AWAC Wins NWA Ground Contract

[PCL_128]

3. What are viable solutions to these problems? Would a set rate among ALPA carriers work (with QOL being what is bargained for at the local MEC level)?

This is something that is currently being looked at by the Fee-For-Departure Task Force at National. A National payrate for all small jet carriers is one option that is being considered. Personally, I think it's a great idea.

I understand that each MEC bargains for their own contract but doesn't each contract have to met the approval of ALPA Nat (hence the signature on the contract)? Maybe a Monkey with a rubber stamp wasn't the greatest idea?

Only one man at National has any authority over contracts signed by individual MECs: the Association President, Captain Woerth. Without his signature, the TA is worthless. If you aren't happy with the contracts that Captain Woerth has signed over the past few years, then tell your status reps. The National Officers are up for election at the BOD meeting in October, and your status reps are the ones who get to vote. Let them know if you feel that Captain Woerth hasn't been doing a good job and that you want him replaced. There are several other pilots running for the position.

 

[Victor Meldrew]

Didn't AWAC reported that it wouldn't be interested in the ground handling if they didn't win any flying? Or are you guys RED HAIRED STEP CHILDREN too. If you are, you know what? I'm honored to be amongst you

AWAC have a large ground handling side to the company sepearte from the airline side. They still do a bunch of ground and CS services for UAL all over the country. Company have always said that they constantly are looking for growth in ground and flight departments.

 

[filejw]

HH..
Set rate and work rules also. Anything that will give a company an advantage cost wise should be the same. Let the company's make their money from running a business not the difference they pay employees. Big and small A/C should all be included .. One national contract with the same amendable date should do it. Let the airlines negotiate thru one entity like the ATA.. You young guys should get working on it....LOL

 

[Hulk Hogan]

ahh, business growth based on merit, not undercutting. Is this plausable? And can the same Union represent two entities (large vs small). The saying goes the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing .... although in this situation it seems as though the right knows exactly what the left is doing and the left the right but don't understand that we both come off the same body. The left laughs cause the right is bleeding and the right the left just not realizing that euphoric feeling is from the lack of blood not the kool-aid. Companies are already finding ways around ALPA (just ask the trans state boys) what is to keep companies from just getting around this? And what about that other union?

 

[AWACO]

AZO - Kalamazoo
BIS - Bismark
CID - Cedar Rapids
MBS - Saginaw
SBN - South Bend
SUX - Sioux City
SYR - Syracuse
TVC - Traverse City

These are the cities AWAC is reporting will be taking over, does this imply that those NW folks will loose thier jobs? I would guess AWAC would be willing to rehire the current NW employees...I Hope anyhow.

edit:
So lets say you are an AWAC ramper working line for NW in Bismark, do you have flight benifits on NW or USAIR / HP? USAIR does not go to Bismark so not having NW bennies would make that job hardly worth doing...

 

[Napoleon TNT]

AZO - Kalamazoo
BIS - Bismark
CID - Cedar Rapids
MBS - Saginaw
SBN - South Bend
SUX - Sioux City
SYR - Syracuse
TVC - Traverse City

These are the cities AWAC is reporting will be taking over, does this imply that those NW folks will loose thier jobs? I would guess AWAC would be willing to rehire the current NW employees...I Hope anyhow.

edit:
So lets say you are an AWAC ramper working line for NW in Bismark, do you have flight benifits on NW or USAIR / HP? USAIR does not go to Bismark so not having NW bennies would make that job hardly worth doing...

The NWA employees that work at these stations are able to bid for positions at the remaining NWA airports, in order of seniority. I am guessing that probably will not happen very much.

As far as the travel bennies, I would only be able to guess at this point-But I would say NO to them having NWA bennies. I know that AWAC still does UAL ground handling, but I am not sure as to if they are still able to hop onto a United aircraft for n-rev.

As far as re-hiring, I am sure AWAC will be willing to do so, but the question would be how many would apply. I am pretty sure that the job description will change dramatically from when they were working under NWA, to what they will be doing under AWAC. One of the main changes will be numbers of staff. The NWA stations were staffed a lot higher per operation than many regional carriers staff their outstations. 4-6 NWA agents work a CRJ or Saab compared to the 2 or 3 that work the same aircraft at other locations.

In addition to a job description change, these employees now have to start their DOH all over again. That 15-20 years of service at NWA netted a lot more vacation and sick time than as a new hire at a different company.

Again, all just speculation.

 

[Napoleon TNT]

what a bunch of crap, why do you not buy a real sword and fall on it. Mesaba is not a martyr for the rest of the alpa national....

So, who is going to do it? Who is going to put their foot down and put a stop to this? Which airline is more deserving than Mesaba?

It is easy to pass on the hard-to-swallow pill to the next guy. But by doing so, you only hurt everyone. And with every chance that is missed, everyone takes a bigger hit.

You ask for ALPA NATIONAL to do something, for them to step up to the plate. Well, I can tell you that if they really had the balls to do that, if they had the balls to make a stand, they would do it by using a nice, small group of members that are in a losing situation. They would probably use MESABA. Think of it. Here you have an airline that is set to go down to less than 500 pilots by January (nearly half as many that they had only 12 months earlier).

I'm not sure exactly what you feel National can do though.

Mesaba pounds their chest for 6-9 months, negotiates, goes through 2 1113c filings, then eventually ALPA says, "Hey guys, vote on this one! They wanted 19.5%, but we talked them down to only 10%! Ain't this union the best one out there!!" We saved you 9.5%!"

