July, 2008–Furlough and United C.S. Buy Out report coming soon.
Meanwhile here’s everything else:

Local Lodge Elections New Direction Slate Wins District Lodge Seats IAM “Not Ready” to Endorse Obama Dependability Issues? Thank Arnold QSP On The Rise The Great Dues Debate The Latest Aviation News Clips Labor News From Cal-Fed Visit Sister’s archives in her “Old & Bitter” section

This Fall: Local Lodge 1782 Elections

Every three years, Members of our Local Lodge elect officers and executive board members. The term of current officers expires this December, 2008. Newly elected local officers are seated in January, 2009. All positions are up for election, including Local Lodge President, Vice President, Recording Secretary, Secretary-Treasurer, Conductor-Sentinel, and all three Trustees. Currently holding these positions are Greg Brown, President; Gael Abayon, V.P., Patricia Nolan, R.S., Blake Jenkins, S.T., Marie Tirona, C.S., and as Trustees, Scott Rothstein, Doug Gutierrez, and Laura Halliday. The executive board consists of two additional positions, both appointed by the elected president: Educator (currently Deb Abeyta) and Communicator (currently Mike Mancini).

As with the recently concluded District Lodge officers elections, the official position of the IAM Local Lodge on elections, including its own, is always “neutral.”

Members Favor “A New Direction” in District Officers Election

A majority of votes cast nationwide at three airlines favor the slate of “A New Direction” by three-to-one margins. The month long voting process concluded on June 26. The Grand Lodge is expected to tally and announce official results.

Greg Brown Elected Trustee with A New Direction

The current Local Lodge 1782 President, Greg Brown, is entitled to serve both offices concurrently. Greg’s role as District Trustee carries the potential of having an important voice for Customer Service workers in the district.

IAM District 141 represents members of our local, along with other transportation locals nationwide at United Airlines, U.S. Airways, and Hawaiian Airlines. District representation is at the national level and covers two important areas: Contract negotiations, and defending individual members against  serious company allegations and contract violations.

IAM switching to Obama?

Not so fast says the Grand Lodge in it’s recent I-Mail. The IAM was one of the earliest supporters of Hillary Clinton, and on the Republican side Mike Huckabee. Now with both out of the race, the question is what next?

“Now is not the right time for the IAM to endorse Senator Barack Obama,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger. Also declining to endorse Obama for President was the Transportation Communications Union (TCU). Other unions also voted “present” or abstained.

“Our members feel the economy squeezing their family finances for every last dime, every single week. They care deeply about incessant increases in utility rates, auto and health insurance rates, mortgage and credit card interest rates; and, most disturbing, rising unemployment rates,” said Buffenbarger. “But those meat and potato issues have not found a place in the message frame developed by Senator Obama’s campaign. To us, hope and change are not antidotes to the economic pressures blue-collar families face. They are just words.”

Citing Obama’s inability to find support among many blue-collar workers, Buffenbarger said he looked forward to a productive conversation with Senator Obama about policies that can resonate with blue-collar democrats. “As they demonstrated in state after state, these voters respond overwhelmingly to a candidate who will fight to improve their lives. And they are just not there yet,” said Buffenbarger. “Nor are we.”

Meanwhile let’s hope that working families don't rush to support More-Of-The-Same McCain.

Dependability Issues? Thank the Dependanator

First the good news

Assembly Bill AB 2716 (Fiona Ma–Democrat), the Healthy Families, Healthy Workplaces Act, passed the California Assembly on a party line vote of 45 to 33. It is expected to pass the Democrat controlled state senate this week.

AB 2716 allows workers to earn paid sick days that can be used to recover from illness, care for a sick family member, or recover from domestic violence or sexual assault. What’s more is it prevents corporations from disciplining employees with a legitimate need for sick time.

Passing both state assembly and senate, it heads to the Republican governor

The Dependanator has indicated this worker-friendly bill will be vetoed in support of corporations doing business in California. What that means is this. The next time the union is at your side defending you against a biased dependability charge, you may have your own elected Republican governor to thank for dependability woes -- in spite of the will of “zee pee peel af Cally Forn Yah.”

Quality Standards Spreading

Separate from the sick time bill working its way through the state is “QSP” or Quality Standards Program. QSP is specific to the city and county of San Francisco, including SFO International Airport. QSP seeks to set a floor on wages and benefits. A similar measure may surface in San Jose.

Local 1782, Other Leaders Lobby QSP

Ongoing meetings with labor coalitions and airport commissions, attended by our local, have identified serious weaknesses in the existing bill. Measures to strengthen enforcement of QSP at San Francisco International Airport are being sought. It is a labor issue by creating job security. If United Airlines for example wishes to contract work, and the expenses of that contractor are comparable to United’s own expenses, then working people benefit in two ways: Better pay & benefits, and job security, because the contract-company is less competitive.

A future goal for QSP is to spread it nationwide, using San Francisco and possibly San Jose as precedents for doing so. Airports as close to us as Oakland, CA suffer from work standards that include barely more than a minimum pay.

