Your District Lodge 142 leadership, including General Chairs and I, have had ongoing discussions with all levels of our Union concerning the status of the Alliance and our outstanding single carrier filing with the NMB. Many of our members have been asking questions regarding rumors they have heard or documents they have seen from the TWU. Let me assure you, at every point of communication, whether verbal or in writing, the TWU has remained constant in its commitment to the Alliance and our joint success, just as the IAM is. It is true there are a few outstanding issues that the two unions need to resolve. Those are – who the representative for the BOS base will be, clarification on strike sanctions, which are slightly different in our respective constitutions, and how the Alliance handles movement of manpower across the Alliance as headcounts change in locations. The IAM and TWU will continue dialogue on those issues.
These concerns are not road blocks but rather issues needing to be addressed between two partners.
An item still unresolved is the ruling from the NMB on the single carrier status for our representation purposes. Both unions and the company believed we would have had a decision before the holiday. The board did ask for clarification on some of the accreted groups, but those issues were addressed several months ago and no further requests from the board have been made.
Many of our members are concerned about the success and support of our Alliance with TWU. Let me be clear, regardless of any open issues the IAM and TWU are discussing, both sides fully support the Alliance as demonstrated in the signed Alliance agreement and the single carrier filing with the NMB signed by both presidents. We have both been moving forward towards being prepared to get to the table to negotiate a combined agreement for our members.
In keeping with preparing for negotiations, we are going to begin accepting contract proposals for the joint collective bargaining agreement. These proposals will be presented to the joint screening committee and prepared for the joint bargaining committee. The form will be available online or you can submit your proposal in writing to your local grievance committee or shop steward.
We encourage all members to sign up for email updates, preferably using a personal email, not your work email. We will be posting updates as they come in and will be sending those updates through our email system to all members who have signed up for email updates. Signing up for updates is very easy – go to our website www.iamdl142.org and fill in your email in the block on the left side of the page to “Join our E Mail List”.
We have had access problems on the property to our newly updated website – that has now been fixed, so everyone should be able to go online at work and view the current agreement. The company is currently printing the agreements and they will be distributed by the stewards when they arrive from the printer, no later than next week, some have already arrived at the locations.
Fraternally yours,
Dave Supplee
Dave Supplee
PRESIDENT & DIRECTING GENERAL CHAIR
POST ON ALL IAM BULLETIN BOARDS
