AVIATION PROFESSIONALT E A M S T E R

Newsletter of the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition

On August 26 and 27, members of the Teamsters Aviation MechanicsCoalition (TAMC) came to Washington, D.C. to air their grievancesand fight to improve airline safety. TAMC Chairman Chris Moore led

the effort to meet with a bipartisan group of policy experts and legislative staff.He was joined by International Representative and TAMC Board Member BobFisher; Gary Kagel, a member of the TAMC Steering Committee from Local769; Tom Reid, a TAMC Steering Committee member from Local 210; andGreg Unterseher, a business agent from Local 1224.

The TAMC requested that global drug testing standards be brought intouniform parity so that testing can be fair and equal for all airline mechanics.Airline repair stations exist all over the world and many carriers based in theUnited States outsource their repairs to foreign countries.

Each nation has different standards for their drug testing, some of whichare lower than the standards in the United States. Additionally, the TAMC lob-bied for a moratorium on the certification of new repair stations worldwidefollowing three consecutive reports by the U.S. Office of the Inspector Generaldetailing an extensive failure by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) toproperly oversee existing repair stations. The TAMC believes that if the FAAcannot oversee existing repair stations, new ones should not be certified until

On August 18-19, 2015, the Teamsters Air-line Mechanics Coalition (TAMC), in

conjunction with the Teamsters Airline Divi-sion and Local 618, sponsored Go Team train-ing at Local 618 in St. Louis. Gilbert Olarte,Brendan McQuillan and Tony Pape are pilotsthat attended from Locals 357 and 1108, andmechanics Gary Kagel (UAL), Vic Austin(UAL), and Bill Johnson (UAL) from Locals455, 769 and 856, attended the two-day coursewhich was led by former two-term NationalTransportation Safety Board (NTSB) memberand industry safety expert John Goglia. Also inattendance was Airline Division RepresentativePaul Alves. Colonel Alves, who spent 25 yearsinvestigating accidents during his United StatesAir Force career, added a new dimension toGoglia’s course by providing insight into themany investigations he conducted.

The two-day “basic” training covered whatto expect at an accident site as well as theNTSB expectations for those who are granted“party status.” In addition, proper conduct atthe accident site, as well as analysis and discus-sion of many past accidents, were covered.

NTSB Go Team Training

Volume 6, Issue 3

Fight for Safety

TAMC Lobbies for Parity in Drug Testing,Moratorium on New Repair Stations

continued on page 2continued on page 3

Teamster airline mechan-ics take a great deal of

pride in their craft and somehave recently risen from theranks to achieve the mostprestigious award that anaviation mechanic can re-ceive: The Charles TaylorMaster Mechanic Award.Named for the first poweredflight mechanic, Charles

Taylor, the award recognizes the lifetime achievements of airline mechan-ics in the airline industry. These Teamsters recently received this award:

Russ LewisRuss Lewis was a dedicated mechanic for United Airlines. The WorldWar II veteran, he flew B-24 Liberators in the Pacific theater, workedfor United for over 65 years, never retiring, and passed away in August2013. Lewis was an amazing mechanic and was highly respected forhis work ethic, his skill set and his passion for his craft. A ceremony washeld where his family received both the Charles Taylor Award and theMaster Pilot Award, an extremely rare feat in the aviation industry.

Bruce RollinBruce Rollin is a metrologist in the San Francisco International Air-port Metrology Department. Born in Moline, Ill, his family moved tothe Bay Area after World War II, where he has lived ever since. Rollinis a Navy veteran and learned electric work in the service, a skill thathelped lay the foundation for his current career. He is very active inthe union, having logged around 30 total years as a shop steward, andcontinues to assist his co-workers to this day. Rollin’s manager submit-ted the initial application for him to be considered for the CharlesTaylor Award, in recognition of his significant accomplishments forthe company as well as his dedication to fostering a good working re-lationship between the company and its workforce.

