This past week Chairmen from Grievance Committees across the country met in Buffalo. The group consisted of representatives from all the airlines included in District 141. A presentation was given by the IAM National Pension Fund regarding the newly established plan on United. The representative from the IAM plan noted that decisions related to the pension plan are made by the plan Trustees, not the union. She also noted they considered United a poor risk based on their previous experience with bankrupt airlines and the responsibility of the Trustees was the protection of the Plan itself more than the members covered by the Plan. Therefore, United employees will have a different monthly benefit than others in the plan, at least until United proves itself by consistently making timely payments on behalf of their employees. She also noted that United had not yet delivered the necessary employee information that will allow the completion of the establishment of the Plan. Once the requ
ired information is given the Plan will send each individual a letter notifying them of their participation in the IAM National Pension. She did reassure the Chairmen that United has been making the required monthly payments. Once the notification letters are sent, station visit information meetings will be conducted by representatives of the Pension Plan.

President Canale updated the Chairmen on the status of the Convertible Notes. It is expected that the issuance, sale and distribution of the proceeds will be done during the month of August. As reported previously, the money generated by the sale of the Convertible Notes will be deposited in the 401(k) accounts of the eligible recipients. President Canale noted that the value of the notes was unknown at this time and would be influenced by things such as United's 2nd Quarter profit/loss statement and the increasing cost of fuel. He reminded the Chairmen that any money derived from the Convertible Notes, even the projected several thousand dollars per person, would not make up for the loss the members suffered after the termination of the United pension plan.

United Airlines got the commitments of tax relief they were looking for from the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois and then agreed to move the super-headquarters to downtown Chicago. Chicago had already promised United over $4 million in special tax relief but the pot was sweetened last week when both the city and state agreed to introduce legislation that would grant United five years of fuel tax surcharge reductions. It is expected that this fuel tax relief is about 3 time more valuable than the relocation tax benefits already promised. United will also be receiving over $1 million in job training funds from the State of Illinois. Since only the top executives are moving to the new facility we can only hope that the State of Illinois has some kind of CEO training program that is being made available to Mr. Tilton.

The judge presiding over the Mesaba bankruptcy case gave permission to the carrier to abrogate the contracts of the pilots, flight attendants, and the mechanics last week. The judge had previously denied the request of the airline claiming the airline was witholding information from the unions and was not bargaining in good faith. The judge reversed himself last week saying that all parties were now at fault, including Northwest Airlines. Mesaba's whole reason for being is to serve as a feeder for NWA. NWA is putting so much pressure on Mesaba to reduce costs that the carrier is insisting that the flight crews and mechanics take a 19.4% wage reduction immediately. That size reduction for employees of a regional carrier will place some employees, including pilots, under the federally recognized poverty level. The airline has been given the right to impose new terms of employment at any time they wish, there is no deadline. The pilots (ALPA) and flight attendants (AFA) have already said they would strike in the event of abrogation. The mechanics (AMFA) have said they would make a claim in bankruptcy court as a creditor to try to recover the lost value of their contract.

The union members on NWA have reacted to the forced concessionary contracts in similar ways. The ALPA members voted their Executive Council Chairman out of office shortly after he reached an agreement with the carrier. Last week it was announced that IAM members on NWA voted the President of District 143 out of office after he reached an agreement with NWA. The flight attendants rejected the whole union 2 weeks ago and voted to join the AFA. It is unfortunate that the leaders of each union were held responsible for the demands and actions of NWA but as Bob DePace, the longtime President of District 143 said "they couldn't go after the company so they took it out on us." Even Steve Gordon, who ran against DePace, noted that the President had provided solid leadership for 12 years.

Although the AFA has only been on the job for about a week at NWA they have met with the Company regarding contract concessions, prior to the July 17th court declared abrogation date. The AFA has notified the airline that if the contract is abrogated they will engage in the AFA form of a strike known as CHAOS. This could include a full scale shut down of the airline or it could mean a single flight, airport, or daylong withholding of service by flight attendants. NWA has said, as all other airlines have said before them, that they think a strike is illegal.

Rich

The IAM 141 Chairmans Conference is being held this week, July 11 - 13th in Buffalo New York.

More information to come on key topics discussed. Visit the photo gallery for more pictures. Also visit www.iam141.org for the latest union updates.