July Labor Advisory meeting
August 5, 2010
IBT/CWA Passenger Service Association
Labor Advisory meeting report
07/23/10
The meeting was held at US Airways headquarters in Tempe. The two board members, Herbert Baum and Bruce Lakefield participated via telephone.
The meeting began with follow-up items from the April meeting that we had. Al Hemenway, VP-Labor relations reported on the following items;
Work brain- The Association reported that swaps that were turned in had been cancelled for an entire month in many locations; it appeared to be a programming error. Suzanne Boda, Senior VP of East coast Operations looked into this problem and found that the system will cancel swaps that are more then 8 weeks in advance. This is not something that will be repaired from what we heard. The company said that the employees are being advised of this issue and are being told not to turn in any swaps if they are more then 2 months into the future.
Uniform replacement-IAM and the IBT/CWA Association reported difficulties in getting uniform replacements due to wear and tear after the 18 month period. The company did not have a final answer for us on this issue; it is still being looked into.
Negative vacation banks at the end of the year- the company agreed to work with the Association on this problem. Employees were being asked to pay the full amount owed in one lump-sum payment. The company has agreed to resolve this problem in a Letter of Agreement. Employees can now set up a payment plan and pay it back in increments.
Last Chance agreements-the Association expressed concern that LCA's were being used to by-pass the grievance process. Once a last chance agreement is signed, local management was using it to fire people regardless if it was related to the offense that caused the member to be on the last chance agreement. The company has agreed that LCA's are not to be offered without input from Labor relations, so a local manager cannot use them to avoid the grievance process. The agreements will cover either attendance or performance. The new LCA's will be written with narrower language and will not encompass all violations. An employee on an attendance LCA will now be allowed 2 occurrences before they are terminated if they are under an LCA. Anyone on a LCA that has violated language in the agreement will be given the chance to have a meeting with Management and their Union rep. before a decision is made to terminate. This would allow the grievant to provide any information/witnesses or mitigating circumstances to be considered by the local managers.
Level 3 hearings-we had reports that one of the labor relations hearing officers has been a no-show to the hearings or has been hostile to the member and the Union leadership. We addressed this issue with the company when we were at the Association meeting in June and had a discussion about the issues with the hearing officer. Al Hemenway assured us that we should not have any of the same problems we had in the past.
Travel while on leave of absence-West employees have been allowed to travel while on a leave of absence or OJI but the East employees have been restricted from this benefit. Al Hemenway stated that there is a new policy on travel while out on leave. This new policy now applies to all groups; all locations should have been advised of this change. If you have not seen the new policy, please contact your local manager for details.
Doug Parker joined us after the follow-ups and did a company and industry review. The performance in the 2nd quarter was strong and we finally saw a profit of $265 Million, which excludes $14 Million of special charges. He thanked all of the employees and the representatives at the meeting for the hard work everyone did to achieve this profit and the triple play. It was our second highest quarterly profit since the 2005 merger. We accrued $18 million in profit sharing. We will be getting our negotiated share of profit sharing for the first time in a long time. He wants us to keep doing what we do best, which is to run a safe and reliable operation and take care of our customers
The IBT/CWA Association leadership met in Phoenix on 6/22/10 and 6/23/10
The meeting was attended by IBT/CWA Local leaders and Staff. Some US Airways officers came by the hotel meeting room for a short meeting on the afternoon of 6/22/10 also.
Attending for the CWA were; John Hanson-CWA Local Pres. 1171, Frank Spencer-CWA Local VP 2252, Vonda Hardy-CWA Local Pres. 3640, Janice Garris-CWA Local Pres. 3641,Ellis Ryan-CWA Local Pres. 3140, Deb Gula-CWA Local Pres. 13302, Anthony Cameron-CWA Local Pres. 13301, Vickey Hoots-CWA Local EVP 3640, Roger Betz-CWA local EVP 1171, Todd Vallin-CWA Local EVP 3140, David Borer- CWA Attorney and Velvet Hawthorne-CWA Staff Representative and Co-chair of the IBT-CWA Passenger Service Association.