Larry KuntzLarry Kuntz was hired by United Airlines on April 6, 1970, and hasworked throughout the base, primarily in the engine shop, ever since.He has been passionate about aircraft since he was a child, growingup in Kansas and watching airplanes fly overhead near Schilling AirForce Base. Currently, he works on PW4000 engines. Before workingat United, Kuntz served the United States in the Navy aboard the USSRanger, as a sheet metal mechanic. He became a certified welderwhile in the Navy. His FAA award ceremony was held March 26,2015, and was attended by three generations of the Kuntz family,along with about 100 co-workers. Kuntz is respected for his meticu-lous nature at work. These attributes serve him well on the two farmshe owns where he grows wheat, soybeans and hay.

Newsletter of the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition 2

Teamsters Receive Charles A. Taylor Award

Because on site accident investigation is ex-tremely hazardous, the Teamsters also providedblood-borne pathogen (BBP) training as part ofthe Go Team training. Enjoli DeGrasse, Indus-trial Hygienist from the Teamsters Safety andHealth Department, who provides this trainingfor the Airline Division, was on hand to train thestudents in the event that they have to deploy tothe scene of an aircraft accident. DeGrasse cov-ered subjects related to BBP, Ebola and properuse of personal protective equipment.

The TAMC and Airline Division would liketo thank Local 618 Secretary-Treasurer MarvinKropp and the entire Executive Board for pro-viding the meeting space, with a special thanksto Local 618 Vice President Tom Cole and Local618 staff member Sandy Clark for coordinatingthe event.

NTSB Training continued from page 1

all of the existing stations are able to be exam-ined for compliance on a regular basis.

Moore was pleased with the meetings and ishopeful that action on these items can happensoon. “Our number-one goal is to improvesafety and conditions for airline mechanics andthe flying public. To that extent, these past twodays have been full of productive and informa-tive meetings with policy makers across the po-litical spectrum and I’m hoping we can get someattention paid to these issues,” Moore said.

Captain David Bourne, Director of theTeamsters Airline Division, applauded the ef-forts of the TAMC to pressure lawmakers on air-line safety issues.

“I’m grateful for the work of the entireTAMC. The FAA needs to remember their com-mitment to the safety of the flying public. Theefforts of the TAMC are important in keepingthe spotlight on these issues,” Bourne said.

Fight for Safety continued from page 1

Newsletter of the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition 3

Teamster mechanics from United andUPS were at the FAA Safety Info Sharein Dallas on September 15, 16 and 17,

to discuss safety issues that affect aviationprofessionals throughout all crafts. A partic-ular focus of the meeting was the disturbingtrend by management to force disciplineinto the Aviation Safety Action Program(ASAP). The discipline issue had been brew-ing for years and in recent months hasthreatened to boil over due to a challenge toASAP Advisory Circular (AC) 120-66B fromone carrier.

The issue at hand was consensus andwhether a carrier can discipline if all threeparties do not agree. The AC states that inthe absence of a consensus, the FAA has theability to act as the tie breaker and accept thereport into the program. The carrier’s posi-tion held that only a unanimous decision bythe FAA’s Event Review Committee (ERC)

can result in an accepted report, and that theFAA member cannot accept that report butcan only decide “how the report will be han-dled” and that the term “handled” only per-tains to the appropriate exercise of the FAA’s“legal and regulatory authority” rather thanaccepting the report into the ASAP.

However, the FAA rebuts that idea stat-ing the FAA’s ERC member’s acceptance of areport in the absence of a consensus doesnot convert the ASAP into an amnesty pro-gram. In fact, the FAA ERC member maydecide to exclude a report thus dissuadingmembers from filing a report in an effort toavoid enforcement action.

Although this case is an extreme exam-ple, most Teamster ERC members are re-porting the same trend toward discipline.For that reason, members from many of thelabor union ERCs in attendance met inde-pendently of the Info Share breakouts to

compare notes and examine this trendacross all crafts and the industry.

