News You Can Use

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Airline Division, which represents 26 commercial cargo and passenger air carriers nationwide, called on Congress to redouble its commitment to move forward with language in proposed Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization legislation that would harmonize and strengthen oversight of domestic and foreign repair stations that perform services for U.S. airlines.

At the beginning of our organizing efforts, ASA used scare tactics to intimidate and fool us. One scare tactic the company used was telling workers that because of the economic down-turn, now is not a good time to form a union.

Atlanta Line Maintenance:

Let me start off with these positive comments.

ASA has the potential to be the best regional carrier in the world for a variety of reasons from my perspective.
 

You would think that any airline would, especially now, be very careful about doing proper maintenance, assuring passenger safety as their first priority. Sadly, that is not always the case.

When it comes to our organizing campaign, solidarity is key. We must stick together if we are to have a bright future at ASA. Only when we have one, collective voice, will our voice be heard.

That is exactly what happened at Alaska Airlines. Like us, mechanics and related at Alaska Airlines are trying to form a union with the Teamsters. Like ASA, Alaska Airlines is a regional airline and management has tried to interfere with the rights of Alaska Airline’s employees to form a union. Below is a story written by Alaska Airlines Mechanics Guy Blue and John Knight about what it means to come together as one. If they can do it, we can to!
 

The second issue of the TAMC (Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition) Newsletter, Nuts and Bolts, is out and ready to read.

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, a group of Teamster mechanics from Continental, United, and Horizon and led by Chris Moore and Airline Division consultant Jack Albertine met with 14 Senate offices, both Democratic and Republican.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa praised the House of Representatives on Thursday for swiftly passing HR 2200, which would tighten transportation security.

US Airways estimated Wednesday that it lost $20 million in revenues because of the swine flu outbreak.

On Monday, Continental had put its impact at $30 million.

Atlantic Southeast Airlines’ unscheduled grounding of 60 CRJ200s on March 31 for engine inspections lowered revenues at parent company SkyWest by $7.6 million during the first quarter.