Here are the issues we discussed;
CWA has a new Attorney, David Borer that will be working with the Passenger service group. He has extensive experience in the airline sector and previously worked for the AFA. We are very glad to have him join us and very appreciative that he attended our meetings in Phoenix with us.
Last Chance Agreements-(LCA's)
We have seen a change in the LCA's. The last few dealing with attendance have included language that now allows the member to have 2 attendance points prior to termination. In cases dealing with job performance, they will allow Station Managers to have discretion when deciding to act upon the LCA if another Performance issue arises. Ron did say that the company is still required to have a meeting with the grievant who is on an LCA and the Union, before a decision is made to terminate. This would allow the grievant to provide any information/witnesses or mitigating circumstances to be considered by the local managers.
Ron Harbinson, Manager-Labor relations ground- still feels that the LCA's should be a standard 24 months, although some locals have been able to get LCA's for 12 months. Ron did say that for Drugs/Alcohol, they are usually 36 months.
Secure FLight procedures
The Association feels that this is a serious responsibility for our members. We have had at least 4 people terminated due to human errors when processing Customers who appear on the no-fly list or similar name list. We feel this process should be covered in a classroom and not through I-Learning. The company did advise us that a new process is in place now and that the CSS/CSA are to use the phone number found in the procedures that are now in place. This should cut down on the human errors and take the majority of the responsibility out of the hands of our membership.
Work-brain/No Clocks
Ron Harbinson has advised that there needs to be consistency when applying discipline for no-clocks. There will now be two coaching sessions before anyone is placed on a level for a no-clock. Anyone already on a level for a no-clock will get 1 additional coaching before elevated to another discipline level for a no-clock.
Mandatory Overtime
Most ATO's are still not staffing at night with managers to advise of mandatory. Many of our members have to assume they need to stay past their shift to meet late incoming flights. This is a violation of our CBA and we need grievances filed. When someone is mandatoried, we want the company to use a universal form to explain the reason for the OT, the length, and who is assigning it. We need this to keep a paper trail on the application of the language in the CBA. Ron Harbinson said they would review a form to use system wide for mandatory overtime. We also need our stewards to be advised when mandatory overtime is being utilized in their locations.
DOT advisement in RES
CWA local 3640 Pres. Vonda Hardy discussed this problem in RES. Agents are being given an auto fail on their monitors for not advising DOT bag/express notification to employees. We feel this is unnecessary and not a requirement under the DOT rules. It is used only when the person is in the purchase mode and we are quoting fares. We discussed this with management when they came to meet with us and they assured us there should be some pop-ups coming from IT soon for the agents to remind them of the advisements. We asked for charts or sheets to post in our positions to help us in the meantime. Vonda asked for scripting covering each scenario be provided to each agent with the exact verbiage required, leaving no room for error such as when a Jet Blue pilot comes on the employee line, you simply pull out the OA employee script. Robert Isom said he would work with us on this.
Targeted selection training for CSS panel interview
The company is willing to set up some new classes for this training. If you are a CSS and would like to be trained to sit on this panel, please let your local leader know.
SIDA badges
We have had reports from LAS that SIDA badge processing has been an issue. One agent there had been suspended almost 6 months due to his fingerprints not being readable. We asked the company to review the process for future cases. We know it is the responsibility of the employee to get their badge renewed in a timely manner, but in the case of the few that don't, the process is taking too long in some locations. The company did say they felt most of the fault is with TSA. We feel the company is trying to save money and allowing a company employee to do the fingerprinting and they are not trained in the proper procedure, which in turn causes our members to be suspended due to re-printing of the members.
