BREAKING! Passenger Service Agents Reach Tentative First Contract at American Airlines
Source: CWA
CWA has reached a tentative first contract with American Airlines covering 15,000 passenger service agents. The CWA/IBT Association is the joint bargaining group that represents agents at American Airlines.
Details of the industry-leading tentative settlement are being provided to members. Read more here. A series of contract explanation meetings will be held prior to the contract ratification vote.
Ron Collins, CWA chief of staff and CWA/IBT Association bargaining chair, said the bargaining team did tremendous work over the past 10 months to gain the industry-leading contract that American agents deserve. "The mobilization of our members really made the difference, and especially in the past few days, showed the power of our unity."
In September 2014, by an 86 percent vote, airport and reservations agents at American – formed by the merger of American Airlines and US Airways – overwhelmingly chose representation by the Communications Workers of America/Teamsters Association
Read more: http://www.cwa-union.org/news/entry/passenger_service_agents_reach_tentative_first_contract_at_american_air#.Vg2zNC5Viko
Wages
Passenger Service Employees will see an immediate wage increase to equal New Delta plus 3% and an additional 9% wage increase over the life of the 5-year agreement. There will be a 2% increase on the first and second anniversaries and 2.5% on the third and fourth anniversaries. View the wage schedule by clicking here.
Shift premiums will be increased to industry-leading rates.
Profit sharing will remain in place for LUS agents in 2015. It will no longer be in place from 2016 on, but will be reflected in higher base wages, which provide security and predictability for employees.
Job Security
There will be NO FURLOUGH during the life of the agreement.
The company will eliminate ALL of the RED-COAT CONTRACTORS at the ticket counters throughout the current American Airlines system.
The company was determined to outsource stations with five or fewer mainline flights per day. We were able to save all of those stations thanks in large part to member mobilization. Under the tentative agreement, all Passenger Service Employees on payroll on the date of signing will not have their jobs outsourced.
We agreed that the company has the option to outsource the work of UMs, Wheelchair, AA.com, AAdvantage Customer Service, CBRO, DC Desk, Social Media, transporting bags/articles to fleet service, and all curbside check-in work. The option to outsource will only apply where the work is currently represented.
Additionally, the company also has the option to outsource BSO. However, there will be no station reduction as a direct result of the outsourcing and all members’ jobs are protected.
The company will insource the work associated with booking and selling vacations until either twelve months from ratification of the contract or March 1, 2017, whichever is later.
The company will insource jobs at stations with more than 5 daily mainline departures.
Other
All Passenger Service Employees will have twelve sick days per year.
The grievance procedure is an improvement from the US Airways contract. There will be a quarterly meeting to resolve grievances with the ability to escalate cases to arbitration for quarterly hearings with resolution that day, which in essence creates an expedited process.
Home-Based Representatives will receive the same benefits as other Passenger Service Employees, including vacations, sick time, and holidays. And their pay will be increased dramatically.
The company will match dollar for dollar employees’ first 5.5% contribution to the 401K plan.
Health Insurance
Because it is too late to participate in open enrollment for a new health insurance plan, we agreed to leave all plans as is for now. We will present a health care proposal to the company by June 2016 and attempt to negotiate a new plan, which would take effect no sooner than January 2017. For now, all agents’ health insurance will remain status quo.
= new reply since forum marked as read
...besides the details of the contract being very positive for the workers.
CWA has reached a tentative first contract with American Airlines covering 15,000 passenger service agents. The CWA/IBT Association is the joint bargaining group that represents agents at American Airlines.
Details of the industry-leading tentative settlement are being provided to members. Read more here. A series of contract explanation meetings will be held prior to the contract ratification vote.
Ron Collins, CWA chief of staff and CWA/IBT Association bargaining chair, said the bargaining team did tremendous work over the past 10 months to gain the industry-leading contract that American agents deserve. "The mobilization of our members really made the difference, and especially in the past few days, showed the power of our unity." (from the OP, my emphasis)
Jumped right off the page. THE POWER OF OUR UNITY!