During the meeting it became evidentthe every labor union ERC member hasbeen hearing the term “get out of jail freecard” as management’s description of theprogram. Even more troubling is the evi-dence that more and more managers are at-tempting to exert undue pressure on theirERC members to exclude reports so that dis-cipline can be administered. This trend, asevidenced across the industry, is proof thatmore and more senior managers are losingsight of or have no concept of the value ofthe ASAP program.

The Airline Division and the TAMC areworking hard to change this mindset andcontinue to fight carriers and the FAA everytime they violate AC 120-66B, the memo-randum of understanding or the non-disci-plinary letters of agreement.

Teamsters Promote Aviation Safety at FAA Safety Info Share Meeting

ExpressJetLead union negotiator Bob Luciano andTeamsters Airline Division representativeChris Moore, accompanied by a Teamsterstaff economist, met with ExpressJet ChiefOperations Officer Alex Marren, VicePresident of Maintenance Bob Madiganand Senior Director Lon Ziegler on July13, 2015. The purpose of the meeting anddiscussions, outside of the mediated ne-gotiations for two separate agreementsthat are being conducted with a federalmediator, are to determine if there isenough common ground to try to reach asingle agreement.

Although there are great differences ina number of key areas, both sides agreedthat it would be worth the effort to con-vene the negotiating committee(s) to tryto reach a single agreement. Outside ofthe federal mediation process that boththe legacy ExpressJet and legacy AtlanticSoutheast Airlines are involved in, theTeamster leadership agreed to a meetingwith a combined negotiating committee

to explore how progress could be made ona joint collective bargaining agreement.

The talks, which occurred September15-17 in Atlanta, centered on using the cur-rent ExpressJet agreement as the template.Over 10 separate sections were discussed,with tentative agreements initialed onthree. Four others are close to agreementand the other sections were discussed sepa-rately by each side to see if consensus wasclose. The parties will set up future datesand locations to resume talks.

NetJetsYour committee reviewed, corrected andpassed Articles 8 (grievance) and Article20 (training) to the company for its re-view. The committee is composed of tech-nicians John Wolfe, Isaac Thielman, FredPrice, Thomas Freeman and Local 284President Paul Suffoletto, and Interna-tional Representatives Paul Alves andChris Moore. The committee also workedon cleaning up Article 29 (field service).

There is still more to consider on this

article and the Teamsters will continuework on it at the next set of meetings. Onthe morning of September 2 the unionworked on Article 16 (holidays). TheTeamsters received Articles 7, 13, 14 and 20back from the company and started reviewof the company proposals. On the after-noon of September 2 the union met withNetJets management about Article 8(grievance) and reached a tentative agree-ment for that article. The parties went overArticle 7 (union representation), Article 13(bereavement), Article 14 (leaves of ab-sence) and Article 20/ 20A with the com-pany committee. There is still more workto do on those articles. After the meetingwith the company, the Teamsters workedon Article 14 (leaves of absence) and sentit back to the company for their review.

On September 3 there was a meetingat the union hall with the Teamster staffeconomist. The union went over a presen-tation given by the company two weeksprior concerning costs of the hanger oper-ation. The union finished up correctionsto Article 13 (bereavement) and sent it

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Newsletter of the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition 4

back to the company for review. The dayconcluded by having a discussion regard-ing Article 14 (leaves of absence) and thetemporary air boss position.

The negotiating committee workedinternally on October 5 and October 6.The negotiating committee for this roundof talks was comprised of techniciansJohn Wolfe, Isaac Thielman, Fred Priceand Thomas Freeman, Local 284 Presi-dent Paul Suffoletto and Airline DivisionInternational Representatives Paul Alvesand Chris Moore.

