Local 514’s Digest for the week of December 6th, 2024

President:

Retirement Committee Co-Chairs Jay Potter, George Albano, VP Marla Johnson, and I and Attorney Steve Hickman met with the Fidelity team at their local office in Tulsa this week. We have been reporting that the Executive Board decided to terminate the Advantage Group’s service on December 31, 2024. 

 Alex Steele, the designated American Airlines Fidelity advisor, and the local Fidelity advisors met with us to review all the services Fidelity provided.  The previous Financial Advisors contract was to provide you information on the American Airlines defined pension plan, which was frozen in 2012 and no longer accrued any benefit increases past that date. Fidelity has been contracted by American Airlines to manage your frozen pension plan as well as the contractually defined 401k plan. 

During the meeting, we discussed 401k, frozen pensions, medicare planning, Social Security planning, Estate planning, Spouse Survivor concerns, and many other services provided by Fidelity. Fidelity Advisor Alex Steele can meet with you during your time at work on the base with a call to get on his schedule, or you can meet with an advisor at their local office. Fidelity can provide you with far greater services than just visiting with you about the American Airlines frozen pension plan. The decision to terminate the previous Financial Advisor contract will provide us the opportunity to learn more about Fidelity and, in the end, help all of the TWU members, not just those hired before 2012.

We will be making a video and posting more details in the next few weeks.

As always, I can be reached 24/7 at 918-636-6089.
If you have any questions or concerns or would like me to visit your work area on your shift, please reach out to me.

Take care,

Dale Danker

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Vice President:

Grievance Report

We have 1231 grievances in total. We continue to work with the company to settle grievances. Please provide your steward with all the information needed to prove your grievance. 

We will only be discussing terminations in the December GRB. That being said, we have had many terminations in the past month. Unfortunately, the majority of these have been second offenses under the DOT drug and alcohol policy. For the first offense of being tested positive for drug or alcohol use, the company will allow you to go into a recovery program. Still, you sign a letter of resignation. If you are positive again in the future, the company will date it and dismiss you from service. There is no grievance in this situation.

The holiday season is challenging for many. If you see someone struggling, please reach out.

Union Stewards

If you are unsure about a particular language in the contract, please contact an officer for clarification.

We appreciate all you do and are here to assist you when needed.

December Monthly meeting is on the 16th at 7:15 am, 11:45 am, and 3:45 pm.

Marla Johnson

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Chairman of Maintenance: 

SAFETY

• Please double-check to ensure the equipment you use is up-to-date and safe before starting your job assignment; if it looks unsafe, bring it to the supervisor’s attention.
• It has been brought to our attention that some supervisors are asking people who aren’t qualified to tug a/c. If this is happening, please let me know.

Weekly work

• Grievance
• Shift betterment
• Grievance meetings with management 
• Comms Meetings with Management 
• Safety issues 
• Vacation bids

Construction area detours and allowable walkways.  

• Please follow all signs and detour signs.
• Do not cross into restricted areas; this is for your safety.

Future Leaders Organizing Committee 

• The FLOC Committee would like to welcome the new workers to AA and invite you to our next committee meeting; if you are interested, please get in touch with me.

Work Experience Review (WER)

• If you have any questions about this, please let me know. 

Joe Brown
(918) 284-9666
JBrown@twumail.org

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Chairman of Material Logistics Specialist:

• 502 MLS on Base, 20 on LOA, Tulsa budget headcount is 482
• 6 New hires starting Monday
• Job postings this weekend. 206S (1), 031S (1), 032S (1) for MLS and a Crew Chief in 025S (1).
• If you didn’t select your vacation, please go to Admin. It’s first come, first serve now. Don’t wait.
• Your paycheck on Jan 24th will reflect your pay raise.
• Joint Membership meeting Dec 16th. Times: 7:15 am, 11:45 am, 3:45 pm
• 20 open grievances. Grievance meeting set with management and Labor for Dec 11th 

B.J. Rackers 
(918) 346-8918
bjracker@twumail.org 

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Chairman of Facilities Maintenance:

   I went to the Quarterly meeting in Dallas with the company this week. The company talked about the rental equipment being used around the system and showed their wish to replace ground equipment systematically and their plan to do so.

   I talked at length about the lack of headcount we had in Tulsa both in GSE and Facilities, the need for more crew chiefs and tech crew chiefs and a plan to track the amount of work lost to contractors, the company seems more receptive than ever before.

Enjoy the month of December and the reason for the season.

As always, feel free to contact me at any time.