Take forty seconds to sign the petition

Signing the petition demonstrates support for The Employee Free Choice Act. This is legislation that makes it easier for a working American to join a union, harder for companies to harass workers who seek to do so, and supports the economy by protecting middle class jobs here at home.

Aviation Briefs

Top Sister McBitter fans may want to tackle this cheery bullet list last – after bloody marys and anti-depressants. It’s the aviation industry update (Separate article coming to summarize United furloughs and buyout):

• Continental joins Mileage Plus; IAM Grand Lodge V.P. Robert Roach refers to it as another pre-cursor to merger, somewhere down the road. He warns that the IAM must be advised of all details.
• Continental ditches OneWorld; Joins Star Alliance. Sixteen transatlantic destinations from the New York / Newark airport are added overnight to United's code sharing stew. Continental's Houston hub further extends domestic networks. USA Today aviation writer David Grossman generally applauds the Continental shift, imaginatively terming it “cataclysmic.” The effect on labor of extended alliances appears more neutral than the always-negative effect of outright mergers.
• IATA Conference in Istanbul debuts fancy planes; Attracts top airline brass.
  Tilton And His Tiltonettes attend; Look at planes nobody can afford to buy, but hey–the trip was flashy and paid for by you & me.
• Shrink The Airline; Raise Executive Pay.
  News is out of UA plans to ground the 737 fleet. The number of salaried and management employees and contractors employed by United will be reduced by a total of 1,400 to 1,600, including the previously announced 500 jobs to be cut by the end of this year. Shrinking your way to success is a business plan –the latest embraced by UAL’s Chief Executive Arse and his Sewer Of Directors– with a 100% record of failure. At least he’s given up on mergers, another losing plan.
• Coalition Demands Shareholder Bill Of Rights
  “When UAL executives continue to be rewarded for lack of performance, the system is clearly broken,” stated the Union Coalition at United Airlines, which represents more than 48,900 employees including pilots, flight attendants, machinists, engineers, and controllers. The coalition calls for UAL Corp. to grant shareholders a say on future decisions regarding executive compensation. The statement comes on the heels of a recent decision by the UAL board to approve a plan worth as much as $130 million in extra incentives for company executives, according to Sara Nelson, a spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.
• Bye, Bye Teddy 2004-2009
  The paint cans come out this year to gloss over Tilton’s born-in-bankruptcy farce, returning those aircraft to the mainline fleet
• Washington Post: “UA Worst Run Airline. Ever.”
  It used to be Sister McBitter lashing out at the clueless Tilton. Now it’s mainstream media. The good news is that buried deep within United Airlines is a wealth of talented employees with some degree of loyalty. Is it possible for a visionary leader to unlock the potential?
• United Flight Attendants get a bail out plan. Just recently so has Customer Service.

Labor News

• Supreme Court Strikes Down Landmark Labor Bill
• Boeing Workers Win Major Victory Over Outsourcing
• Workers Join Assembly Leader To Say No To Worker Takeaways
• Senate Banking Committee Kills Foreclosure Prevention Package
  

United States Supreme Court Strikes Down Landmark Labor Bill

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down California’s landmark law that prohibits employers from using state funds to assist, promote, or deter union organizing. This decision is yet one more in a string of pro-business, anti-worker and anti-consumer Supreme Court rulings in the past several years.

Taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be used to fight workers trying to have a union. Unfortunately, the right to organize is under attack in California and across the country, as workers are routinely fired, threatened, and intimidated for supporting a union. More than 75 percent of employers hire anti-union consultants to prevent workers from joining a union.

Boeing Workers Win Major Victory Over Outsourcing

On Wednesday, workers at Boeing rejoiced when the Government Accountability Office announced the Air Force made a mistake by taking away a major defense contract and granting it to a European company. The Air Force’s decision to outsource the contract would have resulted in layoffs of more than 40,000 U.S. aerospace workers at Boeing.

The GAO decision shows that Boeing won the contract, and is the most qualified to build a smaller, more fuel-efficient tanker that can land more places. Workers are urging Congress to demand that the Air Force return the contract to Boeing immediately. Workers Join Assembly Leader To Say No To Worker Takeaways

Say NO To Worker Take-Aways

On Wednesday, union members joined Assembly Speaker Karen Bass to denounce Republican proposals to roll back lunch break protections, the 8-hour day, and environmental protections as part of budget negotiations.

"When you give employers 'flexibility,' you are really just giving them a license to abuse workers' rights," said David Burrows, a member of Teamsters 150. He also talked about the safety risks from making workers skip lunch breaks and work when they are hungry or fatigued.

Senate Banking Committee Kills Foreclosure Prevention Package

In an effort to help working families across the state who are facing home foreclosures, declining home values, and sky-rocketing interest rates, the California Labor Federation sponsored several bills to regulate the home lending industry. AB 1830 (Lieu) would ban abusive lending practices; AB 2740 (Brownley) would prohibit abusive servicing practices, and AB 2359 (Jones) would outlaw involuntary waivers of a borrower’s rights as a condition of a loan. The whole thing was killed by the banking committee, headed by a person whose district has one of the highest rates of foreclosure.

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