Union To Vote On American's 'Final Best' Offer

American Airlines' Transport Workers Union is confronted by limited and mostly unfavorable options as it considers voting to approve or reject the company's "final best" contract offer.

The vote, scheduled for Thursday through Monday, will determine whether 24,000 TWU mechanics, technicians and ground workers will accept 7.5 percent wage increases over six years from the bankrupt Fort Worth-based carrier.

The final offer also includes changes in work rules and job classifications that are likely to make TWU members' working lives less satisfying than they have been over the last nine years, union officials said.

"We all agree that a mutual (contract) agreement with the company would be best -- just not this one," said George Rojas, president of Local 561 in Miami, Fla.

Rojas, other TWU leaders and members are divided about the company's final offer.

It is a significantly better contract in many ways than the company's term sheet presented to the union on March 22: it calls for half as many layoffs in Tulsa -- about 1,000 mechanics and related work groups would lose their jobs versus 2,100 job cuts under the previous proposal -- and outsourcing of up to 35 percent of in-house heavy maintenance compared with 40 percent in the March term sheet offer.

And the alternative to voting for the final offer is voting it down, union officials said, after which American will argue in bankruptcy court for rejecting the TWU collective bargaining agreement. That would leave TWU members without any contract and beginning negotiations from ground zero on a new contract.

"We understand a "no" vote here is a different setup," Rojas said. "We could end up with the abrogation of our contract. The question is, are we going to go ahead and vote this contract in knowing it's a six-year contract and give up our right to negotiate with the company for six years."

There's much frustration and anger among TWU members for what they gave up in 2003, union officials said.

That year, American threatened to file for bankruptcy but got last-minute concessions from its unionized mechanics, pilots and flight attendants to help the company avert Chapter 11.

The concessions cost the unions $1.62 billion a year in wages and benefits -- about a quarter of a worker's pay and benefits.

"I have less buying power than I did when I started in this business 21 years ago," said Chuck Schalk, vice president of TWU Local 562 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. "Our concerns are money and the cost of living. This (final offer) is an insult to my profession, my family and the 21 years I have worked here.

"The sentiment here is that it's going to be a clear majority, if not overwhelming, (vote) no. We can't pay our bills."

Gary Peterson, president of Local 565 at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Rojas and other TWU officials said they are concerned about the final offer's lack of job security and "system protection," the provision in previous contracts that if a mechanic was laid off, he or she could move elsewhere within American's system for a job.

Peterson said there is no language in the final offer committing American to maintaining in-house the 400 Airbus A320 and Boeing Next Generation aircraft it has on order.

"The final offer is a bag with a hole in the bottom that jobs flow out," Peterson said. "The company can outsource 100 percent of the A320s and (Boeing) 787s -- line (stations) and overhaul. For an AMT (aircraft maintenance technician) at American, a vote for AA's "final offer" is an agreement to allow for the elimination of their career.

"In the end, all this 'final offer' provides for is work on the Boeing 737 and 777 in line maintenance stations like DFW and only the Boeing 737 in aircraft overhaul."

John Hewitt, Local 514's chairman of maintenance in Tulsa and a negotiator on the final offer, said the existing contract scope clause and the scope clause of the final offer permits TWU mechanics to maintain any aircraft flying under American certification.

"They can outsource up to 35 percent in man-hours of that work," Hewitt said. "The company made it clear in our discussions that our current and proposed scope language covers any aircraft flying under AA's certificate and is considered TWU work."

Rick Mullings, spokesman for Local 514, said if the membership approves the final offer, and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane approves it, the final offer becomes the new TWU contract.

But under the Railway Labor Act, which governs labor relations in the transportation industry, negotiations would continue between the company and the union even after the new agreement is in force, Mullings said.

"We would be going to the company to show we can do the (outsourced) work better, cheaper and faster, and to bring this work in house."

The local TWU has scheduled a press conference for Wednesday morning.

Copyright 2012 - Tulsa World, Okla.