Jim Holt
(918) 378-2079
JHolt@twumail.org

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Executive Board Members at Large:

George Albano:

I had to cancel the grievance review meeting this week because I was attending a special E-Board meeting. This week, I escalated several grievances to the senior manager of 1, 2, and 3. I’m patiently awaiting a decision on those.

I attended two terminations this week. I continue to work on grievances daily & answer any benefit questions that arise. Here’s a link to frequently asked questions concerning the FAA DOT Drug & Alcohol policy: https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/avs/offices/aam/drug_alcohol/policy/qa_sse

George Albano
918-378-1947
GAlbano@twumail.org

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Gene Chapin:

• Continue working in the grievance office and walking the base daily.
• Continue working on old and new grievances.
• Attending 32j on attendance.
• Blood drive runs until Tuesday, 12/10/24, at 2:00 pm. Please give if you can.
• Inspector Dave Haase will be retiring Friday out of hanger 5 & 6. We wish him well.
• Reminder: let one of us Officers or Union Reps of anyone retiring to receive their retirement gift.

Gene
918-640-2097
GChapin@twumail.org

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Tracy Hardin:

As we approach the end of the year, there are a few things you should consider. If you have an FSA  check, ensure you are not above the carryover amount of $610. If you need to spend some of your funds, you can always check out FSAstore.com. They have a large selection of FSA-eligible items. Also, consider downloading the Fidelity Health Mobile App to keep track of your accounts.

You did it again by stepping up and making a child’s Christmas just a little more special. TWU members, along with other base employees, were able to adopt more than 200 angels from the Salvation Army Angel Tree. Be proud of your efforts to bring a little joy into someone’s life. May you all be Blessed.

Thank you,

Tracy
(918) 409-5962
THardin@twumail.org

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Don McCormick:

Grievances – 250 open                         

• October –        Resolved 27 with 12 paid and 15 W/D
• November –    Resolved 22 with 6 paid and 16 W/D
• December –    Resolved 8 with 1 paid and 7 W/D

                        YTD-     488 Resolved  – This is a rolling number of the last 12 months

HGR 5/6   

• 9FF is going forward with the new Bid Unit of 263 being mainly involved in 777/787 Heavy, Special Visit and Drop-Ins.  Bid Unit 257 will be mainly involved in the 737 Heavy Checks on 5C/5D
• No current member of these Bid units will be forced to move.  All General and Avionics openings will be filled with Future New Hires. All new General CC and AVI/CC bids for 257 (until Jan 13th) will be used to backfill any openings in Both Bid Units.  The company will establish Bid Unit 263 on Future bids late December.
• Safety should be everyone’s top priority.  The 777-shoring falling and injuring 3 members, as well as the Landing Gear change tooling breaking and almost striking several members, is a wake-up call.  Please don’t be complacent about Safety.
• Bryan Beene (Sr. Manager) and Mark Winters (Manager) will be working in the Bid unit and helping transition the 737 lines to best practices similar to HGR 1/2/3
• We are at a stand still on resolving some issues with the Current Re-Bid sheets for 257 (CC Slots) and 263 (AMT Slots).  I have advised the Union Leadership and we are evaluating our next course of action.
• Vacation selections should be concluded.  We will verify that they had the right amount of weeks allocated for the bid units.  Any corrections there would be a rebid on vacation. Last Sunday Dale Danker and I were able to get Admin to adjust the Midnight AMT for 263 from 1 to 2 slots.

Welfare and Entertainment.   

• Tulsa Oilers Hockey – Tickets are available in the grievance office and the Union Hall.

Community Service

•     Operation Bikes for Kids – TWU514 is a proud sponsor for the last 3 years.  This organization distributes bikes throughout the Tulsa Area Communities by supplying the bikes to Charitable organizations, including the following:

1.       Marines Toys for Tots
2.       Salvation Army
3.       Owasso Community Resources
4.       Family and Children Services
5.       And numerous other local charities.

• If you still wish to donate to the cause, feel free to bring a bike or monetary donation to the Union Hall.  Every $60 purchases 1 bike.   We are short of our goal of 170 so everything helps.
• We are tentatively planning on Delivering the 140 bikes this Upcoming Tuesday at 11:30AM to the Owasso High School Field. Anyone interested in helping should reach out to George Albano, Daron Morgan, BJ Rackers, or myself about the details.

