Principal Officer Meeting in Washington D.C.
RE: Principal Officer Meeting in Washington D.C.
Brothers and Sisters,
Yesterday Principal Officers met with the Airline Division to determine the structure of negotiations moving forward. The one question survey showed an interest in opening the entire Agreement rather than focusing on limited issues. With that in mind, and after much discussion, it was determined that there will be nine rank and file negotiators for the upcoming round of bargaining. Seven of the nine will come from the larger cities with one representative for the ground equipment/facilities group and one representative from the smaller line stations. In addition, subject matter experts will join the committee as needed to provide guidance on their respective needs. The Principal Officers also decided that one Business Agent from each Local would be welcome to attend. Professionals that will be attending such as lawyers, economists and actuaries were also discussed and will be provided to the committee for use on your behalf.
The message the PO's hammered home was that communication is key to this process. To address this concern, we currently have email addresses for approximately 50% of the membership and this will be the primary vehicle for delivering notices of updates. Based on the previous survey results one of the preferred methods that you identified was video updates from the rank-and-file group bargaining on your behalf. We will be looking at YouTube, Facebook and other social media platforms to provide this service to you.
The next step is to discuss this outcome with the Business Agents from around the system next week. We are scheduled to meet on July 6th and 7th at Local 769.
Once the rank-and-file committee members are selected training will be provided to them. The committee will also be reviewing contract proposals for the purpose of building an opening proposal. As of today, the online proposal form is now closed.
Look for official updates on the committee make up in future Dispatches.
In solidarity,
Vinny Graziano
Airline Division
International Brotherhood of Teamsters