Brothers and Sisters, The Association leadership met with American Airlines’ negotiators and Federal Mediators this week in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The Mediator’s unorthodox approach to these negotiations failed to provide adequate space for the parties to face-off in the critical high stakes final issues to be resolved. The recent sessions were short three-day bursts that…
Brothers and Sisters, The Association leadership met with American Airlines executive management Wednesday, April 3rd in Washington, DC. The idea was to have an unfiltered discussion with company decision makers to, hopefully, break the logjam in negotiations. The lower level company negotiators had reached the end of their authority and steadfastly continued their concessionary demands…
Brothers and Sisters, If American Airlines wants to throw down their version of facts from two people who have never participated in a negotiating session, that’s their prerogative, we’ll throw down the real facts from those who were actually there. Fact: The Mediators assigned by the NMB were informed by the lead Company negotiator that he…
Dear Brothers & Sisters: The Association Update from TWU International went out yesterday with the added line, “The Time to Prepare for a Potential Lockout by American is Now!” and the IAM version did not. Unfortunately, in today’s world of electronic exchange the two versions did include that minor variance. Irrespective of that, the message…
Brothers and Sisters, This week, American Airlines not only continued to slow roll negotiations, THEY ACTUALLY JUST STOPPED. American’s arrogance and obstinance at the table is a tell-tale sign of their mistaken belief that this membership is okay with them forcing massive concessions on us in Scope and several other Articles. Without Scope, all else…
Brothers and Sisters, Negotiations continued in Atlanta this week. The Executive and the full negotiating committees continued working together at each step of the process and all were fully updated. The company’s hard-line attack on the work Association members do, our Scope, continued throughout the week. The Association’s basic Scope proposals remain to secure the…
All, The company continues to be clear on their position on M&R Scope. They want the ability to outsource more heavy, line work and facilities maintenance in all locations. The company’s proposal would reduce base maintenance headcount by 2200, increase line outsourcing by 7% and totally destroy facilities maintenance scope. We want to maintain our…
Brothers and Sisters, The Association Executive Committee met with the assigned mediators and a member of the National Mediation Board to gain a better understanding of the remaining open items. The robust dialogue was productive and ensured the meetings would continue throughout the week. We were able to resolve and TA the M&R/MLS Field Trip…
American Struggles To Say Yes Throughout this week, the Association Executive Negotiating Committee members continued to present reasonable proposals in an effort to reach a JCBA. While some conversations discussed across the bargaining table seemed to reach “supposal agreements in principle,” written proposals returned from the Company continued to revert to their take-it or leave-it…
Brothers and Sisters, As previously announced, the Association leadership and American Airlines Management participated in a joint conference call with the NMB mediators assigned to assist in our JCBA negotiations. The mediators are now responsible for setting the agenda, including dates for the mediated sessions. The mediators opened the call requesting the parties discuss the…