TWU negotiators cut short in midstream what was to be an intensive week of negotiations with American Eagle Airlines, and instead filed for federal mediation with the National Mediation Board. TWU represents Fleet Service and Maintenance and Related workers at the carrier.

Air Transport Division Director John Conley said the abrupt halt to talks came after AMR representatives indicated that they were either unprepared or unauthorized to bargain on issues they had earlier pledged to discuss during what was supposed to be a marathon bargaining session.

“TWU believes the company failed to honor their commitments, we essentially told them ‘don’t waste your breath’ and ‘don’t waste our time,” said Conley.

“As promised we will now file for federal mediation. We also will be gathering our leaders from American and American Eagle to reassess our relationship with AMR.”

Robert Gless, TWU’s Assistant Director added, “We will immediately begin a series of internal meetings to discuss new tactics and a likely change of direction in our relationship with AMR.” TWU’s Eagle’s contracts became amendable in October of 2007. The contract for dispatchers became amendable in January of last year and they are currently in federal mediation. Ground school instructors have been in federal mediation since April of 2008.

Global airline deregulation was among the issues batted around at a high level international industry-labor-government forum in Washington, D.C. last month.

TWU Asst. Air Transport Division Director Robert Gless, a member of a blue chip panel on the history of labor relations in the U.S. airline industry, told the group that deregulation does more harm than good.

Gless said that U.S. airline deregulation, enacted by Congress in 1978, did not live up to its promise of lower fares, more flights and better service.

Quite the opposite, said Gless, who affirmed that “deregulation brought us uncertainty and upheaval that is still with us today.”

Gless said that deregulation imposed three major periods of concessionary contracts to the workers, including 1981-1984, 1993-1995, and 2002- 2006, resulting in layoffs and outsourcing, two and in some cases three-tiered pay scales, part time jobs, and a general acrimonious bargaining climate.

Gless concluded that TWU and American labor will aggressively fight further deregulation as part of the new U.S.-European “open skies” agreement. “In the past, government assurances and ‘protections’ have proven to be illusions,” said Gless. “Lessons of deregulation are clear.

Open skies negotiators on both sides of the table must look beyond low fares and more service. They must consider the workers who provide that service. They must be protected and valued as an integral part of civil aviation’s future.”

Recently elected officers of TWU Local 1400, which represents employees of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were sworn into office this month. In photo, standing from the left are: International Administrative Vice President Hubert Snead, and Local Exec. Bd. members Greg Banks, Rhonda Keitt, Patrick Reynolds, Mike Prulello and Joe Natole. Seated left to right are: Recording Secretary Kim Whitfield, President Jerome Lafragola, Vice President Peter Basile, Secretary Treasurer Robert Higgins, and Exec. Bd. member Dorinda Hendersen.
 

Hundreds of Union Activists Honor Dr. King As President Obama Takes Historic Oath of Office

The AFL-CIO’s annual commemoration of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. took on added significance this year with the swearing-in a few days later of Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American President.

Despite the pull of being in Washington for the inauguration, more than 800 participants – including a contingent of TWU members — attended the annual King Day celebration in New Orleans. Traditionally marked by service to the community, the MLK weekend (January 15-19) dove-tailed with Obama’s call to honor King with community service. Visiting activists joined with hundreds of area union members to roll up their sleeves in more than 20 different community service projects in a city that continues to suffer three years later from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Over two days, the activists helped repair an African American museum, churches and homes in hard-hit St. Bernard Parish.

TWU made a donation to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Ali James, Community Director of the food bank, gave TWU members a tour of the facility and explained its operation. Sandra Burleson, Director of TWU Civil/Human Rights Department, said it was a good feeling to know that TWU was helping out so many families in New Orleans that were in need.

In remarks during the King conference,TWU International President James C. Little told attendees that Obama’s election opens the door for more progressive economic and social policies, but workers must be vigilant in keeping the Obama White House and the new Congress focused on workers’ issues. President Little noted that TWU was the first AFL-CIO international union to back Obama’s candidacy.

Other speakers noted that King’s legacy could be honored by passing the Employee Free Choice Act and enforcing the nation’s laws aimed at protecting workers. In his lifetime, Dr. King preached that wage theft was wrong in biblical times, wrong during slavery and wrong in Memphis for the sanitation workers he was fighting for when he died.

The conference theme, “Civil Rights, Labor Rights—Turning America Around,” says it all, according to Richard Womack, former assistant to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

“We’re all about change, but change of a positive nature,” he said. “We can celebrate our victories, but we can’t forget that the battle goes on. Dr. King died to make this a better world for all of us and we can’t let that dream die.”

By electing a new president and Congress in November, working families helped restore the soul of the
nation and showed the world what it really means to be an American, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka said. He added that workers have a major role to play in resolving the nation’s economic crisis.

Trumka said even though union members did not cause this crisis, “we’re the people who are going to lead America out of it. Because there’s only one way to rebuild the middle class in this country—only one way to protect and create jobs for all workers white and black—and it’s not by bailing out banks. It’s through organizing, it’s through unionizing, and it’s through collective bargaining. That’s what helped lift America out of the last depression, and that’s the only thing that’s going to end this one.”

Trumka said President Obama’s election is “a milestone; but it’s not the finish line.” While “his election says a lot about how far America has come, it doesn’t mean that we still don’t have a long, long way to go.”

Trumka urged unionists to take a moment during the inauguration “to remember the real Dr. King. Because if we do, I think we’ll hear him tell us that Barack Obama’s election isn’t an achievement to rest on, but a victory to build on.”

Stimulus, Employee Free Choice Act Top Labor’s Busy Legislative Agenda 

After getting the cold shoulder from the Bush White House for eight years, labor is expecting a warmer climate in Washington for its legislative agenda. In addition to a friendlier President, the new Democratic-run 111th Congress has larger pro-worker majorities. 

