After four years of contract talks and little progress, the Transport Workers Union today presented a letter to the National Mediation Board (NMB) requesting that the union, which represents 28,000 workers at American Airlines and American Eagle, be released from federal mediation. TWU’s action now starts a process where the NMB will determine if the union will be granted “self-help” -- essentially the right to strike.

“While we have reached tentative agreements for some workers at American Eagle and significant progress has been made in recent days for Fleet Service workers at American, overall AMR has not sufficiently demonstrated that they value the sacrifices and hard work of our members,” said TWU Air Transport Division Director John M. Conley. “We have been at the bargaining table for years and will continue to work toward agreements, but it’s time that we moved the settlement process to the next step.” TWU represents 11 bargaining units at American and American Eagle. You can read John Conley's letter requesting to be released from federal mediation here.

Labor laws in the transportation industry are different than the rules for other private sector workers and the right to strike is not guaranteed. Under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), the law pertaining to labor relations for workers in commercial aviation and railroads, unions must request self-help before moving toward a strike. Once a request is made:

-the NMB will notify the opposing party, in this case, AMR, the parent company of American Airlines and American Eagle, of the request for “release.”
-Following notification, a comment period from 10 days to two weeks will be declared for both parties.
-After the comment period, the Board will then review the record and consult with the federal mediators who have been involved in the contract talks and then issue a determination.
-The Board can propose arbitration, further mediation or suggest other actions.
-If either AMR or TWU would reject an offer of arbitration, a 30-day countdown or cooling-off period is triggered. The union is granted self-help at the end of 30 days -- unless President Obama intercedes and declares a Presidential Emergency Board or PEB. (During the Obama presidency, airline unions on two occasions have requested release. In the case of Hawaiian Airlines, a settlement was reached without a strike, at cargo carrier Amerijet a strike did occur. TWU is the first union at a major carrier to file for release in the Obama years.)


A PEB:
-Can occur if the NMB "notifies" the President that in its "judgment" the dispute between a carrier and its employees cannot be adjusted and "threaten[s] substantially to interrupt interstate commerce to a degree such as to deprive any section of the country of essential transportation service."
-The President may then, "in his discretion,” create a board to investigate and report on such dispute. The NMB submits a recommended list of potential neutrals to the President.
-The PEB usually has 30 days to develop a proposed agreement and present that agreement to the parties for consideration.
-After the PEB delivers its proposed agreement, there is a further 30-day cooling off period. Under the law, Congress also can create a settlement if both sides reject the judgment of the PEB.

While TWU has filed for release, negotiations can continue.

“We want equitable and rational agreements, we are prepared to negotiate, but we will not stand by as AMR executives are awarded large bonuses and our members are left with pennies. We will not move aimlessly, we will not go in reverse, as today’s filing demonstrates we plan to move forward,” said Conley.

Dear Mr. Walsh:

I am writing on behalf of our “Oneworld” colleagues at Unite.

Labor unrest and discord distracts the workforce, creates uncertainty in travelers (our customers), impacts the lending institutions and further weakens an already fragile enterprise.

It seems AA & BA are on the cusp of turning the corner in terms of potential opportunity resulting from ATI & JBA approval.

Your intuition must tell you, that if the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. One in your position cannot separate leadership from relationships – Unite is not the enemy – after all without labor, including you, nothing prospers. Labor drives and delivers on BA’s commitments and promises to the customer.

The ground floor gives life to the top floor’s ideas and propels them from fantasy to reality. The Cabin Crew, your employees and Unite members represent the face of BA and have the most interaction with passengers, providing for their safety and comfort, while enhancing the travel experience.

I am clear that your instincts and experience must prevail, in working to lead the parties to an amicable agreement and a return to a relationship of basic harmony, trust and equity.

The TWU at AA represents approximately 28,000 ground workers who as you know, are facing their own challenges in negotiations.

The Transport Workers Union of America AFL - CIO pledges its full support, influence and resources, squarely behind our contemporaries at Unite. Thank you for taking the time to indulge me and making every effort to strengthen the “Oneworld” Alliance, by exerting your considerable persuasive talents to secure an agreement.

Respectfully,

John M. Conley
International Administrative Vice President
Director Air Transport Division


JMC:kla opeiu-153

C: Steve Turner
Tony McCarthy
Gerard Arpey

Speaking for all 28,000 TWU members employed by AMR, we’re very disappointed that the flight attendants union was not able to reach an agreement with American Airlines. It now appears that APFA will seek release from mediation. We know where they’re coming from. It has become increasingly clear that management at American Airlines is not committed to reaching an agreement with the airlines’ workers and AMR’s unions must take additional steps to secure a new agreement.

Just sitting at the bargaining table is not negotiating. The flight attendants, like AMR’s ground workers, require a contract that is “ratifiable.” Our members who kept this company aloft by taking thirty percent wage cuts and making other sacrifices will not accept pennies for their labors, nor will they just grin and bear it when management is taking seven-figure bonuses.

