July Labor-Management meeting report

August 7, 2008
CWA

The quarterly meeting with Labor Representatives and Management was held on July 29, 2008 at company headquarters in Tempe, AZ.

Doug Parker, US Airway's CEO, stated he is confidant that the direction the airline is headed is a positive one. He stated that the price of fuel oil being up to $147.00 a barrel was the result in a record loss of $567 million for the 2nd quarter.  Even if the fuel prices dropped to $125.00 a barrel, we would still lose a billion dollars a year. To raise fares in order to make a profit, they would have to charge more than $700.00 per round trip ticket. Analysts say US Airways is the next to go out of business, but Doug states he is certain we will recover and we will not be the next to go.  He feels good about where we are and the progress we are making.  The projection of the profit from baggage fees was between 300 and 400 million but with the data they have, it shows we will make 400 to 500 million dollars profit. He is certain that we will be known as the airline that recovered. Doug was very pleased with the article in the Wall Street Journal showing us as Top Performer, we went from 10th place to 1st place.

The CWA/IBT Association raised the issues about the curbside kiosks and if they will be programmed to collect fees.  Robert Isom, EVP and COO said that in the larger cities, they should be in place by the 3rd or 4th quarter. They still have some programming issues to work out.  He also said with the implementation of the bar code readers at the airports, this will eliminate paper and we will have a more efficient way to track passengers and bags.  Robert said 3 new QIK releases were coming and that they have not stopped spending money to better the airline.

We asked for a resolve to the POC issue and if no resolution, we want an expedited arbitration.  Donna Paladini said she would talk to operations for a resolve to that issue.

We let the Company know that we were not happy with our step 3 hearings not being scheduled in a timely manner and IAM agreed that it was one of their problems too. The Directors of our class II cities are difficult to work with and Donna agreed to sit down with the Labor Representatives and resolve both of these issues.

We also asked about building morale in the workplace and requested something cost neutral such as more SA-1's.  One ongoing issue that we presented was the workbrain not logging swaps and clock-ins correctly. Management wants anyone affected to let them know so they can check to make sure there was no wrongful issuance of discipline.   

The meeting ended with the Company saying they are very encouraged and are glad the employees are keeping focused during this difficult time.

Attending and reporting for the CWA was Vonda Hardy, President, CWA LOCAL 3640