While the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and a massive stimulus bill top the legislative list, there are a number of other issues that seriously impact working families.

(Labor has already secured one victory with passage of the Lilly Ledbetter bill to restore the right of workers – women, minorities and others – to sue firms for pay discrimination at any time, not just in their first 180 days on the job.) 

The bill (EFCA) is designed to help level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing and bargain•ing, but corporate America and its right-wing backers want no part of that. 

Labor’s legislative strategists realize EFCA won’t come up until later in the year. In the meantime, unionists are conducting a massive 16-state campaign to counter an all-out attack against the legislation. The bill is designed to help level the playing field between workers and bosses in organ•izing and bargaining (see sidebar on page 9), but corporate America and its right-wing backers want no part of that. As departing Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, head of the nation’s largest, anti-worker firm, said, the present sys•tem has “us in the driver’s seat” and “we won’t yield the wheel.”

Labor knows it needs more GOP backers to pass EFCA and hopes to drum up support among the public, who are being bombarded with right-wing propa•ganda about the sanctity of secret ballot elections. (EFCA would allow for certification of a union when a majority of workers sign authorization cards.) 

Stimulus Bill 

“The major priority is the big eco•nomic recovery bill,” costing $500 bil•lion to $1 trillion over two years, AFL•CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel told Press Associates Union News Service. 

“This is a longer-than-normal reces•sion,” Samuel says. “So the govern•ment could commit resources to proj•ects that could be ready in six months, nine months or a year,” besides focus•ing on immediate needs.Pieces of the stimulus bill, which Obama aides and congressional Democratic leaders are working on, would include: 

 

• Extended and expanded jobless benefits. With unemployment at 7.2% and expected to continue upwards, Samuel says the extension will be a part of the stimulus package. Long-term, Congress needs to revamp the unemployment insurance program so it cov•ers more jobless people, and aids them more.  Only one-third of the unem•ployed now get benefits, he points out. 

   

 

•  

  Infrastructure projects, and specifically those projects that not only help rebuild the nation’s roads, transporta•tion systems, bridges and schools, cre•ating tens of thousands of jobs, but also make them “greener” and enhance energy efficiency. 

   

 

•  

  Aid to state and local govern•ments, especially to help them shoulder health care costs.  This is one of the shorter-term items in the stimulus package, and one of the most pressing.  The states face a mountain of rising Medicaid bills and declining revenues as more people lose jobs and health care.  Additional funds for mass transit in the economic recovery plan would also protect the jobs of many TWU members. 

   

Health Care 

After the stimulus bill and the Employee Free Choice Act will come another big battle for workers and their allies: health care reform.  

“The incoming administration is taking health care seriously,” Samuel said. “Our principles tend to mirror what the president-elect has announced: Access for all, affordability, and workers will have a choice of their own doctors.” 

But like the fight over EFCA — where business is marshaling millions in its advertising campaign against the labor law — neither Samuel nor unions underestimate the wealth and guile of the health insurance companies, the nation’s most-profitable industry.  They’re determined to beat health care reform. 

Obama doesn’t underestimate them, either. His Administration is expected to convene nationwide town hall meetings and use the Internet to mobilize support for revising health care, which is one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Other items on labor’s agenda include: 

 

• Collective bargaining rights for public safety workers. A key cause of the Fire Fighters, this will be a top item on the AFL-CIO’s agenda, too, says Samuel. The House passed it last Congress, but a Senate GOP “fili•buster-by-amendments” killed it. 

   

 

•  

  Rewriting Bush’s No Child Left Behind education law, which both Obama and the nation’s two teachers unions strongly criticize for its rigidity, its tilt to private schools and its “teach•to-the-test” mandate – as well as for lack of funding. 

   

 

•  

  Using the Congressional Review Act, which lets Congress kill agency rules within 60 days of “finality,” against some of Bush’s “midnight rules.”  Samuel says a top candidate for CRA use is a Bush rule that makes it harder for workers to show they’ve been exposed to toxic chemicals on the job. Women’s groups are pondering how to overturn Bush’s rules weaken•ing the Family and Medical Leave Act. 

   

 

•  

  Enacting paid sick leave and also the “Respect Act,” legislation overturn•ing the Bush National Labor Relations Board’s “workers are supervisors” ruling. 

   

Local 234 Opens Contract Negotiations For 5,000 in Philadelphia Transit System

Saying that Local 234 “wants a new, more cooperative relationship with SEPTA,” President Willie Brown opened negotiations December 16 with Philadelphia’s mass transit authority. He said the new relationship must be “one that gives the members of Local 234 — the people who move Philadelphia and this region — the respect and dignity they deserve.”

After the formal opening before Christmas, the pace of the talks picked up in January as the parties work towards a March 15 expiration date. The contract, covering close to 5,000 operators and mechanics, will set the pattern for negotiations with SEPTA’s other unions.

Brown said in a statement that as ridership has increased and state funding has improved, “it is clear that we are entering negotiations at a time when the authority is positioned to expand and improve service to the riding public.”

The Local 234 leader was joined at the negotiations by Executive Vice President Brian Pollitt, Secretary- Treasurer Joe Coccio, and the other elected officers of Local 234.

Brown said that in order to improve service levels for the riding public and work more cooperatively with the union, SEPTA needs to change its longstanding management culture in contract negotiations. “They need to move away from the tired old confrontational tactics of past talks and instead adopt a more cooperative approach that enables both SEPTA and our Union to achieve common goals,” he said.

The TWU bargaining team said that Local 234 wants to help the process of improving service, but added: “We are looking for a true partnership, not window dressing.”

Brown noted that Local 234 members and the riders of the system are the two constants in the service equation. “Our members run the transit system, so they know how to make it more efficient,” he said. “SEPTA would better service the riding public if they engaged Local 234 members in a cooperative effort to improve service instead of looking at us as the enemy.”

