Tag Archives for mechanics.
United mechanics say their own union let United turn a contract wage-reset formula into a black box, leaving employees short of raises that were supposed to keep them ahead of peers at American and Delta. A judge just threw out most of the case, but the ruling still leaves mechanics one narrow path to challenge the pay process through a grievance on their own.
The teamsters want to end outsourcing, get substantial raises and increased overtime while contributing less to healthcare, and obtain more job guarantees. The airline has offered pay increases, which the union calls disgraceful and insulting.
Without a vision for higher value work to be insourced from other airlines, there’s just not going to be as much high value work to do and legacy airline mechanics are too expensive for the lower value work. These broad trends almost ensure conflict between American Airlines and its mechanics union once negotiations begin in earnest.
After bringing American Airlines to its operational knees last summer, the airline’s mechanics won a generous contract right before the pandemic hit – a deal they would never get today.
Nonetheless AMFA, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, has been trying to ‘raid’ American Airlines and seek to take away representation of the mechanics.
United Airlines made big news this week by announcing they could lay off as much as 39% of their employees (which some media exaggerated as half).
Now American Airlines is preparing to send out WARN Act notices, too according to the TWU-IAM association which represents mechanics and fleet service workers at the carrier.
On Thursday the ‘association’ of two unions representing mechanics and fleet service workers announced that the contract was ratified. And the deal was overwhelmingly ratified, because their members aren’t morons. Going back tot he bargaining table now would mean a deal close to what they received was off the table. Signing bonuses? Now? Are you crazy?
Since no joint contract had been achieved, each work group kept their own separate work and the airline’s 2013 merger still isn’t complete. 2019 was a long, hot summer with the airline’s operations melting down amidst a work slowdown by mechanics.
So what did American agree to? The details are still being worked through, and comparisons to existing deals will need to be made, but roughly it appears…
What the mechanic did was truly beyond the pale, and both American Airlines and their mechanics unions say so. The government is going to be as aggressive as possible in going after him, invoking the specter of terror, especially since his name is Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani. So far the man seems more deranged than a terrorist.
News that an American Airlines mechanic in Miami sabotaged an aircraft before it prepared to take off with passengers was truly shocking. The man admitted that he wanted to delay or cancel the flight out of frustration with union contract talks, and to force more overtime work to fix the problem he had caused.
American Airlines had to address the issue with employees as well. Here’s the memo that was sent internally:
We haven’t reached the point of a strike, and the airline and its mechanics are headed back to the bargaining table with the National Mediation Board next week. However tensions have certainly been high. For instance a video of an American Airlines supervisor yelling at a mechanic went viral in June (though note there’s NSFW language):
Now we’ve learned that at least one mechanic took things way too far
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
