Bargaining Digest Weekly by Gordon Pavy, Mar 31, 2007

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/03/31/bargaining-digest-weekly-51/

Bargaining Digest Weekly

by Gordon Pavy, Mar 31, 2007

The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 800 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.

Members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) are not allowed to strike Northwest Airlines under a federal appeals court ruling Thursday affirming a lower court decision.

The ruling by the Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit prohibits a strike threatened by AFA-CWA after Northwest voided its contract last year with bankruptcy court permission. The union could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The workers threatened to strike in July 2006 after a bankruptcy judge allowed the airline to void the contract and impose wage and benefit cuts. Union members twice had rejected tentative contract agreements.

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The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the Machinists (IAM) and the Teamsters (IBT) will recover for their represented workers about $68 million from Comair when the company emerges from bankruptcy with its parent, Atlanta-based Delta Airlines, probably in May.
The ALPA pilots will receive about $61.8 million, IBT-represented flight attendants will get $5.5 million, and IAM mechanics will receive $750,000 under the bankruptcy settlement. The unions had filed claims in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to recover some of what its members would lose through contract concessions made to Comair.

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ALPA-represented pilots at US Airways and America West picketed at Pittsburgh Airport this week to demonstrate their frustration with US Airways management’s behavior at the bargaining table. The pilots are waiting for US Airways to put forward proposals that reflect the airline’s successful position in the industry, rather than insisting on cramming down bankruptcy-driven proposals that were put in place so the company could survive after the post-9/11 downturn.

Manufacturing

The strike against defense contractor Northrop Grumman by some 8,000 members of the Electrical Workers (IBEW), Machinists (IAM), 11 metal trades unions and an independent union representing guards entered its fourth week at the Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., while talks resumed with the help of a federal mediator.

Some progress was reported on non-economic issues, and the mediator announced that both sides agreed to more discussions, although no date was set. Medical insurance runs out today for the shipyard workers, who went on strike March 8.

Northrop Grumman President Richard Teel visited strikers on the picket lines earlier this week and listened to their concerns. The company builds ships for the Navy at the huge Pascagoula site.

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The Goodyear Tire Co. announced that it has accepted a bid from EPD Inc for its engineered products division for $1.48 billion. The purchase was financed by the private equity firm Carlyle, which formed EPD Inc.

Auto Industry

About 1,500 United Auto Workers (UAW) local leaders held a two-day bargaining strategy meetings in Detroit in preparation for Big Three auto talks that begin this summer.

UAW president Ron Gettelfinger opened the conference with a vow to hold steady against concessions, and a promise of worker unity and determination in negotiations, particularly on the issues of job security, wages, health care and pensions.

He closed it by reminding the press of the 2005 concessions on health care the union made that saved GM and Ford billions.

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FULL story at link.