US Airways proposal to Communication Workers of America
This was posted on another web site concerning meetings between US Airways and the Communication Workers of America (CWA)
CWA Representatives met with US Airways executives on Monday, 12/16, and received the following information and ultimatum:
* CWA, and all other US Airways unions, must accept management’s demands as written, no changes, no discussion, by Friday. Management wants only a “Yes” or “No” answer;
* If any Union does not accept the demands as written, by Friday, US Airways will close down before Christmas (next Wednesday);
* Even if all unions accept the demands, executives refuse to allow the normal time for employee ratification votes (If we accepted on Friday, CWA member ratification vote would normally be counted on January 13). Executives said that the airline would close if the ratification votes can’t be crammed into a timetable before the end of the year;
* Friday, December 20, is the day management submits a new reorganization plan to the bankruptcy judge, and if they don’t have the union agreements by then, they will close the airline;
* Monday, December 23, is a back-up day in bankruptcy court for RSA: if there are no agreements by Friday, and management has not taken steps to shut down the airline, RSA will submit its own plan to the judge on Monday to shut down the airline.
The demands on CWA Passenger Service Employees go right to the heart of some of our job protections:
* Eliminate all the Internet Support Work and Express Agent work we just negotiated in our recent concessions agreement (except the 8 closed or closing stations already announced as covered Express stations);
* Do not extend the contract to STT and STX, two stations that should by law be covered by the contract;
* Allow SAR’s to queue lines, assist passengers with kiosk check-in, and then have SAR’s go behind the ticket counter and pull bag-tags and process bags;
* Allow Sky Caps and other contractors to check-in passengers at curbside, including boarding passes, passenger assist edits, and boarding pass reprints;
* Allow 2 US Airways flights daily into Express cities, allowing Express agents of other companies to do the work on the mainline flights.
* Allow 4 US Airways flights daily into newly opened cities without giving those jobs to mainline employees, and allowing contracted
employees from other companies to have those jobs;
Pay and Benefits:
* Significantly increase the employee cost of our medical plan premiums, deductibles, co-payments, and prescription costs;
* Defer 5% of our salary for 18 months if US invades Iraq; salary to be paid back over the following 18 months.
* Postpone the defined benefit search decision until six months after the Company emerges from bankruptcy (this alone, is a sensible proposal, because we don’t want to have our retirement
money tied up if the airline liquidates);
Jets for Jobs:
* This “jets for jobs” promise by executives has become a cynical joke. There are no passenger service jobs resulting from the RJ agreement, only jets. RJ’s will reduce mainline passenger service jobs and the shift of jobs to RJ flying will be handled by passenger service employees of other companies, not by US Airways passenger service employees;
* The company has demanded an MDA agreement that allegedly has pay and benefits equal to AA Eagle. Catch 22: if a mainline employee is furloughed and accepts a position at MDA, they no longer go to the top MDA rate ($13.50), as our Express agreement called for, instead they go to the bottom rate ($9.00).
In return for all this pain:
* In return, the company will allow parents of employees furloughed after 9/1/2001 to be considered “eligible family members” for purposes of online non-revenue travel;
* Employees on voluntary furlough may retire from furlough consistent with existing Article 15 of the contract, the same as involuntary furlough, as long as there is an available system vacancy in the classification;
* A profit sharing plan that requires the company pre-tax profits to reach 7% before it pays anything – we predict it will be a cold day before you see any money from that plan;
* Vesting in the equity stake we negotiated last concession agreement is somewhat accelerated;
* CWA Passenger Service has a seat on the US Airways board of directors equal with the pilots, mechanics and flight attendants.
CWA’ers attempted to propose some form of additional salary deferment or cuts equal in value to the job cuts management is demanding. Executives flatly refused to listen to that proposal. Their message was, “take these cuts or the airline closes.” The CWA’ers are discussing these issues today and we will keep you informed of developments.
Present for US Airways at the Monday meeting were: CEO David Siegel, VP Labor Relations Doug McKeen, and several labor relations, operations and benefit staff.