American Airlines is gaining anti-trust immunity in the Atlantic and strengthening the Oneworld alliance in the Pacific, it’s stock is up 30 percent in February alone. If management would only address its labor issues it would fly even higher.

AMR’s executives are simply not recognizing the enormous contributions made by our members. Over the past four years we have utilized a facilitated approach, direct negotiations, mediation, super meditation and recess sessions, all to no avail. Releasing the parties is the natural order of progression and called for under the Railway Labor Act. TWU will be making an announcement about next steps in the bargaining process for ground workers next week.

The TWU joined community activists, fellow unions, the AFL-CIO, small business owners and elected officials this weekend to save thousands of jobs. The rally in Titusville, Florida was organized by the AFL-CIO in response to the Obama administration's proposed budget cut for NASA's Constellation program, and as part of its campaign for jobs in America.

If passed by Congress, the proposed budget cut is expected to cause about 7,000 job losses at NASA and thousands more in central Florida. TWU members from the area and International officers and staff joined TWU Local 525, which represents hundreds of NASA workers who will be affected by the budget, at the rally on Saturday afternoon. The crowd numbered in the thousands and heard from speakers including AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, and AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt-Baker.

"Millions of working families are fed up with handouts to Wall Street and not even a hand-up for Main Street. We’ve had it with politicians who think government should work for the wealthy but not for the people who do the work," said Trumka.

Protecting thousands of good-paying union jobs is vital for central Florida, which would be devastated from the cuts and has already been hard hit by the foreclosure crisis.

"We are definitely going to see a trickle down effect," said TWU Local 525 President Kevin Smith. "This is going to push the every day worker out, and our country can't afford that now or ever."

TWU will continue to join with other unions, activists, elected officials and the community to save these NASA jobs, and protect America's middle class.

View photos of the rally and Local 525 at work at TWU’s flickr page.

TWU leaders, who represent more than 28,000 workers at American Airlines and American Eagle, announced this morning that unless all outstanding contract issues are settled at the two carriers by the end of mediated discussion on March 8, union members will seek an immediate release from federal mediation.

Under the terms of the U.S. Railway Labor Act – which governs labor relations in the commercial airline and railroad industries – a release from mediation entitles workers to exercise “self help” -- essentially the right to go on strike. TWU would be the first union representing a major carrier to request such action from the National Mediation Board (NMB) since the Obama administration took office last year.

TWU members have been in negotiations with AMR, the parent company of American Airlines and American Eagle, since contracts became amendable in 2006, and the parties have been in federal mediation since 2008.

“Four years is time enough to settle a contract,” said TWU International President James C. Little. “In the dark days of 2003, when AMR was in desperate financial straits, it took us just two weeks to reach an agreement which included major sacrifices from our members in order to keep this company alive. If we could get the job done in two weeks in 2003, an agreement, years in the making, can certainly be reached by March 8.”

In 2003, even after accepting painful concessions, TWU members increased productivity and implemented process improvements, such as decreasing the standard turn time required to perform aircraft overhaul.

The enormous contributions made by our members, “are simply not being recognized at the bargaining table by AMR executives. This situation cannot continue,” said TWU Air Transport Director John Conley. “Over the past four years we have utilized a facilitated approach, direct negotiations, mediation, super mediation and recess sessions, all to no avail. Releasing the parties is the natural order of progression and called for under the Act.”

TWU members work in eleven American Airlines and American Eagle bargaining units in locations across the United States. The parties have reached two tentative agreements – covering aircraft maintenance technicians and fleet service workers at American Eagle that are currently pending ratification.

“If AMR is sincere about reaching an agreement, we can settle the remaining nine contracts,” said TWU International President Little. “The company needs to recognize the wage and benefit needs of our members, as well as the contribution they’ve made through enhanced productivity and by bringing new business into the company.”

“If AMR executives are not serious, they’re going to find out very quickly that TWU members are – and we’re going to do what it takes to reach a fair and equitable agreement,” Little added.

TWU represents ground workers who work in a wide variety of job classifications at American Airlines and American Eagle.

TWU's Announcement in the News:
NBC: Two AA Unions May Seek First Step to Strike
WSJ (subscription only)
Associated Press:American Airlines union seeks first step to strike
Dallas News: TWU will seek release from mediation if early March talks fail
The Star-Telegram

Local 525 members at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida are making the final preparations for the last shuttle launch in darkness to take place this weekend. Visit twu.org on Sunday, Feb. 7 for exclusive video coverage of TWU members preparing for the launch. With this week's news of Obama's proposed budget cuts ending NASA's Constellation program, among other drastic changes, the launch has significant meaning for TWU members on the ground, for the space industry and for the country. Sunday's twu.org video will feature Local 525 members discussing what these dramatic changes, if passed by Congress, could mean for their jobs and their community.

TWU's Local 525 is almost as old as the U.S. missile program itself. The Local received its TWU charter in June, 1957 and has since been involved with every launch from Cape Canaveral or Kennedy Space Center. Local 525 members are involved in many aspects of the space industry from manning the fire trucks that accompany the shuttle down the runway to launching commercial and military satellites.