In addition to making a case for wage and benefit improvements, the TWU negotiators also pledged to address “the expensive sub-contracts, including maintenance and repair work on SEPTA vehicles, that our Local 234 members could have done right in the first place and at far less expense.”

Noting that members would be ready to strike if necessary (the union was forced to use that option 11 times in the past 33 years), Brown said members recognize that improving service to riders will also benefit them. “That is all the more reason why we need to settle this contract and get about the business of making SEPTA the best transit authority in the world,” he said. “We hope that SEPTA will join us in that effort.”

Much-Honored Winston-Salem Bus Driver Dies at Age 86

Clark Campbell, a member of TWU Local 248 and a bus driver in Winston- Salem, North Carolina for 62 years, died December 30. He was 86.

In March 2007, the city’s transportation center was named in his honor.

Campbell took a job at the Safe Bus Company in Winston- Salem during WWII. After two years on the job, veterans returning home from the war displaced Campbell as a mechanic. Faced with a layoff slip or a position as a Bus Operator, he chose driving and soon discovered that he loved it. At the time the transportation center was renamed, Campbell estimated that he logged more than three million miles behind the wheel. Although he officially retired in 1992, he continued driving part-time until 2006.

Campbell remained on the active driver list until he died, the Winston-Salem Transit Authority said in a statement.

“It is difficult to express in words what Mr. Campbell meant to the WSTA,” said Art Barnes, the transit authority’s general manager. “Mr. Campbell’s passing marks the end of an era at WSTA.”

Although Campbell was unable to attend the renaming ceremony in 2007, his family, friends and local officials were out in force. TWU International Rep. J.W. Johnson was among the speakers.

The center was the first building in downtown Winston- Salem to be named for anAfrican-American. The flag at Campbell Transportation Center was flown at half-staff on the day of his funeral.

During the 2007 ceremony, Campbell’s wife Christine recalled his devotion to the job. “Clark loves this company and everybody in it. You are all his family, just as much as these are his family,” she said pointing to a section with his five children and numerous grandchildren.

State Rep. Larry Womble, who spearheaded the drive to rename the center, said, “To many of us, he was a parent, a friend, a guardian and an angel.”

 It’s really touching to see employers so worried about workers having the right to vote in secret ballot representation elections. The same folks who have been telling workers to “take it or leave it” for years are portraying the labor-backed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which promotes card check certifi•cation, as anti-democratic and practically un-American.

The difference, of course, is that with a new administration and Congress, EFCA has a good chance of passing this year. President Obama has supported the legislation in the past and has pledged to make it a pri•ority of his administration. But, opposition from the right-wing, anti-worker crowd is going to be fierce. 

As the battle heats up, you’ll hear a lot of rhetoric on talk radio and in the other conservative media about the sanctity of secret ballot elections and “the American way.” Just ask yourself one question: Why is the Chamber of Commerce chorus suddenly singing about workers’ rights?

The real issue is how we can restore the freedom of working people to make their own decision about joining together to bargain for better wages and working conditions. Until working people can exercise a free choice, they will continue to lose power in our country, living standards will continue to suffer and our middle class will continue to decline. Workers need a real choice. They don’t have it now.

I’m reminded of the great civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph who understood that civil rights without economic rights were somewhat meaningless. What good is the right to attend any school if you can’t afford the tuition?

The fact is our legal system no longer protects workers’ right to join a union. By the time employees get to vote, the environment has been so poisoned that free and fair choice isn’t an option. Corporations control the information workers can receive and rou•tinely sabotage the process by intimidating, harassing, coercing and even firing people who try to organize unions. No employee has free choice after being browbeaten by a supervisor to oppose the union or being told they might lose their job and livelihood if workers vote for the union. 

Cornell University scholar Kate Bronfenbrenner stud•ied hundreds of organizing campaigns and found that:

• Ninety-two percent of private-sector employers, when faced with employees who want to join together in a union, force employees to attend closed-door meetings to hear anti-union propaganda; 80 percent require supervisors to attend training sessions on attacking unions; and 78 percent require that supervisors deliver anti-union messages to workers they oversee.

• Seventy-five percent hire outside consultants to run anti-union campaigns, often based on mass psychology and distorting the law.

• Half of employers threaten to shut down partially or totally if employees form a union.

• In 25 percent of organizing campaigns, private-sector employers illegally fire workers because they want to form a union.

• Even after workers successfully form a union, in one-third of the instances, employers do not negotiate a contract. 

Majority sign-up is a democratic process. Workers can essentially vote to have a union by signing an authorization card. If they don’t sign a card, they are presumed to be against the union and it would be illegal to coerce anyone to sign a card. The Employee Free Choice Act will also prevent employers from indefinitely dragging out negotiations by imposing mandatory arbitration at some point.  Sounds fair to me and a lot better than the stacked-deck system we have now.

Despite Faltering Economy, Unions Were Able to Add Members Last Year   Unions were on the run during most of the Bush years, making small or no gains in membership despite increased organizing activities. 

Then, the economy began a sharp decline last year. Against those odds, union membership increased significantly in 2008, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) annual report released in January.

The unionized share of the U.S. workforce climbed to 12.4 percent last year from 12.1 percent in 2007, an addition to union rolls of 428,000 members.

While the gains were broadly shared across demographic lines and occupations, growth was strongest in the public sector, among Hispanics, and in Western states, driving the largest membership increase in more than a quarter of a century.

The bulk of the overall membership rise in 2008 originated in public sector unions, which added members faster than government employment expanded. Public sector unionization last year grew to 36.8 percent from 35.9 percent in 2007. This increase of about 275,000 members came largely through gains in local and state government, where unionization in 2008 reached 42.2 percent and 31.6 percent, respectively. 

