Tag Archives: transport workers union

Southwest Airlines and TWU 555 reach a tentative agreement

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) has announced a new tentative agreement with Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 555, the union that represents more than 12,000 Southwest Ground Operations, Provisioning, and Cargo Agents. The Union’s Executive Board reviewed an Agreement in Principle that negotiators reached on December 23 and decided to conduct a ratification vote that could end more than four years of negotiations.

The Company said that the new contract not only improves wages and benefits, but it also enhances Southwest’s competitive standing within the industry.

Over the next few weeks, the Union will share the terms of the agreement with its members and conduct a ratification vote. If approved, the contract will become amendable in 2021.

Southwest operates a network of 97 destinations across the United States and seven additional countries with more than 3,900 departures a day during peak travel season.

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 737-3H4 N654SW (msn 28399) arrives at Los Angeles International Airport.

Southwest Airlines aircraft slide show:

Southwest Airlines reaches a tentative agreement with its flight attendants

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) has announced it has reached a tentative agreement with its Flight Attendants. Terms of the deal were not released, but the airline said they include wage increases, bonus opportunities, and work-rule adjustments.

According to the airline, Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants, represented by Transport Workers Union (TWU) 556, will be presented with the details of the agreement in the coming weeks, and members will have the opportunity to vote on ratification. The current contract became amendable May 31, 2013. If approved, the new agreement will run through May 2019.

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 737-8H4 N8662F (msn 36936) completes its final approach to the runway at Los Angeles International Airport.

Southwest Airlines:

Virgin America’s flight attendants to vote on unionization

Virgin America’ (San Francisco) flight attendants will vote on whether to unionize, according to a quoted official at the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and this report by Reuters.

Virgin America is the last major U.S. airline to be non-union. The airline expects the vote to fail by its 850 flight attendants.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Virgin America:

Horizon Air’s dispatchers approve the new contract

Horizon Air (Alaska Horizon) (Seattle/Tacoma) and the Transport Workers Union have jointly announced that the carrier’s 17 dispatchers have ratified a new four-year contract by a ratio of 82 percent.

Horizon Air and TWU reached tentative agreement on a new contract on March 19.

Under the Railway Labor Act, which governs collective bargaining agreements in the airline industry, contracts do not expire. Instead they become amendable. The ratified agreement for Horizon’s dispatchers becomes amendable on August 26, 2018.

Horizon Air is a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group and flies to 39 cities across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com. Bombardier DHC-8-402 (Q400) N400QX (msn 4030) in the special Idaho Vandals livery arrives in Los Angeles.

Alaska Horizon:

Horizon Air:

IAM defeats the Teamsters to represent the US Airways’ mechanics

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) (Washington) has issued this statement:

In a contest overseen by the Nation Mediation Board (NMB), the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) today soundly defeated the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) in an election to represent nearly 4,600 Mechanic and Related employees at US Airways (Phoenix). The IAM received 1,903 votes, or 58 percent of all votes cast in the five-week election, while the IBT received 1,418 votes, less than 42 percent.

“This victory marks an important milestone for the Mechanic and Related group at US Airways,” said IAM Transportation Vice President Sito Pantoja. “By voting for the Machinists Union our members safeguarded their pensions and seniority heading into the merger with American Airlines while rejecting the empty promises of an organization with a history of corruption.”

In addition to creating uncertainty regarding future representation, the year-long raid by IBT effectively suspended contract negotiations between US Airways and IAM, which has represented Mechanic and Related employees at US Airways since 1949.

“The election results will allow contract negotiations between the IAM and US Airways to resume without any further delay,” said IAM District 142 President Tom Higginbotham. “We remain convinced that the IBT never had support among mechanics at US Airways to get this election in the first place. We fully expect the NMB to thoroughly investigate the matter.”

In a separate IBT raid on more than 11,000 Mechanic and Related workers at American Airlines, the Transport Workers Union (TWU) presented testimony from former Teamster organizers who claimed that IBT organizing staff forged hundreds of election authorization cards. The NMB is currently investigating to determine if the IBT submitted enough valid cards to warrant an election at American Airlines.

The IAM is the world’s largest airline union and is the largest union at US Airways, representing over 14,000 Mechanic and Related, Fleet Service, Stockroom and Maintenance Training Specialists.

Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-132 N826AW (msn 1534) in the special Arizona livery prepares to arrives at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

US Airways:

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The Teamsters want to represent American’s ground workers, American-US Airways fight hard in Congress to keep all of the Reagan National slots

American Airlines‘ (Dallas/Fort Worth) ramp workers are currently represented by the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU). According to this article by Reuters, the Teamsters are ramping up their efforts to represent this group of workers. The National Mediation Board will determine which union will represent the workers through a vote.

