Questions & Answers
There were questions presented at the July 8th and 9th Live Stream with President Dale Danker:
When will we get the updated contract books?
Answer:
The Union and the Company have completed the “page turns” in all contract books looking for mistakes and correcting them. The last statement from the International was we are waiting for the company to sign the signature pages. The contract states that a copy will be provided to you but we are told that the Union told the company they didn’t have to provide the copies because they were under a financial strain from covid.
In Article 35 par N it states that all orders to and requested from an employee involving transfers, promotions, demotions, layoff, recall, LOA, or anything affecting his pay will be in writing?
Answer:
The old TWU contract allowed for crew chiefs to self demote. The Association removed that language in the new contract and now require you to bid out if you want to leave. The biggest problem with that is you can no longer use your basic classification for bidding a job. There is a pecking order to bid a job. The language in N is a general catch all statement. There is no way an employee can send a written statement to self demote, however paragraph N states that all orders to an employee must be in writing. Which includes demotions. So they can demote you but you can’t demote yourself.
Is there anyway to find out what grievances have been approved by the GRB (grievance review board)?
Answer:
The Contract Representative Committee discussed meeting to look at the GRB grievances as more of a singular event, meaning not as 514 or 591 or the IAM lodge. The thought is that maybe there should be a report as to what goes in front of the GRB and the decisions that follow after the company responds with their positions.
Should we file for known outage OT (over time)?
Answer:
The known outage for basic classifications will not move forward through the grievance process. So no need to file on basic classification. Crew Chief known outage is still being discussed and grievances should be filed. If a resolution is agreed upon it may or may not include payout for the grievances, but you definitely won’t have a chance to get paid if you don’t have a grievance on file.
The company and the State of Oklahoma require licenses for Plumbers, Why do we not get License Pay for Plumber?
Answer:
All skills receive a skill premium instead of license pay. American Airlines has employees that work in many states and not all states have the same requirements. So a plumber in Dallas Texas should Make the same wages as a plumber in Tulsa Oklahoma. Please reference this article written by Travis Scott Chairman of Facilities Maintenance, it includes more detail.
COVID-19 – CDC
People who have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19—excluding people who have had COVID-19 within the past 3 months or who are fully vaccinated.
- People who have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 3 months and recovered do not have to quarantine or get tested again as long as they do not develop new symptoms.
- People who develop symptoms again within 3 months of their first bout of COVID-19 may need to be tested again if there is no other cause identified for their symptoms.
- People who have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 are not required to quarantine if they have been fully vaccinated against the disease and show no symptoms.
Address Updates
From time to time we have the need to mail out information to the members. It could be related to dues exoneration, a grievance that has been paid or even notification of benefits. With this new age of electronic communication through texting, emailing and social media we still have the need to send out communications through the US Mail.
Keeping your home address updated with us is very important.
Take a few minutes to check and see if yours is correct on the TWU514.org website
Pension Benefits
It has been some time since we last mentioned Qualified Pre-Retirement Survivor Annuity (QPSA)
A monthly benefit paid to your eligible Spouse if you die before you receive your retirement Benefit. By default your spouse gets 50% of your retirement benefit. You need to take action if you would like to leave 100% of your earned retirement benefit to your spouse.
We have seen many members that have a frozen pension available to them not file the Enhanced Pre-Retirement Survivor Annuity form and at the time of their death the spouse is left with 50% of the benefit. We have established numerous communications on this for over the past 20 years. We are always sad to hear that a spouse already losing their loved one, now gets told that they will only receive 50% of their pension retirement benefit.
DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. Get the Form and get it filed ASAP.
At the time of this posting the Enhanced Pre-Retirement Survivor Annuity form was downloaded from Jetnet and is available HERE
To see your details follow these instructions:
Log into Jetnet > Team Member Services > Leaving American > Pension Service Center , Read More > My Pension Tab > ESTIMATE YOUR PENSION
The Passing of Brother Daryl Watkins
We are deeply saddened to share with you the passing of Brother Daryl Watkins. He passed on July 21st, 2021. Daryl had been with us here at American Airlines since 1980 and has been one of our best Crew Chief Mechanic’s at the Terminal. He will be missed. Please keep the Watkins family in your…