Even Private Sector Gains

While overall employment in the private sector shrank in 2008, few major industries or occupations saw unionization rates decline. Small drops in unionization in financial and business services and in mining were more than offset by membership gains in education, health, and hospitality services. As a result, private-sector unionization rose from 7.5 percent in 2007 to 7.6 percent in 2008.

Since the late 1970s, unions have consistently represented more than one-third of the public-sector workforce, but over the same period private-sector union membership has been falling sharply: about one•in-five private sector workers were union members in the late 1970s, compared to about one-in-thirteen in 2008.

Union membership in manufacturing remained essentially unchanged at 11.4 percent in 2008, compared to 11.3 percent in 2007. Once considered the bulwark of the labor movement, manufac•turing workers are now less likely than workers in the rest of the economy to be a union member. A “union job” in the private sector today is most likely to be in transportation and utilities (22.2 percent) or telecommunications (19.3 percent).

More Hispanics Join

More than 120,000 Hispanics became union members in 2008, with their membership rate rising to 10.6 percent from 9.8 percent in 2007. Membership among African-Americans increased from 14.3 percent to 14.5 percent. Among whites, unionization rose from 11.8 percent to 12.2 percent. The overall female and male membership rates rose by less than half a percentage point each, to 11.4 percent and 13.4 percent, respectively.

Unionization also increased in mid-western states, from 13.8 percent to 14.3 percent, yet failed to match the rapid pace of expansion in the West, where unionization grew from 14.7 percent to 15.7 percent. Since 2006, unionization has surged in Western states. California alone added about 266,000 union members last year, raising its unionization rate to 18.4 percent from 16.7 percent in 2007. Over the last three years, union membership in the South has remained at 5.9 percent, less than half of the national average. 

The membership gains in 2008 stand out even more because they occurred while the economy was contracting. The gain of 428,000 is the largest on record since 1983, the first year for which comparable data are available. Except for last year’s increase and a small uptick in 2007, union membership has otherwise fallen or stagnated annually from 20.1 percent in 1983.

Among states, New York had the highest union membership rate (24.9 percent) and North Carolina had the lowest rate (3.5 percent). 

Demographic Characteristics

The union membership rate remained higher for men (13.4 percent) than for women (11.4 percent), but the gap has strongest in the public sector, among Hispanics, and in Western states, driving the largest membership increase in more than a quarter of a century. narrowed considerably since 1983, when the rate for men was about 10 percentage points higher than the rate for women.

In 2008, black workers were more likely to be union members (14.5 percent) than workers who were white (12.2 percent), Asian (10.6 percent), or Hispanic (10.6 percent).  Black men had the highest union membership rate (15.9 percent), while Asian men had the lowest rate (9.6 percent). 

By age, union membership rates were highest among workers 55 to 64 years old (16.6 percent) and 45 to 54 years old (16.0 percent).  The lowest union mem•bership rates occurred among those age 16 to 24 (5.0 percent).  Full-time workers were about twice as likely as part-time workers to be union members, 13.7 compared with 6.7 percent. 

Pay Advantage Continues

In 2008, among full-time wage and salary workers, union members had median weekly earnings of $886 while those who were not represented by unions had median weekly earnings of $691.  In 2008, 29 states and the District of Columbia had union membership rates below that of the U.S. average, 12.4 percent, while 20 states had higher rates, and 1 state had the same rate. Three states had union membership rates over 20 percent in 2008—New York (24.9 percent), Hawaii (24.3 percent), and Alaska (23.5 percent). The largest number of union members lived in California (2.7 million) followed by New York (2.0 million).  Other union dense states were Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio.

TWU members and officers from all regions made this past holiday season a little better for hundreds of needy children and their families.  This page provides a small sampling of the good wishes and new toys collected, purchased and distributed to different locations thanks to the generosity of TWU people. 

Photos here show just some of the activities of Local 234 in Philadelphia and Local 100 in New York.

Local 234 volunteers and officers purchased nearly $2,500 worth of toys from a Toys R Us store in South Philadelphia. They were then loaded onto a truck and in the backs of cars for distribution at the People’s Emergency Center on North 39th St.  Photos, above right, show a group shot of volunteers at the Center, with Santa (Local 234 member ‘Saint’ Nicholas Lutz) and Local 234 President Willie Brown.

Also, volunteers unloading truck at center.

In New York, Local 100 members and officers from OA and TA Maintenance deliv•ered toys to cen•ters in the Bronx and Manhattan. Shown here (below right) are photos taken at a day care center on 100th St. and Lexington Ave. (across the street from a major TWU bus depot) and at Covenant House for homeless and abused mothers and their children.

TWU stalwart Charles W. “Charley” Fox, former President of Air Transport Division Local 502 and a retired International Representative, passed away Jan. 14, 2009 at his home in Agoura Hills, CA. He was 88. 

A member of “The Greatest Generation,” Charley served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was stationed throughout the West Pacific theatre and saw action in Luzon, New Guinea and the Philippines. He won two bronze stars for bravery and a medal commemorating the libera•tion of the Philippines. Originally from Syracuse, NY, he settled in California after the War, and attended Northrop Aeronautical Institute on the GI bill. After graduating in 1951, he went to work for American Airlines and joined Local 502 in Los Angeles.

He got involved with union worked immediately, serving as a shop steward from 1951 to 1954 when he was elected to the Local’s Executive Board.  The membership elected him Local 502 President 1956, a post he held until 1968 when he was named an International Representative for the West Coast.

Charley retired in 1983, but remained active in TWU, helping Local 502 and several other Locals set up retiree associations.

His daughter, Carol, told the Express that her father never lost his love of political action, and regularly volunteered his time for local and statewide candidates until well into the ‘90’s.  At right, this 1955 photo shows Charley addressing a meeting of a CIO legislative conference in Los Angeles. Below (circa 1968), Charley with then International President Matthew Guinan (center) and Jim Horst, long-time Director of the TWU Air Transport Division (left). 