Staffing issues
Staffing was discussed and we feel this is one of the major issues our members are dealing with. Inadequate staffing causes low morale, unsafe working conditions, violation of our breaks and mandatory overtime abuse. We expressed this issue when meeting with the company. We had a short visit from Doug Parker-CEO, Scott Kirby-President, Robert Isom-Executive VP and COO, Elise Eberwein-Executive Vp and a number of other VP's that walked over to the hotel meeting room from US Airways headquarters to talk to us. All of the local Union leaders and Reps expressed their frustration with staffing issues, lack of classroom training on major issues and the no-fly list processing and fears of job security when utilizing the company computer to handle this process. We advised Doug Parker that our members are working in substandard conditions in many of the airports, such as PHL, LAS, and many other small locations. Many Shift managers leave before the end of the night and we have Jr. CSA's left to deal with delayed flights due to bad weather and mandatory is not being assigned by management. We are having to mandatory ourselves. We did not get a commitment from Management on how or if they are going to deal with the staffing issue, but we will follow up with them in the next Board of Directors meeting, which is July 23, 2010 in Phoenix..
If agents are not getting relieved for breaks and lunches they need to file grievances and also need to claim the 30 minutes on their pay sheets for ot getting a lunch.
Weather policy
Frank Spencer, Area VP of CWA local 2252 discussed the inconsistent application of the weather policy in many locations. He has some grievances from DCA from this past winter storm period and he asked Ron Harbinson to review them and follow up on those asap. Ron said he would get with Frank about them.
Labor Advisory and Board of Director meeting
April 14, 2010-held in Phoenix, AZ
CEO, Doug Parker did a short overview of the state of the Airline. He stated that we are building cash. The employees are doing a great job running the airline. The 1st quarter was not great due to weather issues and 7% of our flights were cancelled. That percentage is double of any past cancelled flight history at the Company. The Company is trying to keep costs down. Fuel is higher, but revenue is coming in pretty strong. March is up 20% and we will have our 1st quarter results April 27. Of course analysts are projecting both profit and loss. We will see.
Robert Isom, Executive VP and COO also reported that we are recovering. We had the best 2 weeks of performance in the history of the merged company. Baggage performance could reach records for the month, which is great. The mechanic group is doing an excellent job with fewer aircraft out of service.
MERGER TALKS
When asked, Doug stated that they are not confirming or denying merger talks. He did say if we did end up merging someday, the Unions would be the 1st to know. He said they would consider a merger if it were in the best interest of the employees and they would meet with each of the Union groups if this were to occur.
He claims we are vulnerable and all of our employees would benefit from a merger. He feels that we could look forward to retiring from US Airways if a merger were to occur, he has not been able to say that before.
Doug said you can create value in a merger. There is more in it for the employee's then just security. There would be shared synergies and a feeling of security. He advised the labor leaders to call him if he can dispel any non –facts, but not speculations.
He did say we can stand on our own, we have an airline that can work on its own right now.
The IBT/CWA Association raised the following issues;
Workbrain- we are having issues with our swaps cancelled for an entire month in many locations, it appears to be a programming error. Suzanne Boda, Senior VP of East coast Operations will be looking into this for us and will respond.
Uniform replacement-some locations have reported difficulties in getting uniform replacements due to wear and tear after the 18 month period. The company did not know this was going on and will follow up. If this is going on in your location, please let your IBT or CWA steward or local leaders know so we can have this corrected.
Last Chance agreements-the Association feels that these are being used to by-pass the grievance process. Once a last chance agreement is signed, local management is using it to fire people regardless if it is related to the offense that caused the member to be on the last chance agreement. This is wrong and we want this reviewed and corrected. The local leadership should always be involved in any last chance agreements.
Level 3 hearings-we have had reports that one of the labor relations hearing officers has been a no-show to the hearings or has been hostile to the member and the Union leadership. We want this addressed immediately or we will refuse to meet with any hearing officer that behaves in a disrespectful and condescending manner and will elevate the grievance to the Labor relations VP. We were advised that this will be investigated by Al Hemenway, VP of labor relations and Ron Harbinson, Managing director, labor relations ground.
