January 11, 2025

We regret to inform you that our TWU Local 512 Facebook page is currently down, and we believe it may have been hacked. We’re working diligently to recover the page. In the meantime, we will continue to email our weekly update, which can also be found on our union website and app. Please do not accept any new invitation to join a TWU Local 512 page, as it may be fraudulent. If we cannot recover the page, we will create a new one and provide our union family with a QR code to access via email or posting at the field office. Thank you for your understanding and support.

In the news this week, a federal judge in Texas ruled that American Airlines broke the law by letting its employee retirement plan be influenced by environmental and social issues rather than focusing only on making the best financial returns for its workers. 

The judge criticized the airline for allowing BlackRock, a company managing the retirement plan’s investments, to prioritize environmental and social goals instead of just financial benefits. This was seen as a conflict of interest and against the company’s responsibility to its employees. 

An American Airlines pilot brought the class action case on Behalf of over 100,000 employees in the retirement plan. The judge has yet to decide whether workers lost money and whether the company must pay damages. 

In our JCBA, you accrue future vacation days for the month by meeting the full-time/part-time qualifier of 80/40 hours within each month as prescribed in Article 23, Section G. Vacation week eligibility is measured by the completed years of service. As stated in Article 23, Section E, paragraph (1).

 Members shift swap throughout each month and may not accrue future vacation days. They may be eligible for certain weeks when they bid for their vacations but fall short in accrual days. This causes the company to do annual audits and take vacation days for those with insufficient accrual.

We met with the company and agreed they would do their annual audits at the beginning of the year. Instead of the company taking vacation weeks, members could choose which to give up if they had insufficient accrual. The company would also add those weeks to the quarterly vacation bids. The company has been emailing members with insufficient accrual and asking them to choose; please do not disregard these emails. Your union, Local 512, will continue to work for the betterment of our members. 

Friendly reminder: it is wise to review 2025 health benefits, especially if you made changes that may cause you to submit health assessment paperwork to the company. You want to ensure the benefits payments are appropriately taken from your payroll check. 

With the change to the fresh market at K19 vendors, we contacted the company on behalf of members who had funded accounts with the old vendor. We are waiting for their response and ask members with accounts to contact the field office with your name and email address used in the account so we can have an accurate number on who is owed refunds. 

Sincerely and fraternally,

Juan Elvira

President – TWU Local 512

Jelvira@twulocal512.org

773-894-0077

TWU Local 512 is proud to announce the Local 512 app for your smartphone is available for download in the Apple store and the Google play store.
 click the iTunes or Google Play logos below to download the app today!