She also said: “My father loved TWU, the labor movement and the ideals it was built on. He loved avi•ation, and he really loved fighting for the men and women he worked with. He believed that everyone should work hard (that’s what he told the kids) and that everyone should have equal rights, dignity, a voice, equitable pay and good working conditions. He believed in a fair deal, an excellent contract and legislation that protects workers.”

Brother Fox is survived by his wife of 62 years, Elizabeth; sons Glenn and James; daughters Carol Fox and Catherine Fox Anderson; grandson Benjamin Charles Fox Anderson; a sister and brother-in•law, as well as family in the Syracuse area and North Carolina.

This column is devoted to a simple message that is valuable at all stages of the grievance procedure. When you go into a grievance meeting with the employer, go in with another union officer. In law, this tactic is sometimes referred to as the second chair.

Lawyers will often take a paralegal into a hearing to serve as the note-taker or the second chair. You should too. 

Chiefly, the second chair will take the union notes at a grievance presentation or a disciplinary hearing.  This practice allows for the union advocate to question witnesses, present information, object to employer questions or actions, and generally follow the union strategy at the meeting.

Note-taking has been the subject of a few of these columns. What is most important is that by having a second chair present, the union advocate is freed of the task of keeping an accurate record of the meeting while trying at the same time to take an active role in the meeting. The union advocate may come into the room with a checklist of questions that she/he wants to ask. During the course of the meeting, she/he may need to ask other questions that arise out the evidence presented. It is a lot to ask of one person to do all of this and keep a written record of the proceedings. That is why if a grievance officer must perform both roles, he/she is always advised to slow the meeting down.

I have often heard of alternatives that have been suggested by the company. Chief among them is their proposal to share their notes with the union. The problem with “their notes” is that there is no guarantee of the accuracy of the notes. And by accepting “their notes” as a record of the meeting, the union may put itself in a compromising posi•tion over what was really said and how it was said. The second point of tone is also important because how a phrase is said is equally as important as the words chosen.

In railroad disciplinary hearings, some employers bring in someone to take down an official transcript of the meeting. The hearing officer will then present the record of proceeding to the union for verification. Even in these cases, you want to be able to take your own notes just in case the reporter misses something such as a union objection or the hostile way a question was asked. 

A company may offer to tape record the meeting. Such a suggestion may be illegal in some states or may present other problems in case of a mechanical failure of the machine. Try to rely on the note-taking process. It is safer. 

Some of our contracts already provide for a second chair. On the American Airlines system, the 2001 contract has language guaranteeing that the union can bring in an individual, to act solely in the capacity of a “scribe.” Other contracts allow for more than one union representative at grievance and disciplinary meetings. Under those circumstances, the union should take that opportunity to assign note-taking to the other individual. 

Even in cases where contract language is silent, the union should try to take that second chair into the meeting. Some employers may object, but others have been unfazed by the union bringing in a note-taker. A strong case can be made to the employer that it is in the employer’s interest to make sure the meeting has the appearance of fairness. 

The second chair has three roles, most prominent of which is note-taking. The second chair should also act as a buffer between the grievant and the advocate. The grievant should not distract the advocate while he/she is talking. If there is to be communication, it should be via notes so there is always only one chair of the union committee. That brings up the third role. You should bring pads and pens to the meeting and lay the ground rules out among the union team ahead of time. Once everyone is sure of their role and the means of communicating with each other at the meeting, the union will present a strong and efficient team.

By a solid 5-1 majority, Local 208 members okayed a new three-year agreement with the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) in Columbus. 

The union was able to negotiate annual wage increases of three percent, as well as a big jump in the starting rate for new drivers. The wage package was especially satisfying in the current economic climate. 

The union was able to hold the line on medical costs to the membership, and actually achieved a decrease in the dental deductible. They secured a good vision benefit as well. 

The union further scored with significant improvements in the uniform and tool allowances, and a hike in the meal allowance. 

Management backed away from its usual demand for part-timers.  “We have always stood strong against part-time work.  There’s no such thing as a part-time family,” said Local 208 President Theotis James, who headed up negotiations.

A new year is always a time for new beginnings. And that will be true for our COPE program this year, following the retirement of our longtime COPE Director Peggy Olstein-Wiedman.

Peggy guided this vital union effort for more than 20 years, in the process vastly increasing its visibility and relevance. Every dollar raised went to assure that our members’ interests were represented in the political halls of power.

Peggy will be a tough act to follow. But, that’s what I’ll be doing as interim Director while I continue my role as International Administrative Vice President. For those who don’t know me, I have most recently been Director of the Transit, Utility, Universities and Service Division, overseeing contracts at 37 properties across the nation.

A native of Columbus, Ohio, I came to TWU in 1971 as a Bus Operator with the Central Ohio Transit Authority and member of TWU Local 208. I started representing workers as a Shop Steward in 1972 and was elected to the Local union’s Executive Board in 1974. I was subsequently elected Local Recording Secretary, Transportation Vice President and finally President of Local 208 in 1988. (In that role, I always reminded members and management that “A Bus is Nothing Without US!”)

During the years at my Local I came to understand the importance of politics in the everyday lives of our members. The saying “What’s won at the bargaining table can be lost at the ballot box” has never been truer. That’s why when I joined the TWU International Staff in 1997, I began to work with Peggy to expand our COPE presence in the locals I supervised. That effort stepped up when I was named Director of the Transit Division in 2004.

As interim COPE Director, I hope to take our participation in this vital program to a new level.

Nobody is prouder than I am that Barack Obama is our first African-American President and that TWU was among the first unions to support him. I served on the Rules Committee for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and was an elected Obama delegate from Ohio.

As much faith as I have in President Obama, he can’t do it alone. From Wall Street to the streets of Main Street America, institutions were turned on their heads in 2008. At times it seemed the only thing out numbering for sale signs popping up on lawns across the United States was workers in the same communities being handed pink slips.