This weekend's launch is the first of NASA's five final shuttle missions planned for 2010 before the three-orbiter fleet is retired to make way for future spacecraft. It marks NASA's 130th shuttle flight since the fleet began launching astronauts to orbit in 1981.

The space shuttle Endeavour is planned to launch at 4:39 a.m. on Feb. 7 from the Kennedy Space Center. The five-man, one-woman crew, commanded by astronaut George Samka, will be hauling a brand-new room for the International Space Station, as well as a seven-window observation portal dubbed the Cupola. The mission will last 13 days.

Remember to visit http://www.twu.org on Sunday, Feb. 7 for exclusive footage of the launch and Local 525 members who help make it happen.
Photo credit: NASA

The chance to hunt the game laden plains of Africa is only a dream to the average hunter. Such a safari requires travel to a different hemisphere and is wildly expensive, financially out of reach for most. But to one TWU Local 556 member's surprise, she won just that, the hunt of her dreams.

Karen Carrolan, a Southwest flight attendant and hunting enthusiast, was working a return flight to her home base, Chicago, when a stranger asked her if she'd fill in for a hunting buddy of his who had unexpectedly canceled on him. Carrolan knew something unusual was going on when she noticed a camera pointed directly at her and the stranger. Then, over the aircraft's public address system a co-worker announced that Carrolan had just won a hunting trip to Africa and the plane full of people burst into applause.

That was when she found out the stranger next to her was actually Tom Ackerman, the host of Escape to the Wild. Escape is a television show that rewards union men and women with trips to fantastic hunting locations around the world and airs their excursions. The show often highlights participants' commitments to species conservation, one that is particularly strong in the community of union sportsmen and women. Union Sportsmen's Alliance (USA), the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), both affiliated with the AFL-CIO, support the show.

Carrolan started hunting several years ago with her oldest son and her boyfriend; mostly in central Illinois with an occasional trip to Minnesota. Carrolan lived in Africa for a brief period of time as a child when her father was working as a carpenter in Nigeria. But Carrolan's mother became very ill while they were there so they returned to the United States. Carrolan never dreamed she would have an opportunity to return to Africa.

Carrolan loves her job as a Southwest flight attendant, which she has performed for than nine years. She always keeps an eye out for the hunters on board. "I always chat with passengers, particularly those that look like they are going hunting," she said. "Anyone wearing camouflage clothes." Carrolan said that people think it's "cool" that a woman enjoys the outdoors and hunting wild animals.

Carrolan's hunting trip of a lifetime will be broadcast on January 24 at 8:30 p.m. on the Versus Country television network. Check with your cable company for the proper channel in your area. You can also go to the Versus website to find a clip of the show and other web exclusive materials after it airs.

The Transport Workers Union of America and the International Association of Machinists are committed to raising their member's awareness of an industry killer, "the fatigued worker." Working with the Federal Aviation Administration and sleep study experts, the TWU and IAM expose the dangers of sleep deprived aviation maintenance workers in an industry that operates 365 days a year, 24 hours per day. The inherit risks posed by extreme hours, irregular shifts and outside distractions, are substantiated by medical studies and reported by medical experts like Dr. Bill Johnson, Dr. Katrina Avers and FAA Human Factors Researcher Erica Hauck. These informative articles are included in the second edition of "MX Fatigue focus," available here. Learn about the importance of the biological processes that regulate an individual's sleep patterns, the homeostatic and circadian process and why they are important to workers' safety and the safety of others. Your life may depend on it.

Offshore aviation maintenance is a disaster waiting to happen. American Airlines is the only major air carrier that keeps the bulk of its repair work here in the United States. TWU members who go through necessary background checks and training maintain AA planes and ensure passenger safety. Foreign maintenance allows companies to forgo employee background checks and FAA inspectors are forbidden from making spot checks and surprise inspections.

TWU continues to fight to keep aircraft maintenance here at home and keep the flying public safe. Read more here.

With time running out, the House passed HR 4217 on December 8th, extending funding of the Federal Aviation Administration through March 2010.

The FAA has been operating under a series of extensions since its authorization expired back in 2007. Without Tuesday’s critical “yes” vote to extend funding, the latest extension would have expired Dec. 31, 2009 with Congress in recess for the holidays.

"Although the House passed an FAA reauthorization bill last Congress, the Senate did not, resulting in the need for a series of short-term extension acts that, unfortunately, continues to this day," said Representative James Oberstar (D-MN) Chair of the House Transportation Committee.

Representative Jerry Costello (D-IL), Chair of the Aviation Subcommittee, echoed Oberstar's comments. "The FAA has been operating under a string of short-term extensions for over two years since the last FAA reauthorization bill expired," he said in the well of the House. "Short-term extensions and uncertain funding levels can be disruptive to the aviation industry and communities because they do not allow them to plan for long-term growth. Frankly, every month that goes by without a long-term FAA authorization is a lost opportunity to improve aviation safety, security, and to create and maintain jobs around the country."

Additionally, HR 4217 extends aviation taxes and allows the FAA to spend those tax revenues on programs it deems necessary to safe operations in the aviation industry.