National Association of Airline Professionals (NAAP)

BruinsFan said:
Bogey...what you stated was the desired result of both the Company and the Union. The company actually has been trying to do what you advocate for a while. The issue that has been raised is contractual. The issue boils down to this. Most of the senior dispatchers are blockholders per the contract. Our contract says that blockholder shifts may only be changed under very specific circumstances. The merger related activities do not appear to be on that list. Now enters the project line language in the contract. The nine new hires have essentially created "project lines." But because new lines are created...any dispatcher on the floor should have the first right to bid said line (which includes weekends off). However..the company tried to solicit help without consulting the union...which angered the union. Even so....I believe only three senior dispatchers on the floor volunteered from the domestic side...with a few on the international side which doesnt help the new hire group because they will not be qualified internationally until the Robert Baker IOC opens. And you cant use domestic blockholders to fill international desks without asking them...and I don't know too many domestic dispatchers who are eager to work the international side. So that is in a nutshell why the new hires are locked into the merger stuff. As for the reason the new hires haven't actually been checked off yet....what it boils down to is Kimball Stone is afraid of a greivance being filed as to why the new hires can get signed off and have weekends off right off the bat. Given the amount of greivances that are sitting on the arbitrators desk...this is the last thing both sides want.
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Bruins,
So do you think the company didn't tell the union why they were hiring a class? Do you believe that Danny had no idea? That sounds strange. Down here, the company put out a letter asking for volunteers to help with the project and that the new hire class from last fall would back fill after check out.

Maybe while Danny is trying to get all the things AA has and US doesn't with LOAs, he can try to get an LOA that allows the block holders to go do merger activities while you check out. Maybe the company would a little more responsive. He shouldn't be using you as pawns for leverage.
 
"Mel...I have tried to reach out to AA people about this issue. I specifically addressed the 542 board (before the actions that the international took this week) because I do believe my views on this need to be heard to be represented as do The response I got from 542 was "it is not appropriate for us to have conversations with 545 members at this time".

Bruins,
Maybe at the time it's wasn't best for a board member to respond to you. Do you anyone else at AA? At this point anyone you talk to here is going to be pro NAAP and most people, with some exception are pro Plowman. Same for Pascale, but Danny and the international has you tainted towards them. As you state that nobody knows more in PIT, nobody knows more then them two here. Maybe you should try Pascale.
 
Bogey2 said:
Bruins,
So do you think the company didn't tell the union why they were hiring a class? Do you believe that Danny had no idea? That sounds strange. Down here, the company put out a letter asking for volunteers to help with the project and that the new hire class from last fall would back fill after check out.

Maybe while Danny is trying to get all the things AA has and US doesn't with LOAs, he can try to get an LOA that allows the block holders to go do merger activities while you check out. Maybe the company would a little more responsive. He shouldn't be using you as pawns for leverage.
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Danny knew that the company wanted to hire us for this purpose....and actually told the company repeatedly that by hiring us....these issues would come up. He even was wondering why the company was hiring so many people up here and actually told the company that they were jumping the gun in hiring us. Marc Gross decided to hire 12 anyways. A couple of months later the company up here put out the same letter that you guys saw asking for merger related help. Not long after this came out...Danny put out a letter saying that the company did not follow the process outlined in our contract by putting the email out...specifically because of language in the 545 contract that refers to special projects. That particular issue was later resolved. That being said though, there were not many takers from our group on the merger related activities front...leaving us new hires stuck on those projects. When this was realized...Kimball Stone made the decision to suspend comp checks fearing a grievance from a senior dispatcher about us getting weekends off as signed off new hires.

As far as allowing the blockholders to do merger stuff so we can check out...there is nothing preventing that from happening, aside from the fact that none of the blockholders want anything to do with the merger stuff. (Adopt and Go AA has become an evil term here) An LOA stating that company can pull workers off for Merger related activities would get us signed off...but would also make a lot folks angry out on the floor.

As for who I know at AA. Pascale was on the interview panel when I interviewed at legacy AA, and being familiar with my application there may put us both in an awkward position. The only other guy I know from there is Jason Vycital, also a board member, and that was from a networking attempt on FB when I tried to apply there.

My thoughts on Plowman werent formed by Danny at all. In fact Danny even told me that he felt bad for most of the 542 board because they were put in an impossible situation. I have never met John, but it should known that half the US group here in PIT consists of former 542 members who were represented by John Plowman. Most of them do not feel that Plowman acted in their best interests while they were at America West. I have never met the guy, but some of what I have seen leads me to believe he acts in his own interests more than others.
 