While we finally have a friend in the White House, the times will still be treacherous for America’s working families. This is why we can’t sit back and enjoy Obama’s victory. We have to redouble our COPE efforts to make sure workers have a say in who benefits from the economic recovery. Will it be the same corporations and wealthy individuals who got us in this mess, or will it be the decent folks who struggle every day to make a living for their families?

In the coming months we will be rolling out a new COPE club to go along with the existing ones so that we can improve on our overall COPE donations from members. Let’s give it our best in 2009 to truly make an historic turnaround in our country. Our members, their families and our communities are counting on us.

TWU recognized two great managers from Southwest Airlines late last year with a special honorary life mem•bership in TWU’s three Southwest Locals (555, 556 and 550). The union cited long time CEO Herb Kelleher and Colleen Barrett, Director of In-Flight operations. The union’s testimonial to Kelleher credited the now retired executive for his “unparalleled leadership in creating a magnificent air•line and a generation of employees who love coming to work.” The union simi•larly praised Colleen Barrett “for a career of fairness and support for the unionized workers at Southwest Airlines. We love our work•place due to your efforts.”

After receiving the award, Kelleher and Barrett said the following in a joint thank you letter: “Thank you for a great reception and for the greatest honor either of us have ever received.  The Honorary Life Memberships that you conferred on us will proudly hang at the entrance to each of our offices so that they are the first thing that each of us and our visitors see each day. The inscriptions on each plaque are moving and memorable and also reflect the way we feel about all the employees and TWU members at Southwest.”

Local 260 members overwhelmingly approved a new collective bargaining agreement with Houston’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority 686-90. Ballots were counted on January 14, 2009. The members had turned down an earlier offer late last year. 

The package provides an 8.1 percent wage increase over the three-year period, as well as an 11 percent boost in the pension benefit. According to Local 260 President Sandra Burleson, the pension hike is the largest in memory.

The Local also held the line on longevity pay, and negotiators secured an increase in the management contribution to the health plan. 

Burleson thanked her Executive Board and International Vice President John Bland for their help during the process.

All AA Contract Groups Now Under Federal Intervention  

Every contract group at American Airlines is now in federal mediation after TWU’s Mechanics and Related groups, and the TWU Technical Specialists declared impasse and filed for mediation on Jan. 26. 

They join the Pilots Union, the Flight attendant union, and all of TWU’s other work groups, includ•ing Fleet Service, Stock Clerks, Simulator Pilot and Ground School Instructors, Flight Simulator Technicians and TWU Flight Dispatchers, in mediation. The Pilots Union has been in mediation the longest period of time, having filed in April of last year.

TWU has been in negotiation with American for the better part of a year.

In characterizing talks for all of TWU’s contract groups with the carrier, ATD Director John Conley said last month that TWU negotiators came to the table with an open mind to the company’s position in a recessionary economy.  “We negotiated with a full understanding of industry challenges; we considered forward looking seminal contract changes while protecting and enhanc•ing the economic interests of our members.”

However, American had other ideas. “The Company came to the table with demands that were short sighted, unrealistic, impotent efforts to achieve what other carriers could only execute in a bankruptcy court room,” said Conley. 

Negotiations with all the contract groups seemed to be poisoned from the outset because of management’s decision to award itself millions in bonuses while the unionized groups continued to work under concessionary agreements reached in the wage of the 9/11 terrorists attacks. ATD Director Conley would not speculate on time lines for mediation. But he did acknowledge that the multiple steps of mediation that eventually lead up to releasing the parties to self help (legal strike for the union, or imposed contract terms by the company) can be quite lengthy.

International President James C. Little and New York State Senate Democratic Majority Leader Malcolm Smith were among the speakers at this year’s Local 100 mass membership meeting at the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.

President Little thanked the big crowd of 2,500 members for their efforts in helping elect President Barack Obama and other labor-friendly candidates. And he outlined the many challenges facing TWU and the labor movement in the months ahead.

Much of the meeting focused on the Local’s fight to remain financially stable during the 17-month period without dues checkoff as punishment for the 2005 transit strike.

The Local presented a series of awards to a number of division officers for outstanding work during the loss of checkoff. Secretary Treasurer Ed Watt reported that, when checkoff was restored, 60 percent of members had paid all or almost all of their dues and 92 percent had made some payment. In all, the Local collected 70 percent of the total dues during the period without checkoff.

Obama praises workers “who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.”

President Barack Obama’s inaugural address praised the nation’s workers, but also laid out stark challenges they — and the country – face.  And he also made it very clear he intends to end the ideological warfare of the last two decades — conflict that cost workers their rights, their income and, increasingly, their jobs under former President Bush. 

Obama took the oath of office at   12:04 p.m., Jan. 20, before an estimated 1.8 million people stretching from the West Front of the Capitol all the way down the miles of the Mall in Washington to the Lincoln Memorial at its farthest end.

Hundreds of thousands more lined Pennsylvania Avenue for his inaugural parade, which included 265 unionists and their own pro-worker float. 

“On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics” in past years.

“In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given.  It must be earned.  Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path of the fainthearted, for those who prefer leisure over work or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor — who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom,” he declared. 

Obama made it clear in his address that his administration would try to serve those people, and not the rich and influential. And he warned cynics, whom he did not name, that their time has passed. 

Obama urged the 111th Congress to pass his $825 billion stimulus package to help stave off rising joblessness and state fiscal crises.

“The question we ask today is not whether government is too big or too small, but whether it works, whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford and a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is ‘yes,’ we intend to move forward.  Where the answer is ‘no,’ programs will end,” Obama stated. 

Obama had a stern warning for Wall Street as well.

“This crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control.  The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.”