Just look at what Mesaba's ALPA has done over the past few months. It started with "This is B.S.! Mesaba is not hurting! They don't need a dime from us!"

Now, the current word is,
"They want 19.5%, and we are offering a 15.9% savings! That's not too bad. Before you get all bent out of shape, we are not offering 15.9% cuts to our wages, but there are NO pay raises or improvements to current booK."

The union is getting soft. SHUT DOWN MESABA AIRLINES.

 

[wmudriver]

Even if XJ gives concessions, it doesn't guarentee a thing except smaller paychecks. The pilots at XJ got backed into a corner.

 

[filejw]

Falling on you sword is dumb as it gets no results worth mentioning.Your better of having a slowdown or sickout or even Chaos would be better.People that fall on their sword are soon forgotten.

 

[Beach Bum]

So far NWA has been very secretive about to whom they are awarding contracts. Isn't it a little suspicious that they leaked the information about AWAC winning the contract for several midwestern airports, just days before the judge rules on 1113 contracts? It sounds like this is a threat to the Mesaba unions....if you don't cooperate, look what we can do to you.

From day one, NWA has not budged from their proposed $1.4 billion in potential labor savings. They insist they must have this specific amount to restructure. Why would they award AWAC the ground handling, unless AWAC will provide this service at the reduced cost they are attempting to extract from the Mesaba employees? If they aren't achieving their goal of cutting costs, what have they gained?

I thought their goal was to reduce costs, not seek retaliation by eliminating Mesaba. What good would that do?

Is this just about the bottom line, or fear and intimidation?

 

[xjhawk]

well, i like many of my friends are most likely going to vote no to most anything they show us. I am for one pissed enough that i will do the right thing and say screw this place and vote no unless i get a pay raise. And just for the record, i will vote for no current ALPA idiot who is leading this sinking ship........there is no one steering the alpa boat to which we give money to.....their biggest worry is if virgin america will get off teh ground......and cabbatage......for those poor wide body cargo guys who have been making millions in salary the last ten years.......its a big issue, but if we are bleeding from teh jugular from a self imposed wound, why bother with someone who is thinking about hurting us in the future.....the way i see alpa is they are only worried about those senior pilots pay and pensions.

 

[Hulk Hogan]

Welcome aboard Mesaba Airlines. A ch1tty company providing a ch1tty service to ch1tty cities. Thank for giving us the opportunity to ch1t on you!

 

[arthompson]

We keep hearing from the AWAC staff in SBN that they were not getting the contract because they wanted more than XJ or 9E did.

 

[AWACO]

We keep hearing from the AWAC staff in SBN that they were not getting the contract because they wanted more than XJ or 9E did.

reported in company email....sorry I think its a done deal

 

[westbound]

Actually just heard news last Friday that Mesaba will be taking over NWA stations starting as soon as October. A certain NWA station was told this last Friday by management as well as many of the other stations.

 

[xjhawk]

yeah produce this company e mial, give some link....some credible source, if you cannot do that, get the hell off this forum

 

[Waylon]

I was talking to a RST agent and they told me that as of Dec 5, 2006 RST will be a XJ station.

 

[Spinn555]

XJ- If you deny it enough, it might actually NOT happen.

 

[BoilerUP]

yeah produce this company e mial, give some link....some credible source, if you cannot do that, get the hell off this forum

Here ya go scooby...


We are very pleased to announce that we have entered into a ground handling agreement with a new partner - Northwest Airlines.

After significant negotiations throughout a competitive bidding process, we have been awarded a contract to perform ground handling for Northwest at the following eight locations:

AZO - Kalamazoo
BIS - Bismark
CID - Cedar Rapids
MBS - Saginaw
SBN - South Bend
SUX - Sioux City
SYR - Syracuse
TVC - Traverse City

While the specific station implementation dates are still being finalised, we expect them to occur throughout the third and fourth quarter 2006 and be completed by year-end. As soon as we know the actual start-up dates for each location, we will let you know.
In addition to growing AWAC and diversifying our airline partner base, this agreement will provide additional job opportunities in Customer Service for both frontline and management personnel; the addition of this work will mean new full-time, part-time and management/supervisory opportunities.

Special thanks to Janet Huculak, Managing Director of Budgets and Financial Analysis; Vince Portaro, Managing Director of Customer Service; Janet Bisser, Division Budget Controller and Marvin Mulder, Regional Director Customer Service, for their extensive work on this project which ultimately helped secure our new Northwest partnership! Also thankyou to Janet and Vince's entire team as well as the Appleton and Syracuse stations for their excellent performance during the Northwest due diligence audit.

It is a pleasure to recognize all in the Customer Service Department who continue to perform their work with a commitment to both quality and cost. It is this type of dedication that enables us to compete for, and earn new work.



Christine Deister
Executive VP & CFO
Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation

 

[Dumb Pilot]

At every station that we go that is scheduled to be outsourced moral is at record low (As to be expected) whenever a gate agent or a ramper snaps at one of us, I just tell my crew to be patient and just not let it get to you, because I can only imagine what that feels like. There are actually NWA employees training their replacements at some stations. WOW.
Everyone that I have spoken too (Averaging 15 years with NWA) simply won't move their family for what they would be making and they are thinking about the cost of living increment that will come from a move from an outstation to MSP or DTW for example.
So the most common feeling is " NWA gave up on us and they don't care about the 20 years I've put in, So I gave up on them" and they are just taking their severance and moving on.

SAD