Well I've know John for over 20 years. I feel he has always acted in my best interest and not his own. Sometimes we may not get what we want as members and it's easy to place blame on the leadership. Anyway, doesn't seem like Pascale would work. Try Jason. He is a former TWA guy and I think he just got on the board recently.
 
Wow, a senior guy would file a grievance because you got weekends off?

At AA, everyone has the same amount of weekends off. Everyone! We are all pretty much equal when it comes to that.
 
Well Bogey...that's where the 4244 schedule comes into play. The way the new hires schedule is now set up....we are basically working Tuesday-Friday...with Saturday and Sunday off, the Monday through Thursday on...and off Friday through Monday. With AA being 636366 this isn't as big an issue which is probably why they had more luck with legacy AA than US. I do like the schedule as it basically means 16 working days in a month for most months...where as legacy AA it is 18 or 19 depending on the month.
 
Yeah, that's the biggest hurdle to get over. You drive to work 11 less days a year and we work 224 hours less then you do. Hours worked drives hourly rate. So we work less and make more, but I get some people want to trade off more money to drive less days.
 
The truth is that very few us dispatchers actually work 9.5 hours...and it's closer to 8. Personally...what I want to see is the 4244 schedule with 8 hour shifts. That gets our two groups about even on hours...gets the hourly rate up...and gives you guys more days off.
 
Even senior guys here don't want set days off. They like the rotation and the 6 day break.

And I'm sure you know, here, you will work your scheduled hours. They will not pay you not to be here. That is just not efficient and Delta just went after their 9 and 10 hour shifts. That's why the money didn't go up. They are paying to keep it. I hear AA wants 8 hours for everyone and everyone will work 8 hours.

Being out in the middle of corporate nowhere, you've been able to do things like that. Here in the heart of headquarters, just not gonna happen. That's the harsh reality.
 
Another point to think about is that with 9.5 hour shifts the start time in Texas would be an hour earlier then the start time in PIT. 3 and 4 am shifts can be hard.
 
With a 4244 a limited number of lines will have weekends off and if you are not senior enough to hold one of those lines it will be hard to ever see a weekend off. With the 636366 everyone has the same amount of weekends off no matter where you are on the seniority and it makes trading easier. It is much easier to trade off a Saturday/Sunday then a Tuesday/Wednesday.
 
If you think the old or new aa mgmt is going to pay a dispatcher 9.5 hours for that individual to only actually work 8 hours - US Airways is in for a big awakening. That's not even a union opinion!!!!!!
 
I get the benefits sandy...I just don't like working six days in a row...and that type of schedule makes it harder to pick up more overtime due to fars coming into play, And Bogey I have no issues with going to 8 hours. I would still like to see staggered start times even with 8 hour days because having everyone turnover at the same time to me presents a safety issue.
 
Strange how the most dialogue to date between 542 & 545 on the merger is taking place right now in this thread. Will you people in your respective locals/sections get John and Danny to log on to this site and work this out before all the dues money my section has contributed is completely blown on this mess prior to our negotiations even getting started that will again raise the bar across the entire industry? What a custer fluck!
 
Beers, that's the whole point. 542 has wanted to meet but the international has made that not possible. Now the process will take a life of its own.
 
Flagship_dxer said:
The one thing both groups can agree on is we need the US Airways daily dispatch workload.
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How much of a difference is there? Daylight here has 40-ish, afternoons 20-30-ish, and midnights are a complete mess. Midnights routinely have 10-16 red eyes plus 30-some flights to write for the morning shift since they calc out at or before morning folks come in. And the midnights also do that number of flights in 6-7 hours instead of 9.

I also agree it's fairly sad that there has been more dialogue here than between the "leadership" of 545 and 542. Hell I bet we could come up with some things to agree on and get a proposal before the "leadership" does.
 
Question for you AA guys on this blog, why do you not like the TWU since your "past" president was elected to the TWU International Board of Directors on was on the board for quit a while?
 
69beers said:
Strange how the most dialogue to date between 542 & 545 on the merger is taking place right now in this thread. Will you people in your respective locals/sections get John and Danny to log on to this site and work this out before all the dues money my section has contributed is completely blown on this mess prior to our negotiations even getting started that will again raise the bar across the entire industry? What a custer fluck!
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