On October 5, the hanger and multi-crew cooperation subcommittees metseparately from the Teamsters’ representa-tives. The committee worked on Article22 (job classifications), went over thecompany proposal for Article 16 (holi-days) and reviewed Article 25 (sick leave).On October 6, the committee met as awhole. The committee made severalchanges to Article 16 (holidays). Thecommittee also started to work on Article27 (shifts and days off). On October 7, thecommittee finished the changes to Article16 (holidays) and submitted it to the com-pany for its review. The committee startedwork on Article 30 (vacations). Afterlunch, the committee met with companyrepresentatives. The company decided tocaucus on Article 16 (holidays) and gavethe committee Article 20 (training) andArticle 31 (seniority) to review. Talks con-cluded for the day and the committeeworked separately on Article 20 (training)for the rest of the evening. On October 8,the committee met with the company allday and deep into the evening discussingArticle 20 (training). The result of thosetalks was a tentative agreement on Article20 (training). The union and the companyare coordinating dates in November tocontinue negotiations.

UALThe parties met in Las Vegas the week ofJuly 27, 2015, at the direction of the fed-eral mediator. The process of working insubcommittees continued through thesession. Several articles (listed below) re-quired adjustment/clarification prior toreaching tentative agreements. The flight

simulations test negotiations committeeand the company met through the weekto discuss language applying to their craft.

Discussions continued on Article 16(benefits). The company’s Article 16 pro-posal was presented and meetings wereheld to clarify their positions on severalitems. The full benefits committee will bepresent, and briefed, on the results ofthose talks during the August 10 session.This will happen before the article is pre-sented to the full rank-and-file negotiat-ing committee. Input is required fromTeamCare on costing issues. Once ap-proved by the committee, the counter-proposal will be presented to thecompany. The Article 14 (safety andhealth) subcommittee had productive dis-cussions during the week and presentedthe article to the full committee for ap-proval. This was then passed to the com-pany. The company countered, and thesubcommittee is in the process of review.Discussions will continue with the com-pany during the next session.

A tentative agreement was reached onArticle 5 (vacancies) late on the evening ofJuly 30 along with a letter of agreementregarding how supervisors that hold sen-iority may return to the craft in the fu-ture. Article 6 (recall) discussions areongoing, but will need input from legalprior to finalizing language for this article.Article 21 (general and misc.) and Article22 (transportation) were finalized in sub-committee. These articles were reviewedby the negotiations committee and a ten-tative agreement was reached.

A special committee on workers at theJohn F. Kennedy International Airport(JFK) met with company representativesin ongoing discussions regarding issuessurrounding members stationed at thatairport. It is the goal of this committee tominimize disruptions for members inNew York. The tenor of the talks re-mained positive through this session.

Negotiations resumed August 10 inLas Vegas at the direction of the mediator.Among the items addressed was a Team-sters counter proposal to Article 16 (healthand welfare), letters of agreement, and Ar-ticle 3 (facilities maintenance) issues. Thefacilities committee was very close to

agreement on language terms for this sec-tion. Further discussions were held re-garding JFK with three letters ofagreement signed, preserving as manylocal positions as practicable. The manage-ment skills assessment program was alsodiscussed in a separate subcommittee.

The Teamsters Health and Welfaresubcommittee met on August 11 in an in-ternal caucus with Teamsters Legal Coun-sel Ed Gleason and Benefits ActuaryGaelle Gravot of Cheiron, to address lan-guage issues in the Article 16 proposal aswell as developing a counter to the com-pany’s most recent proposal. Theamended Teamsters health care proposalwas passed to the company. A newcounter proposal from the company is ex-pected in the next round of talks.

Letters of agreement from all threecollective bargaining agreements were dis-cussed, resulting in some new letters ofagreement which were discussed to ad-dress new circumstances or clarify existingones. In addition, some obsolete letters ofagreement were removed by mutualagreement. Some existing letters of agree-ment will be amended as changes to con-tract language dictate.

Tentative agreements were reached forArticle 3 and Article 6. There are a few let-ters of agreement tied to these articleswhich still remain open. Article 14 wasdiscussed through the week and greatprogress was made toward the finalizationof this article.

