBA. This concluded our meetings with the Company for this session. We did not reach any tentative agreements at these meetings, but the company advised they will have counter proposals ready by the next meeting dates.

Our next scheduled bargaining session is in Tempe, Arizona on December, 14 and 15. We also set dates for January 31, February 1 and 2, to continue the bargaining process.
 

 

 Due to the Contract language in our CBA, today is the day all outsourced reservations calls that originate in the USA will be answered in our three Union Represented Call centers, Phoenix, Reno and Winston-Salem.  

The company was allowed to outsource some of the call center work during the bankruptcy concessions with a negotiated agreement that those jobs must be returned to the Union represented call centers within 60 days of the amendable date of the contract.

Read the press release put out today by US Airways;

Doug Parker introduce Bill Post- Newest Board member for US Airways.

Doug started off the meeting by giving his report;

He stated the airline industry is the same as it was back in June. Having a difficult year due to weather, he felt we still are doing well since US Airways is close to breaking even. Revenue is very strong; the Company has not felt the problems the current economy is experiencing.

He said he was surprised the revenue environment is robust and producing record revenues, keeping capacity in check is part of it. United expected to be down to flat in revenue next year, Southwest said that as well. Demand is in line with capacity, the problem is fuel prices have remained stubbornly high.

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The IBT- CWA Association elected bargaining team met for two days in Tempe with US Airways labor relations at US Airways headquarters.

In this meeting we identified which Letters of Agreements that have been signed since 2005 are still applicable and if applicable, which Articles they should be inserted into.  There was agreement that some will remain as Letters of Agreement for now, but are subject to negotiations.

 

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The IBT/CWA Passenger Service Association met on July 14th in Tempe AZ at company headquarters. Chief negotiator for the Company was Ron Harbinson-Managing Director Labor Relations-Ground. Chief negotiator for the  IBT/CWA Association was Andy Marshall from the IBT, serving as the Chairperson for the Association.

Attending were elected bargaining representatives from the IBT/CWA Passenger Service Association, Staff and Business Agents. Read more >>>

The IBT/CWA Association will begin Section 6 negotiations with US Airways in Phoenix, AZ on July 14, 2011. 

Preparations and meetings have begun for the CWA bargaining team and meetings have been set up with the IBT to coordinate our bargaining goals.

The IBT/CWA Association will be sending out regular updates.  We also will be seeking mobilization coordinators from each local to assist in our goals to gain the pay, benefits and working conditions that we know our membership deserves.  We have compiled and reviewed the recent bargaining surveys and are utilizing them to guide us in this very important matter.

The meeting began at 9:30 PST in Phoenix AZ, at company headquarters. Here is the report from CWA;

Doug Parker, CEO began the meeting by reviewing the 1st quarter company update. He discussed the loss of $110 M. This loss was $21 M higher than 2010’s 1st quarter. He did not seem too concerned that it was slightly more, blaming the higher fuel prices we are experiencing.

He was happy with the outstanding operational performance and recognized the workers in the meeting and asked the Union leadership to thank all of our members for their hard work and dedication. The fact that we earned 3 triple plays so far in 2011 which totaled $6 M was noted. The A la Carte fees generated $126M in the 1st quarter alone.

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January 19, 2011-Phoenix, AZ

Doug Parker began the meeting by advising us that the following day the Board will be asked to approve the budget for 2011 and review 2010.  They are very happy  with the year end results. " It is due to the people that the Labor groups here represent and I would like to thank them for all of their hard work.  This has been the first time as CEO at US or HP that we are hitting on all cylinders". He stated that earnings are up and this was the second best we have had in the Company’s history. We have seen revenue improvements, cargo revenues are up 50%. We have had phenomenal results in our operations with an 83% on time overall, the highest ever. There have been 12 triple plays paid out so far. 

Click the title above to read the full report.

US Airways Labor/BOD meeting
November 10, 2010 3:45 PM
Phoenix, AZ

This is my actual presentation to the committee , in Bold is the company response, if any, to the issues I raised.

The meeting was held at US Airways headquarters in Tempe. The two board members, Herbert Baum and Bruce Lakefield participated via telephone. Click the title to read the full report.

The IBT/CWA Association leadership met in Phoenix on 6/22/10 and 6/23/10 The meeting was attended by IBT/CWA Local leaders and Staff. Some US Airways officers came by the hotel meeting room for a short meeting on the afternoon of 6/22/10 also.

Click the title above to read the full report.

CEO, Doug Parker did a short overview of the state of the Airline. He stated that we are building cash. The employees are doing a great job running the airline. The 1st quarter was not great due to weather issues and 7% of our flights were cancelled.

Click the title above to read the rest of the report.