“The success of our economy has depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity, on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart, not out of charity, but because it is our surest route to the common good,” he explained. Obama also said “greed and irresponsibility” caused the economic slump.

But Obama also summoned workers, and citizens, to sacrifice for the common good. Early in the speech, he warned the country would finally have to face some hard choices “and unpleasant decisions” in “the task of remaking America.” He did not specify what they would be, but he previously said his administration would convene a task force to examine the future funding of the nation’s large entitlement programs.

And late in the speech, he praised workers for being willing to sacrifice for the greater good: “It is a kindness to take in the stranger when the levees break,” he said, as they did when Hurricane Katrina smashed New Orleans.

He also cited “the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job” and “the firefighters’ courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke” — as New York Fire Fighters did during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks

International Conducts 15th Annual New Officer Training

Toll collectors from the Port Authority, aircraft mechanics from Tulsa, flight dispatchers from Dallas, and railroad carmen from Harrisburg all joined together to share the same learning experience at the 15th annual TWU New Officers Training seminar held in January.  Twenty-seven TWU officers came to the National Labor College to learn how they could do their jobs better.

Starting from the first night when TWU’s Education and Research Director Bob Wechsler taught a class on history called “TWU: Who we are and how we got here,” participants began to understand how the TWU functions and why their leadership role is so important.  They viewed a 1961 debate between founding President Mike Quill and Congressman Fred Hartley, the author of the restrictive Taft-Hartley Act. 

The curriculum is designed to provide a hands-on learning experience so that much of the time in class is spent on practicing the skills that are taught.  In the communications class, for example, one officer spoke before a simulated executive board to persuade the board to appropriate funds for a new members’ orientation to improve outreach to new employees.

As each officer sat through classes on leadership, planning, communications, and building membership involvement, he or she also worked on a project that will be brought back to the local union for possible implementation. This project was presented to the group as a whole and to the instructors for comment. 

Adding to the instruction and solidarity was the cooperation between all divisions in a 100 percent union setting, the AFL-CIO’s training center in Silver Spring, Maryland. David Alexander and Gene Morrill, from the College staff, taught sections of the program.  On hand from TWU were Railroad Division Director Gary Maslanka, Assistant Air Transport Division Director Robert Gless, International Representative Gary Shults, Legislative and Political Affairs Director Portia Reddick White, and Administrative Vice President Susan Resch, director of the Transit Division.  Education and Research Director Bob Wechsler put the program together. 

Summarizing the impact of the week’s activities, a newly-elected officer said, “ This has been a week of my life I will never forget. Thank you.”

Class participants included Reggie McCray (Local 200); Rhonda Keitt and Greg Banks (Local 1400); Jerry Lorraine (Local 2001), Brian Kelly and Peter Petrovich (Local   Admin.VP Susan Resch (left) chats with Melanie Matway of Local 542.  2016); Farrior Braswell (Local 2055); Donny Tyndall and Steve Marr (Local 502); Robert Todd (Local 505), Albert Hart (Local 507), Scott Capener and Chris Gibson (Local 514), Michael Young (Local 521), Earl Smith (Local 541), Melanie Matway and John Matthews (Local 542), Mike Connor and Terry Pendergass (Local 550), Ralph Darnell and Juan Cordova (Local 555), Audrey Stone (Local 556), Russ Dittmer (Local 563), Bill Houseman (Local 564), Gary Schaible and Jerry Mishak (Local 565), and Andrew Rangolan (Local 570).

The Employee Free Choice Act is needed to level the playing field between employers and their workers who want to have a union. Under current law, 100% of workers could sign authorization cards and the boss could still refuse to recognize the union. 

Today, firms routinely stall elections while they use anti-union consultants and a variety of tactics (such as thinly-veiled threats to close the plant) to weaken support for the union. EFCA would require union recognition if a majority of workers sign authorization cards. 

Even when a union wins an election, the company often drags out negotiations. One-third of new bargaining units never get a contract. EFCA would mandate binding arbitration if an agreement is not reached in 120 days. The law would also toughen penalties on employers who violate their workers’ rights. 

Passage of EFCA is more than a fairness issue for current union members. Everyone will benefit if more workers can join unions. Without “union density,” the ability to achieve wage and benefit improvements is limited.

(For more on the battle to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, see Sec’y Treas. Joe Gordon’s column on page 23).

The fate of working Americans got a boost before inauguration day, when President-elect Barack Obama created a new high-level White House Taskforce on Working Families. The taskforce got added luster when he put Vice President Joseph Biden at the helm. Biden immediately held late-December meetings with top Obama economic advisors, discussing the problems workers face.

AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney cheered Obama’s move, noting the Biden-led task force would have a full agenda to tackle.

“The economy is in meltdown, real wages and incomes…have been stagnant or eroding for decades, savings and home values have plummet•ed and our nation’s health care and retirement security systems are in dire need of reform,” Sweeney said.  “We look forward to working with Biden and other members of the task force to address these daunting challenges.”  Obama said the taskforce would

With the national and New York City economies in a free fall, the Local 100 Executive Board has decided to submit all unresolved contractual issues, including wages, to binding arbitration under the state Public Employees Relation Board.

Local 100 President Roger Toussaint explained that some early negotiating progress hit the skids when Wall Street and the economy began tanking in the fall.

The decision to arbitrate is not a precedent.  The 1982 agreement (the first contract after the 1980 transit strike) was sent to arbitration during a similar economic recession.  And three years ago, an arbitrator was needed to enforce terms of negotiated settlement on management.

In announcing the union’s decision, President Toussaint said: “I have taken every step available to limit our exposure to any decision that would damage our interests.”

Toussaint added that while the arbitration process moves forward, Local 100 would step up its efforts to halt service cuts, token booth closings and fare hikes.  “This will entail a media campaign in television, radio, print and internet and political action, as well as mobilization at key bus and subway hubs,” said Toussaint.