Read the full article: CLICK HERE

In other news, over 100 members of Congress are now pressurizing the DOT and Justice Department to not require the new American Airlines (with US Airways) to give up any important slots at the pictured Washington Reagan National Airport for the pending merger according to Reuters. American Airlines and US Airways have been warning their members of Congress that any merger pre-conditions to give up at any slots at DCA could result in a lose of service from their districts to Washington.

Read the full article: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: Marcelo F. De Biasi/AirlinersGallery.com. Symbolically, American Airlines’ Boeing 737-823 WL N804NN (msn 29567) lands at the downtown Reagan National Airport with Washington’s Capitol Hill in the background.

American Airlines:

Is American Airlines now getting serious about a merger partner?

American Airlines (Dallas/Fort Worth), through the AMR Corporation, is under continued pressure from the unsecured creditors and the unions to consider a merger option while in bankruptcy court reorganization. AMR has stated it will now “reach out” to five prospective merger partners, namely Alaska Airlines, Frontier Airlines (2nd), JetBlue Airways, US Airways and Virgin America according to this report by Reuters. Is the “reaching out” a genuine gesture or just a stall tactic?

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Meanwhile, the Allied Pilots Association, representing AA’s 10,000 pilots called the announcement “an important milestone”.

The union issued the following statement:

“The Allied Pilots Association (APA), certified collective bargaining agent for the 10,000 pilots of American Airlines, characterized a letter from AMR Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tom Horton to all employees on potential industry consolidation involving American Airlines as “an important milestone.”

“Mr. Horton’s letter represents an important milestone by acknowledging what we have believed for some time—that consolidation involving American Airlines is essential for all of the airline’s stakeholders,” said APA President Captain Dave Bates. “It’s an affirmation that consolidation represents the most promising path for our airline’s future. The biggest remaining questions center on who manages the new entity and whether a merger occurs during AMR’s Chapter 11 restructuring or thereafter.”

In April, the APA leadership and US Airways management—along with the leaders of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants and Transport Workers Union—jointly announced their support for merging the two carriers. The unions also announced that they had negotiated conditional labor agreements with US Airways management.

Meanwhile, APA and AMR management have been engaged in negotiations throughout the restructuring process, with the APA board of directors voting to approve a tentative agreement with management on June 27. That tentative agreement is now subject to a ratification vote by the APA membership. The tentative agreement includes a 13.5 percent equity stake in the restructured airline.

“The 13.5 percent equity stake is intended to compensate APA as an unsecured creditor on behalf of the pilots we represent,” Captain Bates said. “If our members approve the tentative agreement, this equity stake would give APA significant influence over strategic decisions that will be made in the weeks and months to come concerning American Airlines, including the makeup of the new board of directors and management team.”

The results of the APA membership ratification vote will be announced on August 8.”

Is American now finally serious about a merger? In many ways, AMR still feels it is superior to any of these potential suitors. In some ways, AA management has still not gotten over the fact that they lead the company into bankruptcy. A merger will only work if AA approaches a potential marriage suitor as an equal partner. The “American” name is likely to survive, but like the recent Delta-Northwest and United-Continental mergers, the surviving name does not always equate to surviving management. In essence, current AA and AMR management could be fighting to keep their jobs.

American Airlines:

TWU Local 555 at Chicago Midway: Southwest wants to outsource some of our ramp work

Southwest Airlines‘ (Dallas) ramp workers at its Chicago (Midway) hub, represented by the Transport Workers Union (TWU), handed out leaflets yesterday (June 19) to passengers at MDW to explain their side in the continuing contract negotiations with the company that began in July 2011 but so far have resulted in little progress according to this article by CBS News.

TWU says Southwest wants the contract authority to replace up to 20 percent of the TWU workers with contract workers provided by (lower cost) independent contractors.

Is the beginning of the end of friendly labor relations at Southwest?

Read the full article: CLICK HERE

In other news, Southwest has begun retiring its 25 Boeing 737-500s (the first two – 513 and 519 have been retired).

Southwest Airlines:

Southwest’s dispatchers approve the new contract

Southwest Airlines (Dallas) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU) 550, representing the carrier’s more than 180 Dispatchers, announced today that the Dispatchers overwhelmingly ratified its tentative agreement with the Company. The agreement is for a new, five-year contract through November 2014. The previous contract became amendable November 2009.

In early 2011, Southwest sought assistance from the National Mediation Board (NMB) through the mediation process as defined by the Railway Labor Act.

In other news, Southwest today (June 11) officially opened its new Customer Support and Services (CS&S) Center in the City of San Antonio. The new Center, located at Interstate 35 and O’Connor, replaces the old facility located at Medical Drive, where Southwest Airlines’ Employees provided service to Customers for more than 30 years. This new location will provide Southwest’s Employees with more than 60,000 square feet of floor space with options to extend over time.

Southwest Airlines: