On Monday April,14 Gary Yingst and I went to American Airlines Hdq for a TECH OPS and TWU Leadership meeting. David Seymour, Sr. Vice President of Tech Ops chaired the meeting. He stated he held meetings at this level ever 2 months at USair and his desire was to continue this at the new AA.
All the VP/MD’s gave a brief report on the status of the merger process for their workgroups except Kevin Brickner do to time constraints.
Craig Harry, MD of Supply Chain spoke on the integration of the many different systems used in supply and said the target date on full integration was 2016. He also spoke on the new Parts 360 program. Our Chairman of MLS, Pat Bax has expressed many concerns of this system and I conveyed them to Mr. Harry. He will be in Tulsa on April, 22 to meet with Pat Bax and all Local 514 officers to hear our concerns.
Steve Bobzin, MD of MOC, which includes the Maintenance Control Technicians (MCT) that are in DFW but are represented by Local 514 spoke about the lack of floor space to house this group which will include the techs from USAir in Pittsburg. Jason Best asked about a rumor that some MCT’s may move back to Tulsa temporarily until a space could be provided for the entire group. Steve stated that that was a false statement. He also stated the group would be together by April 2015.
Mike Hancuch, MD, Base & Long Range Planning, spoke on upcoming changes in the fleet size. He shared with us that LUS and LAA will be flying in each others slots. Seymour also stated the new AA livery was voted on and that it will not change.
Dec Lee, VP, Engineering, Quality & Training reported that a combined maintenance operation will not be in place until 2018. He stated they were working on consolidating tracking systems related to Quality. He spoke of work-card changes being at least 2 years out.
Paul Wroble, VP, Line Maintenance & GSE reported out that we will see a common Log book in the Fall of 2014, also that the GSE new equipment will be purchased in the color white and will remain in that color till its first paint cycle comes do. He also said all GSE will over time be painted a new color of blue.
After the reports were given Seymour opened the floor for questions. I asked about our labor rate and why it was so high. Seymour agreed there were concerns with it and it is being reviewed. I also asked about having more talks to discuss the current CS policy for the Tulsa base and he agreed to that.
I asked Dec Lee about Phase checks, which if implemented will mean they can perform the work out on the line which is traditionally accomplished in a light C-check at a base.
He stated the company was in the early stages of putting a plan together to present to the FAA.