Present for CWA were Local 4404 President Susan Saylor, 13302 President Chris Fox, 13301 President Tina Perry, 2000 President Pam Terry; 3641 President James Root, 3640 President Becky Gerald, 3140 President John Tyler, CWA staff Tim Yost, Velvet Hawthorne and Rick Braswell, and Jeff Freund, attorney with Bredhoff and Kaiser
This was posted on another web site concerning meetings between US Airways and the Communication Workers of America (CWA)
CWA Representatives met with US Airways executives on Monday, 12/16, and received the following information and ultimatum:
* CWA, and all other US Airways unions, must accept management’s demands as written, no changes, no discussion, by Friday. Management wants only a “Yes” or “No” answer;
* If any Union does not accept the demands as written, by Friday, US Airways will close down before Christmas (next Wednesday);
* Even if all unions accept the demands, executives refuse to allow the normal time for employee ratification votes (If we accepted on Friday, CWA member ratification vote would normally be counted on January 13). Executives said that the airline would close if the ratification votes can’t be crammed into a timetable before the end of the year;
* Friday, December 20, is the day management submits a new reorganization plan to the bankruptcy judge, and if they don’t have the union agreements by then, they will close the airline;
* Monday, December 23, is a back-up day in bankruptcy court for RSA: if there are no agreements by Friday, and management has not taken steps to shut down the airline, RSA will submit its own plan to the judge on Monday to shut down the airline.
The demands on CWA Passenger Service Employees go right to the heart of some of our job protections:
* Eliminate all the Internet Support Work and Express Agent work we just negotiated in our recent concessions agreement (except the 8 closed or closing stations already announced as covered Express stations);
* Do not extend the contract to STT and STX, two stations that should by law be covered by the contract;
* Allow SAR’s to queue lines, assist passengers with kiosk check-in, and then have SAR’s go behind the ticket counter and pull bag-tags and process bags;
* Allow Sky Caps and other contractors to check-in passengers at curbside, including boarding passes, passenger assist edits, and boarding pass reprints;
* Allow 2 US Airways flights daily into Express cities, allowing Express agents of other companies to do the work on the mainline flights.
* Allow 4 US Airways flights daily into newly opened cities without giving those jobs to mainline employees, and allowing contracted
employees from other companies to have those jobs;
Pay and Benefits:
* Significantly increase the employee cost of our medical plan premiums, deductibles, co-payments, and prescription costs;
* Defer 5% of our salary for 18 months if US invades Iraq; salary to be paid back over the following 18 months.
* Postpone the defined benefit search decision until six months after the Company emerges from bankruptcy (this alone, is a sensible proposal, because we don’t want to have our retirement
money tied up if the airline liquidates);
Jets for Jobs:
* This “jets for jobs” promise by executives has become a cynical joke. There are no passenger service jobs resulting from the RJ agreement, only jets. RJ’s will reduce mainline passenger service jobs and the shift of jobs to RJ flying will be handled by passenger service employees of other companies, not by US Airways passenger service employees;
* The company has demanded an MDA agreement that allegedly has pay and benefits equal to AA Eagle. Catch 22: if a mainline employee is furloughed and accepts a position at MDA, they no longer go to the top MDA rate ($13.50), as our Express agreement called for, instead they go to the bottom rate ($9.00).
In return for all this pain:
* In return, the company will allow parents of employees furloughed after 9/1/2001 to be considered “eligible family members” for purposes of online non-revenue travel;
* Employees on voluntary furlough may retire from furlough consistent with existing Article 15 of the contract, the same as involuntary furlough, as long as there is an available system vacancy in the classification;
* A profit sharing plan that requires the company pre-tax profits to reach 7% before it pays anything – we predict it will be a cold day before you see any money from that plan;
* Vesting in the equity stake we negotiated last concession agreement is somewhat accelerated;
* CWA Passenger Service has a seat on the US Airways board of directors equal with the pilots, mechanics and flight attendants.
CWA’ers attempted to propose some form of additional salary deferment or cuts equal in value to the job cuts management is demanding. Executives flatly refused to listen to that proposal. Their message was, “take these cuts or the airline closes.” The CWA’ers are discussing these issues today and we will keep you informed of developments.
Present for US Airways at the Monday meeting were: CEO David Siegel, VP Labor Relations Doug McKeen, and several labor relations, operations and benefit staff.
Present for CWA were Local 4404 President Susan Saylor, 13302 President Chris Fox, 13301 President Tina Perry, 2000 President Pam Terry; 3641 President James Root, 3640 President Becky Gerald, 3140 President John Tyler, CWA staff Tim Yost, Velvet Hawthorne and Rick Braswell, and Jeff Freund, attorney with Bredhoff and Kaiser