Travel while on leave of absence-West employees are allowed to travel while on a leave of absence or OJI but the East employees have been restricted. This has been an ongoing issue for the labor group. The company said that the programming is not complete to fix this problem and they anticipate that it will be done in the summer of 2010. In the meantime, this is disparate treatment between the two workgroups who have merged into one many years ago. The Association wants this addressed ASAP. Al Hemenway stated that there is a new policy on travel while out on leave, but none of the union leaders at the table have seen it. He said he would send the new policy out to us.
Some follow-up items from the last meeting that Labor Relations reviewed;
The issue was raised regarding the West still having America West on their paychecks. This has been discontinued and all employees should have US Airways showing on their paychecks now.
The Association raised Workbrain issues that were continuing in the TPA ATO in the last meeting. These issues have been addressed. An audit was done by the Workbrain IT group and the CWA Leadership and a follow-up meeting was held with Camille Soto in TPA.
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~CWA Member Info~
Mandatory overtime rules being abused by the company systemwide in the Airports!
If you have not been given 1 hour written or electronic notice and the reason and duration of the mandatory overtime, then the company is in violation of the Contract -File a grievance if this happens to you! If you are not in front of a computer for the electronic pop up regarding overtime, how are you to know you have been mandatoried? YOU DO NOT have to find a manager before the end of your shift to "find out" if they need you to stay., the contract is very clear, they are to notify YOU. It is the RESPONSIBILITY of local managers to MANAGE the coverage, not ours. The company has been told many times the staffing is not adequate even when we had the SABRE system, they are finding out the hard way. See pages 34 and 40 in your contract to review the Mandatory overtime rule. For ATO's Article 6 Item U. and for RES Article 7, Item L.
BREAKS!
Take your breaks as scheduled. It is your right to take them per the contract. Do not let the local managers intimidate you nor make you feel guilty for leaving your co-workers to handle the lines when you need a break. Stand up for your rights.
A note about Training and Testing.
DO NOT DO TRAINING or TESTING ON YOUR OWN TIME or AT HOME! The company is responsibe for allowing enough time for training and testing while on the job!
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Training on your days off
The CWA locals are getting calls from members that are being forced to attend training on their days off. If you are not given a choice of days to go to training, please let your local rep know (see Article 29-Training, Travel Pay and Meal Per Diem on page 108 of your contract). If you volunteer to train on your days off or those are the only days left to sign up after bidding, you must be given two days off that same work week. Keep in mind, we do not get overtime during training.
GREAT SEARCH TOOL TO HELP YOU FIND WHAT YOU ARE SEEKING IN THE CWA CONTRACT PDF FILE LINK
A helpful search tool you can use if you are accessing the link to our Contract online is the binocular feature. Just click on the cwa contract pdf file link to left, it may take a minute to load, then on the binocular icon, a search tool will open up to the right. Type in a keyword, such as mandatory overtime or swap and it will link you to any page that has those words on it. You also may want to save the Contract pdf file to your desktop to use when you are not online. Hope this helps you navigate our CWA/IBT contract!
GRIEVANCES-ARTICLE 25
Please be sure to review Article 25 and the time limits for each step to keep a grievance in the pipeline and active. We also have a link to the grievance form to the left, which you can print out and use. If you do not have a steward available and need to file a grievance in a timely manner, please contact your local for assistance, there is a link to their emails below. We do not want people to miss a time limit to file a grievance or appeal it to the next step. It is the employee/grievant's responsibility to advance the grievance to the next step once they get the oral reply or written response at each level. Please keep your steward and or local in the loop in case the company fails to copy the steward or local in on their response to your grievance. Always remember to list a REMEDY on your grievance, which is what you would like if you win the grievance, for example, to be allowed to work the overtime you were bypassed for.
PAYROLL ISSUE
There have been some problems with members being paid the incorrect amount when returning from furlough. Please check with your local rep when you are recalled to be sure you have been advised correctly regarding your rate of pay and your pay seniority. See the link to your local below if you do not have a steward in your city.
