INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
JAMES P. HOFFA KEN HALL
General President General Secretary-Treasurer
November 13, 2015
Brothers and Sisters,
In 2014 contract negotiations for both the S-ASA and S-XJT maintenance work groups had stalled due to the Company's inability to provide the Union with a viable business plan that would allow us to make decisions based on the combined airlines' continued operation. Union officials met with Alex Marren shortly after she became COO in an effort to break the log jam and jump start negotiations.
Alex was very candid and showed the Union a business plan in which the combined XJT would continue as a Regional operator of 50 seat aircraft. After much discussion the Union then re entered negotiations, outside of mediation, in a good faith effort to put together a Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement that would be beneficial to both work groups as well as the Airline.
From the start your Union made it clear to Alex and her team that no joint agreement would be possible without returning the S-XJT wages to pre-concessionary levels with improvements going forward. In turn the Company indicated that they would need more flexibility in the Scope (Job Protection) language in the existing contract. Both sides agreed that there was a possible path to an agreement if we could come to an agreement on the major issues.
Throughout the year the Union and the Company had high level meetings in an effort to pare down the issues and see which parts of the agreement both sides were comfortable with. The Union scheduled a meeting for the week of September 151 and brought your full committee to Atlanta to discuss the Union's efforts and to TA as many Sections of the contract as the committee agreed on. Unfortunately the week was not as productive as planned and only three (3) Sections were agreed to. It should be noted that Alex Marren had unexpectedly announced her resignation and left the company only a week before.
After that disappointing attempt to get closer on a single agreement the Union decided to make one final push to get a Joint CBA outside of mediation. Meetings with the company were scheduled for the last week in October with the understanding that the Company needed to show that they were committed to meeting the financial needs of the Union members. Your Union, in anticipation of hard work on Finance and Scope brought in our Economist and Attorney.
Four days prior to the October meeting the Company unexpectedly presented the Union with a comprehensive proposal that contained many of the concessionary work rule changes that have been presented over the past few years. In a nutshell, the company proposal, while reaching the financial goal of returning the S-XJT mechanics to their 2008 wages so devastated the work rules and Scope as to be extremely concessionary both financially and in terms of quality of life. Further, after reviewing the Skywest financial statement that accompanied the Q3 earnings call, as well as the 2014 10-K, it became evident that the plan Alex Marren laid out for us at the beginning of the year was no longer in play and the existence of XJT two years from now is questionable at best. Without confirmation from the company that there will be new Capacity Purchase Agreements and new aircraft the only conclusion to be drawn is that XJT will continue to shrink into nonexistence.
We have contacted the Mediator requesting that the NMB again take control of the discussions and continue on two separate tracks. In addition, it has become evident that the company negotiating team was not permitted to make the tough financial calls without the involvement of parent company, Skywest. To that end, we have requested that the National Mediation Board require a representative of the parent company, empowered to make decisions, be present at all future negotiations.
We understand that our members have suffered greatly as a result of the Skywest purchase and merger of ASA and XJT and its unwillingness to negotiate a fair contract that recognizes the hard work and sacrifice of our Aviation Maintenance Professionals.
With the help of the NMB we will work to bring these negotiations to a close as quickly as possible.
Fraternally,
Capt. David Bourne
Director, IBT-AD
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