Don
(918) 378-5823
DMcCormick@twumail.org

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Daron Morgan:

• Continue to cover the Grievance office Daily    
• Continue working new and old grievances
• I currently have 182 open grievances.  I was able to resolve 7 this week.  4 settled locally, and 3 Withdrawn.  
• Please make sure that your contact information is updated with the local union office. 
• The next Tulsa Oilers Hockey Games will be Dec 7th and Dec 8th.  We have tickets available at the Union Hall and in the Grievance Office.  The Oilers are having a Native American Heritage Night Promo going on Dec 7th, and the Oilers will also be giving out free T-shirts to the 1st 1000 fans in Attendance.
• I hope everyone enjoyed their two Union-paid Holidays last week. Our next two Union-Paid Holidays will be Wednesday, December 25th, and Wednesday, January 1st.   

Daron
918-402-0089
DMorgan@twumail.org

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Jay Potter:

Scope – Base Outsourcing Report, December 05, 2024

In-house Base Maintenance  – Four (4) Stations 

• 25 Aircraft 
• 10 of these aircraft are check aircraft (MBV, CC, C11, or EIS).
  • CTO – Charlotte, NC
    • A319 – 1
    • A320 – 1
    • A321 – 2
  • DWH – Dallas, TX
    • A321 – 2
    • B737NG – 1
    • B777 – 1
  • PTO -Pittsburgh, PA
    • A319 – 2    (2 – C11)
    • A320 – 1   (1 – C11)
  • TLE – Tulsa,  OK
    • A320 – 1
    • B737MX – 1
    • B737NG – 10    (4 – MVB04,  3 – MBV08)
    • B777 – 2

Outsourced Base Maintenance – Six (6) Stations

• 32 Aircraft.
• 26 of these aircraft are check aircraft (MBV, CC, C11, S, or EIS).
  • BFM_VT MAE, Mobile Aerospace Engineering, Mobile, AL – 1 Aircraft
    • A319 – 1   (1 – 3S)
  • INT -_NSA North State Aviation, Winston/Salem, NC – 1 Aircraft
    • A321 – 1   (1 – C11)
  • SLO_Aeroman, El Salvador – 16 Aircraft
    • A319 – 5   (5 – 4S)
    • A319XF -1  (1-4S)
    • A320 – 2   (2 -4S)
    • A321 – 6   ( 3 – 2S, 4 – 4S)
    • B777 – 2   (2 – MBV09)
  • STA_VT San Antonio Aerospace, San Antonio, TX – 6 Aircraft
    • A321 – 1   (1 – OASIS)
    • B737NG – 1
    • B777 – 1    (1 – MBV03)
    • B787 – 2   (1 – CC02, 1 – CC03)
  • TLE – Tulsa, OK – 1 Aircraft
    • B777 – 1  (Fuselage Repair – Boeing Team)
  • VQQ Flightstar, Jacksonville, FL – 7 Aircraft
    • B737MX – 1   
    • B737NG – 6   (2 – MBV03, 2 – MBV05, 1 – MBV08)

• Livery aircraft do not count toward the outsourced man-hours (stations include: AMA, GUS, and ROW).
• If you have questions regarding Contractual Scope Language, you can reach me at (918) 845-8059 or jpotter@twumail.org.  I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Tulsa Aviation Maintenance Group (AMG) Headcount

Dec 05, 2024			January 23, 2020			VARIANCE
TCC	70		TCC	79		TCC	-9
CC AMT	270		CC AMT	245		CC AMT	25
AMT	2378		AMT	2681		AMT	-303
OSM	449		OSM	425		OSM	24
INSP	250		INSP	263		INSP	-13
CC CL	16		CC CL	16		CC CL	0
CL	154		CL	130		CL	24
TOTAL	3587		TOTAL	3839		TOTAL	-252

Hiring 

• For available vacancies in Tech Ops, check jobs.aa.com.  

Hope everyone had a great time with family and friends over the Holiday!

Regards,

Jay
(918) 845-8059
JPotter@twumail.org

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 American Airlines Anniversaries

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Passages

“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.”

The Passing of Brother Dana Pelton

We are deeply saddened to share Brother Dana Pelton’s passing on November 27th, 2024. Dana started working with us here at American Airlines in 1988 as an Aviation Maintenance Technician in the Hydraulics shop and remained there for 36 years. Please keep the Pelton family in your thoughts and prayers. Dana Bradley Pelton March 26, 1961 – November 27, …

Read more…

The Passing of Retired Brother John Raymond

We are deeply saddened to share with you the passing of retired Brother John Raymond on November 21st, 2024. John started working with us here at American Airlines back in 1989 and retired from the deposition of Aviation Maintenance Technician in 2020. Please keep the Raymond family in your thoughts and prayers. Obituary for John Raymond John R. Raymond, …

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