November News
November TWU 557 News
As previously mentioned by Jim Baird, TWU 557 Vice President, your Board was busy in October. November will also be a busy preparation month for all, especially with the Thanksgiving Holidays included.
The Board met early in October for an all-day contract planning session as well as a regular scheduled TWU 557 Executive Board Meeting. One of the items that we set into motion at the planning session was the Contract 2020 Members Input Survey. If you have not yet received an email with a link to Survey Monkey, please look for it soon or Contact Teak Biondo for assistance to the link.
This is a form of what is traditionally called a “Blank Sheet Survey”. It is your opportunity to provide suggestions and input to your leadership for future Contract negotiations with the Company. We do not need you to write contract language, that is a matter of negotiation. However, we do need your suggestions for change, ideas, inputs, and to categorize your needs, wants, and desired nice to haves. We can then analyze your responses and get an understanding on where the group stands on Contract issues. This is the second step in our Contract preparation process. We have already surveyed your overall professional qualifications and understand the level of our group’s expertise. Make no mistake, you are tops. Now we will gather your initial input to help provide definitive direction as we proceed toward negotiations in 2019. In this regard, your elected board and the Contract Research Committee has taken a two-day Seminar for Negotiator training with one of the top training schools in the Country. In addition, the elected Board trained with the Company for one day in a Grievance Mediation Training Session provided by the National Mediation Board (NMB) Your elected Board has also decided to have an additional two-day training session on formal Contract Negotiations for all seven members of our negotiations team. This session is provided as a two-day course, free of charge by the NMB. This training will take place during the 1st Quarter of 2019.
Don’t miss your chance for input on the survey. This is the opportunity for all instructors to get their say by responding with input.
In another matter, there was a resent trade/give away posted on Company Email with additional money added as incentive for doing the trade. This was and is a practice used by flight attendants, not by pilots. It is the consensus of the TWU 557 Board that this practice not be publicly practiced on the Company’s email nor on the TWU557.org website. The practice only creates division and animosity among fellow members. What individual members privately exchange or promise for schedule trades or give away should be between them only. If the practice is public, as per human nature, then the practice forces a secondary market, which many members consider unfair. It further degrades our professional image and creates jealousy among fellow employees. The value of our work should be the face value of our Contract rates.
TWU 557 leadership has had multiple meetings with the Company in the past several months concerning duplicating the Schedule Trade Give- Away, currently a paper system, to an electronic version. While this may be a future automated item in Company software, we see the immediate need for members now. Ed Simons and Gordon Purcey, our TWU557.org webmasters, have worked diligently in adapting an electronic version of the Schedule Trade Give-Away form that can be used from the TWU557 website. In our talks with management, we have emphasized that we would like a dual system for a test period and that we have tried to adapt the form to be as simple as the current paper system. We have “Dumbed Down” many automated functions available in our software to meet Company requests. Currently we are on the verge of a test period, which may start as early as the Schedule posting on the 24th of November. We will have more info out for members when we confirm our final details with the Company. We have another scheduled meeting with the Company on the Trade-Give Away form on November 14th. When the test period starts, members will have to make electronic Schedule posts on TWU557.org and NOT WNCO.COM EMAIL. This is one of the Company requests and is supported by TWU Leadership. Standby for more information.
In other news, your elected TWU 557 Board will be presenting to the Membership a 2019 budget for your approval in December. This is a new requirement under TWU557 bylaws and will be a new experience for the Membership. It will be accomplished through the Ballot Process.
When you see the line items presented, please remember that we are about to enter Contract 2020 Negotiations and expect increased expenses as opposed to normal year to year operating expenses. Also remember that at currently 142 members, we do not have deep pockets for sustained financial fights, however, neither are we frightened by lengthy timeframes to settle Contract negotiations.
For the Board,
“Jerry”
Gerald H. Bradley
President TWU 557 Local
Southwest Flight Crew Training Instructors