Equity Distribution Update
May 24, 2013
Dear Brothers & Sisters:
Your TWU Equity Distribution Committee met again on May 23 and 24 at the TWU Headquarters in Washington D.C. to draft the procedures and principles for distribution of shares of Equity in the New American Airlines to eligible American employees represented by the TWU.
Questions for the TWU/IAM Alliance – Part II
Click here to download the Q&A
THE ALLIANCE
Q: Why is this the right time for the TWU/IAM representation Alliance.
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Several members have informed me that IBT organizers are distributing propaganda that claims that the TWU International will withhold equity that is rightfully due to our members. The TWU successfully negotiated the 4.8% equity, and it will be distributed to our members fairly, and with transparency.
TWU/IAM Alliance Q&A and Full Agreement
Published 14 May, 2013
DOWNLOAD THE FULL AGREEMENT HERE
THE ALLIANCE
Q: Why did the TWU and IAM form a representation alliance.
“If we don’t have [a fully staffed] National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the company can do whatever they want to do. The way my company fired me made me sad. The NLRB was helping us a lot. Without them the company can treat us like we’re nothing.
NOTE: Local 512's Spring Newsletter is available from the DOWNLOADS link on your left.
Teamsters China
The Teamsters signed a contract removing ALL outsourcing caps at United Airlines. The result? United's entire fleet of 52 Boeing 777s and 24 B747s are being sent to Ameco Beijing for heavy maintenance. Ameco has over 2,500 workers overhauling United planes, supervised by only 5 licensed mechanics.
Don't let the Teamsters do it to you.
On 4/23/2013, a Ramp contractor employee was killed in an unfortunate accident while driving a tug. The cause of the accident is currently under investigation, but it appears while driving the tug, he lost control, crashed and was ejected from the vehicle. Sadly, he passed away while en route to the hospital.
The employee was apparently not wearing a seat belt.
Airport accidents can kill. Protect yourself by wearing a seat belt wherever you can.
Remember, someone expects you home tonight.
The SSE Seat Belt Use Policy section 2.196, issued 4/15/2013, now requires
seat belt use in all company vehicles except for:
1. Driving or riding inside the gate area while servicing the aircraft when an aircraft is at the gate
2. Driving or riding inside aircraft maintenance hangars and auto shops
3. Driving or riding inside bag rooms to position equipment around the piers and carousels
-The policy is available for review at http://sse.jetnet.aa.com/policy/2/2_196.pdf
Being part of the labor movement is about showing solidarity. The Teamsters have seemed to forgotten that.
They’ve launched an attack on my union – the Transport Workers Union (TWU) – that represents me and more than 10,000 other mechanics at American Airlines.
For the past year, our union has been fighting to protect us from attempts by American Airlines to use bankruptcy courts to cut jobs and benefits. Instead of standing with us, the Teamsters have decided to run a nasty campaign to hijack our union and divide workers against each other, just so they can increase their own membership at the expense of my coworkers and I.
The Teamsters’ tactics have been pretty dirty. They’re trying to lie to workers about how TWU, more than any union in our industry, has worked to protect jobs and stop foreign outsourcing of aircraft maintenance work.
And that’s not all. Recently, we’ve heard that a Teamster organizer violated our rights by forging worker names on union authorization cards. We’re told that as many as 450 cards are being investigated as forgeries.
Marco Enriquez
American Airlines mechanic and TWU Local 514 member
Teamsters Nonsense!
QUESTION: The IBT has said, in a letter dated February 6, 2012, that “Under the Settlement Agreement that ended American Airlines’ concessionary negotiations with the TWU, American mechanics and related employees are to receive 4.8 percent of the total equity in American….that is allotted to a certain class of unsecured creditors.” They further state that “If the IBT replaces the TWU, the IBT will hold and distribute that equity stake….” Are the statements by IBT about the equity true?
ANSWER: the Statements by IBT about the equity allotted to TWU are wildly and irresponsibly inaccurate.
First, there is no agreement anywhere that would allot to Mechanic and Related as a class or craft 4.8% of the equity in American or in any successor company. The 4.8% equity is allotted by agreement to TWU as a fund from which TWU will distribute their appropriate shares to ALL SEVEN of the classes or crafts represented by TWU. Mechanic and Related, as a class or craft, will receive an appropriate share of this equity. The responsibility of determining what that appropriate share is, and must rest on TWU, since the equity agreement itself contains no formula as to how the equity is to be shared out among the seven classes or crafts. Thus, not only is IBT spectacularly wrong and inaccurate regarding the amount of equity to be distributed to the M&R class or craft; but its ignorance in that respect undermines its equally uninformed notion that there exists an already defined amount of equity that can and will be simply handed over to IBT if it displaces TWU as the M&R representative. There isn’t—as IBT could easily have found out for itself, if it had bothered to read the basic equity agreement.
Ask yourself: can you trust your vital job interests, in a dangerous time, to an organizational that plays so fast and loose with important facts? An organization that makes “guarantees” about an agreement that it obviously hasn’t bothered to even try to understand? Should you trust the task of administering complicated agreements regarding equity and other matters to the union that negotiated them? or to a union that seeks votes by making “guarantees” regarding an agreement that involves what may be hundreds of millions of dollars—but which can’t even be bothered to read?
Apply for the 2013 Michael J. Quill Scholarship
Click here to download the application. Please read the information below to be sure you qualify.
What is the deadline?
All applications must be received by the Michael J. Quill Scholarship Fund by May 1, 2013.
Press Release TWU-IAM.pdf
Being part of the labor movement is about showing solidarity. The Teamsters have seemed to forgotten that.