Transportation labor has high hopes for President Obama’s recently confirmed Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood.

AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) President Ed Wytkind said that the former seven-term Republican Congressman from Illinois is a “strong leader,” and that “Americans should feel confident that the President has placed the nation’s vast transportation system and infrastructure in the hands of a highly skilled and capable public servant with a distinguished record of service.”

Wytkind went on to say: "Secretary LaHood inherits an enormous responsibility.  Our transportation infrastructure is crumbling; the rights and jobs of transportation workers have been neglected and undermined; and the safety and security of the system are severely challenged.”

During his years in Congress, LaHood built a strong bipartisan reputation, and he was co-founder of the Congressional Bipartisan Caucus.  Sen. John McCain praised LaHood, saying: "He has always fought for the best interests of our nation—recognizing that bipartisan compromises often provide the best solutions to the problems facing our country.”

The Transportation Department is a major focal point for President Obama’s economic recovery package.

"Through the economic recovery package and major authorization and spending bills, Secretary LaHood will oversee crucial transportation investments that will help revive the economy, put millions of Americans back to work, and lay to rest eight years of neglect and inaction that have harmed our national interest,” concluded TTD’s Wytkind.

"We look forward to working with the President and Secretary LaHood to restore our transportation system as an engine of economic growth and job creation."

LaHood is the only Republican in the Cabinet who is not a holdover from the Bush Administration.

TWU mourned the unexpected passing this month of Local 540 President David Durkin.

Brother Durkin had served the Local for more than 20 years, the past decade as its top officer.  The Local represents Flight Dispatchers, Meteorolgists and Operational Control Specialists at 10 domestic carriers.

Brother Durkin, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, was introduced to TWU during his career as a Meteorologist at United Airlines.

International Representative Gary Shults, who worked closely with Durkin during contract negotiations with the Local’s contracted carriers, said: “Dave’s love of people and his desire to help his co-workers is what drove him, and is why his members kept reelecting him.  The recent downturn in the industry, which has so negatively affected the jobs and economic security of the workers, really bothered him and I have no doubt contributed to his sudden death.”

Former co-worker at United, Henry P. "Hank" Krakowski, who is currently the Federal Aviation Administration’s Chief Operating Officer for America’s Air Traffic Control system, said: “David was one of the best aviation meteorologists I have ever seen.  He was an expert at convective thunderstorm weather and helped United’s flight operations deal well with the worst mother nature could throw at us.  He was passionate about weather, aviation and more importantly - people.  He sacrificed his time and energy to making the working life the best he could for his union constituents.  A very able negotiator and leader of people.”

Another co-worker at United, Dennis Michelsen, remembers: “Dave was a man who was the most brilliant storm forecaster in the aviation weather business I ever worked with but he never forgot to keep that balance in life and have fun every shift.”

Brother Durkin was born in Danbury, CT.  He attended Colby College in Maine, and has been a resident of Barrington, IL for many years.  He is survived by his wife, Carrie; son, Scott, and daughter, Emily.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of our union, a journey that began in the New York City subways in 1934 in the depths of the “Great Depression.”

Prior to 1934, numerous efforts to bring unionization to New York City transit workers had repeatedly failed, and strikes against the powerful transit companies were crushed in 1905, 1910, 1916 and 1919.

But, 75 years ago, the new effort lauched by a tight group of workers led by TWU’s dynamic founder Mike Quill, succeeded where others had failed. The companies were no less powerful than in years past.  In fact, because of the desperation of the times (for every job opening there were a reported 20,000 applicants) the companies had the workers under their thumbs like never before.

Quill had a deep belief in the equality of all workers, regardless of job title, race or ethnicity.  He recognized that the companies had successfully driven wedges into the workforce along those lines for decades, and he was determined not to allow the campaign to fall prey to prejudice or greed.

Quill, and a cadre of like-minded lieutenants, pounded home the message that the workers would never wield any power against the employers without being a truly unified workforce in an industrial style wall-to-wall union.

That simple, but powerful message was the foundation of TWU, and enabled the union to grow in New York and expand across the country.

Some years later, Quill would quip that it was easy to put everything on the line because he and his fellow workers didn’t have much to lose.  "We were so far down on the economic ladder, there was only one way to go," he used to joke.

Those times seem very distant, but TWU as an organization has never wavered from those founding principles.  And as we face the stern challenges of today, let us continue to be guided by them.

Moving Forward

At this writing, the House of Representatives had just passed President Obama’s stimulus package that, among other things, commits much needed funding toward the infrastructure of our transportation systems.  Curiously, not one Republican in the House voted for the measure, indicating that the GOP leadership didn’t get the message that the American people want an end to the political polarization of Washington.

The transportation infrastructure investments are a big part of President Obama’s pledge to create or save 3 million jobs. For every billion dollars invested in infrastructure, 47,000 good jobs are created.  And by investing in the country’s aging infrastructure, we not only put thousands of people to work but also address critical needs of meeting the nation’s future transportation needs.

Be that as it may, the bill is a vivid demonstration of why elections matter, and everyone in TWU who worked so hard to make Obama’s election a reality should feel particularly proud of their efforts.

Joining Working for America Institute Board

At the request of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, I have joined the Board of Directors of the Washington, D.C.-based Working for America Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating good-paying jobs and building strong communities.

Along with the other Board members—a coast-to-coast cross-section of American labor leaders—I will be working with President Obama’s new Working Families Task Force, which is headed up by Vice President Joe Biden. 

Our combined efforts will focus on green technology jobs, training and retraining for 21st century jobs, protection of pensions and job safety. 

I will be preaching that improving our transportation systems will play a major role in our nation’s economic recovery and new job creation, and is a critical component in achieving energy independence for America. 

This kind of cooperative effort between the labor movement and the White House would not have been possible under President Bush.  I will be doing my best to make the most of this opportunity for TWU families across the country.