Members from the Seniority Com-mittee continue to work on merging thelists. Unfortunately, this small group is notable to work continuously due to schedul-ing conflicts with other meetings involv-ing the company’s representative to thecommittee or the Teamsters committeemembers. Although the meeting oppor-tunities are limited, the committee re-mains on hand to take advantage of anyavailability to meet and continue mergingthe list.

During the week, the committee con-tinued to address adjustments in com-pany seniority and put together achecklist for the next meeting. The com-mittee spent a majority of their time to-gether resolving many outstanding

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seniority disputes from many mechanicworkstations. The union was able to re-solve most of these protests to the satisfac-tion of the members. Some of thesecomplaints had been several years old andthe union was pleased that many of thesematters were settled.

There will be subcommittee meetingsscheduled, between the next scheduledround of formal negotiations in Septem-ber, to address language on several re-maining non-economic articles. Allagreements reached in these meetingswill come before the full committee forreview and approval prior to beingsigned. A meeting was held September 1at TeamCare headquarters in Rosemont,Ill. TeamCare and union representativesdiscussed outstanding issues related, forthe most part, to administration aspectsof the benefits proposal. Prior to thismeeting, the Union Benefits committeereceived the information from UnitedAirlines for 2016 benefits and costs.Meetings were held through the weekend(12-hour sessions) and into the week inan effort to conclude the bargaining andreach an equitable deal for the member-ship. United passed a comprehensiveproposal to the union on Saturday, Sep-tember 5. The committee at-large andvarious subcommittees spent Sunday,September 6 in discussions to develop acomprehensive counter proposal. Talkswere then adjourned for that session.

The union presented the counter onMonday, September 30, and spent thenext day waiting on a response from thecompany. While waiting, subcommitteescontinued working out the final remain-ing open issues.

Both parties’ proposals included the“four corners” needed to achieve anagreement: wages, health care, scope andpension, but the final vision of the twosides remains drastically different. Theunion had hoped that the change in lead-ership at United would create a more re-alistic direction in finally fulfilling theirlongstanding promise to technicians. Wehad also hoped that the new regimewould recognize the sacrifices and hardwork by workers to help create the mostprofitable quarters ever enjoyed by thiscompany. Unfortunately, the new direc-tion that has been advertised to the pub-lic has not yet made its way down to thecompany negotiators.

Although both parties worked longhours throughout the two weeks, it be-came clear that bargaining would notconclude with an agreement in principleduring this session. The direction of thecompany made it evident that wouldneed to expand their economic platformif they intend to come close to members’expectations.

With that realization, talks were sus-pended for this session. The union wantsthe company representatives to go back to

their leadership and discuss the currentsituation. The union is prepared to con-tinue working toward reaching an agree-ment that will satisfy the membership orthe union will move to the next step of thebargaining process. Hopefully the com-pany will recognize the opportunity that isnow available to them and make some realefforts to create a fix.

Earlier this summer, a neutral arbitra-tor held that United violated the UAL Col-lective Bargaining Agreement by imposinga 90% co-insurance obligation on em-ployees who participate in the HMOs,Aetna Select Plans and HMSA. The arbi-trator directed the company and theunion to negotiate an appropriate remedy,and she retained jurisdiction over the casein the event the parties were unable toreach an agreed-upon remedy. Recogniz-ing the great length of time that it wouldtake to secure an arbitration award if theparties had to go back to the arbitrator fora second hearing to determine the appro-priate remedy, the union entered into set-tlement negotiations with the company.The union’s objective was to ensure thatthe 100% co-insurance is restored and theemployees who incurred costs on accountof the company’s violation of the CBA’s100’s co-insurance obligation are fully re-imbursed. After numerous meetings anddiscussions with the company, the unionhas secured both of those objectives inearly October.

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Newsletter of the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition 5

TAMC ONLINECheck out previous issues of the Teamster Aviation Professional atwww.teamsterair.org/tamc/newsletter.

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