8.25.10 – (LAA) – American Airlines on TWU Members Contract Vote Results

This is National Communications Coordinator, Jeff Pharr, with a second Special Hotline Update for Wednesday, August 25, 2010.

Copied below is a statement released to the press this morning from APFA President Laura Glading regarding the TWU members’ vote results.

Euless, Texas – Laura Glading, President of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), issued the following statement regarding the Transport Workersí Union membersí vote results on Tentative Agreements for Mechanics, Maintenance Technicians and Stock Clerks.

“On behalf of the nearly 18,000 Flight Attendants at American, we congratulate TWU’s Technical Specialists on their contract. Their members have spoken.

ìWe applaud TWUís Mechanics and Stock Clerks for standing in solidarity and voting for strike authorization by rejecting their tentative agreements. They have recognized nothing can be accomplished with American Airlines other than through a struggle. Three work groups on the property are now bound together through this struggle.

“We share their frustration and anger with American management. Flight Attendants sent a clear message with our overwhelming 96.8 percent strike authorization vote and now the Mechanics and Stock Clerks have spoken. It’s time to let this process move forward.

“Flight Attendants do not want to strike. We fully understand the ramifications a strike would have. But we will do what is necessary to get the contract we have worked so hard for.

“American’s future looks bright. Second quarter earnings last month showed a substantial improvement compared with the same quarter last year, and industry analysts are predicting American will report a significant profit next quarter. Itís time for management to recognize the sacrifices all employees have made — including the $2 billion by Flight Attendants since 2003 — when they bailed out American from the brink of bankruptcy.

“This battle is about more than Flight Attendants and other AMR employees, it’s about standing up to corporate America and saving the shrinking middle class by fighting for fair-paying jobs for hardworking people.”

APFA is the nation’s largest independent Flight Attendant union representing nearly 18,000 American Airlines Flight Attendants. www.www.apfa.org

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This is APFA National Communications Coordinator, Jeff Pharr, with a special Hotline update for Wednesday, August 25, 2010.

Late last night, TWU announced the results of their Tentative Agreement vote counts. Below is the text from their press release. As more information becomes available, we will update you via this Hotline, APFA.org and Facebook.

NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release August 24, 2010

Attention aviation, business, labor and Dallas-based reporters and editors
TWU Mechanics and Stock Clerks at American Airlines Vote to Reject a New Labor Agreement and Authorize Union to Take Action-Including a Strike Technical Specialists Vote to Ratify

DALLAS – Today, members of the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) at two American Airlines bargaining units have voted to reject tentative contract agreements with the airline reached in May, while a third unit has voted to ratify the agreement. In a large turnout, 10,251 eligible TWU members cast ballots out of a possible 12,800.

TWU mechanics voted down the agreement by a vote of 6,074 to 3,371. With 64 percent opposed; stock clerks voted to reject the agreement by a vote of 384 to 332, with 54 percent against; while technical specialists voted to approve the agreement 60 to 18, a 77 percent ìyesî vote.

“Our members have spoken loud and clear,” said TWU International Vice President Garry Drummond, who heads the union’s Air Transport Division. “After four years of negotiations, a majority of TWU members in our Mechanic and Related, and Stock Clerk groups were not convinced that this agreement represented an adequate return for the hundreds of millions of dollars of sacrifices we agreed to in 2003, to keep American planes in the air and prevent our employer from filing for bankruptcy. However, for workers in our Technical Specialist group, salary increases and improvement in benefits were enough for passage.”

For the two units that voted “no”, this was not only a vote to reject, but also a vote to authorize a strike, if necessary. TWU has requested a release from the National Mediation Board (NMB) in order to pursue self-help remedies,

“We will continue our efforts, on all fronts, to make sure that the full value of our members’ contribution to the success of this airline is recognized by our employer, said Drummond.”

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The Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) represents 200,000 workers and retirees, primarily in commercial aviation, public transportation and passenger railroads, including 28,000 workers at AMR. TWU represents more workers at AMR than any other labor organization. The union is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO.