It’s that time of year again when we start thinking about having another IBT Pre-Retirement Seminar put on by your TMAP guys again. This year, because of CDC guidelines and local restrictions on indoor gatherings, we are thinking about having an online seminar. We are reaching out to the Teamsters SFO Membership folks to gauge your interest. The seminar would be held via the ZOOM platform online on Saturday, February 27 at 9 a.m. Anyone that signs up to attend with their personal email would be sent a ZOOM link and any handouts of the seminar via e-mail. We are currently reaching out to Fidelity, Kaiser and UAL’s CARP representative to do short presentations as well

Check out the Winter 2020 Edition of the TAMC Newsletter. In this edition, we cover the state of the industry since the COVID-19 pandemic started.

Involuntary furlough under CARP is considered a distributable event, just like a separation/termination status.

Participants who were actively accruing credited service in CARP and were involuntarily

furloughed, will return to CARP and continue to accrue credited service upon recall. This is regardless of whether or not they have commenced their benefit while on involuntary furlough. If someone is recalled after commencing their benefit while on involuntary furlough, a rehire offset calculation will be done at their subsequent retirement date to offset the original benefit payment. A rehire offset calculation in the simplest terms is taking the original benefit that was paid out and offsetting it from any future accruals when someone returns to work.

Earlier this year the Department of Labor (DOL) issued final regulations that allow employers to provide retirement plan communications electronically (on a website or via email) as long as participants are provided with advance notice in writing as well as instructions on how to “opt-out” of electronic delivery (eDelivery). Previously, participants had to choose electronic delivery in order to receive their communications by e-mail.

In researching the dental premiums for 2021 we have found that the Company was over the 9.25 percent as described in Article 16C4c for the core Dental plans. We reached out to the company and the adjustments have been made. Below are the new rates:

Several members have asked, given the recent arbitration award won by AMFA, if that would apply to our CBA. We reached out to our Legal Counsel to have them review the award and the language to see if the application would be similar.

Whether or not the pandemic caused a triggering of the force majeure clause was never in question before the Board in that award. The ruling only applied to whether paragraph #4 was subject to force majeure. Unfortunately, the pandemic is considered a force majeure event, and it applies to both Article 1 and LOA 18 of our CBA as you will see below in the review from our Legal Counsel.

The union has researched premium changes to 2021 benefits. Article 16 B 4 F states that the “core and select medical plans cannot exceed 9.25 percent.” Article 16 B 5 defines the select regional plans. The company is under the 9.25 percentage. Be aware that the Aetna select plans are changing and co-pays are going up – $35.00 for your primary care physician and $70.00 for specialists. Co-insurance is changing from 100 percent to 80-20 percent and out of pocket maximums are all changing. Beware of changes to medications you are taking, as changes to this tier structure could happen.

You may have seen a press release from Speaker Pelosi's office urging airlines not to lay off staff.

The Speaker's statement was that a deal for relief would soon be reached. Soon after the press release was issued, a request was made to undo the furlough for this membership by Director Bourne to the leadership of United. As soon as we hear back from the company, we will let you know.

As we've previously reported, Local 856 Principal Officer Peter Finn and Local 986 Principal Officer Chris Griswold have been in consistent contact with Speaker Pelosi's office expressing the importance of saving aviation jobs at SFO. Please see Speaker Pelosi's statement below committing to extending the payroll support program for airline workers and asking airlines to delay furloughs.

I am very disappointed the extension was not passed yesterday. I know for many of you this leads to pain and confusion about the future. I understand what you're going through but please do not give up hope. There is broad bipartisan support for airline relief in Congress. Our lobbyists believe a package will pass shortly and I remain hopeful it will.

As you are aware, various Locals identified a number of issues with the current furlough process and numerous grievances were filed on behalf of the membership. In the last Dispatch it was reported that we were trying to work with management to resolve these issues and make sure that the agreement was followed as intended.

What wasn't reported was that we were preparing and working towards filing an injunction in Federal Court to halt the Reduction In Force process. Six attorneys from both the IBT Legal department, and the firm of Barkan Meizlish, were coordinating the construction of a major dispute case on our behalf. This step was necessary because if the furlough stood as it was many members would be negatively affected with little recourse to be made whole.

As you are no doubt aware, the CARES Act sunsets at the end of September. Not long after it was passed in March, it became clear that more relief would be needed. The IBT Airline Division has used all of our resources to push for an extension of the CARES Act; as of this writing our efforts continue. Negotiations on Capitol Hill are often difficult and last-minute deals typical; we expect that is how negotiations over this bill will play out. We are hopeful that an extension of the CAREs Act will pass and provide for a six month no-furlough extension, though. The President and Speaker of the House are both in favor of this outcome, but nothing is guaranteed at the moment.

Here are some thoughts from Teamster Lobbyist Jack Albertine, of Albertine and Associates, regarding these negotiations:

Secretary Mnuchin, Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy, Leader McConnell and Leader Schumer:

On behalf of the 87,000 aviation professionals of United Airlines, we are joining together to respectfully urge a restart of critical negotiations on Covid-19 legislation to include a clean 6-month extension of the very successful Payroll Support Program (PSP) for airline employees. Without additional funding for the PSP grants, up to 16,000 members of the United family are at risk of involuntary furloughs beginning October 1st. Continuation of this critical program would prevent the furloughs and provide

I would like to give you an update regarding an issue that has been raised after the selection process ended by several members and their representatives. As stated in past releases, and as you know, our Reduction In Force (RIF) procedures were made extremely challenging and expensive for the company to follow and implement.

These challenges were designed to be an added extra level of protection for the membership in hopes to mitigate furloughs during times such as the one we currently find ourselves in.

As most of you probably already know, United released the final version of the post-RIF staffing numbers for the entire system last night. Just as we had anticipated, SFO was hit very hard. We have yet to receive the detailed breakdowns for each Local from the company, but simple math makes it apparent that SFO is losing approximately 1200 positions. On a call with the Company yesterday, the Union made it clear that we expect the Company to comply with Article 6.D and provide us with a complete and detailed accounting of the entire shakedown process in order to ensure that none of our member's rights were violated. The Company committed to providing that information.

With potential layoffs coming you should review of your medical benefit options during open enrollment. If you are affected, or could be affected, by the reduction in force then you might want to look at a plan that has nationwide coverage. Plan eligibility is based on the zip code of your residence, but this is only a factor if someone enrolls in an HMO or HMO-like plan. All the EPO, PPO, and HSA plans have national networks. Reviewing your options could save you from using out of network benefits. The only time a plan election can change is when there is a qualified event (e.g. birth marriage), or during annual enrollment. Please keep your address up to date.

Check out the Summer 2020 Edition of the TAMC Newsletter. In this edition, we cover the state of the industry since the COVID-19 pandemic started, WARN notices, managing stress due to the coronavirus and more.