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April 4, 2022

To the Local 591 Membership:

This past Friday your newly elected Executive Board began their three-year term.  I want to thank everyone who participated in the election, from the nominees who chose to step up and try to make a difference to those Members who voted.  I also want to thank those who served on the Executive Board for the prior three years and congratulate our new Executive Board.

On a personal note, I want to thank each of you for your support, and for re-electing me to another term as your President.  I do not take this position, or the responsibilities you have entrusted me with lightly.  It is serious business overseeing the representation of nearly 5,000 Members.  That said, it is a tremendous honor to serve our Members and I will continue to do so in an honest and transparent way like we have strived to do for the past three years.

Frankly, those past three years were a roller coaster ride like no other.  Looking back during the past three years as a Local Union, we found ourselves in court with American Airlines.  We sponsored a Maintenance Outsourcing Summit in Washington D.C.  We completed contract negotiations and ratified our first Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement.  We also had to deal with a world-wide pandemic and fought to secure the government funding to keep us employed; all while getting to experience representing our Members while working under the Association.

This Maintenance Outsourcing Summit gave us the traction to get Congress to pass the SAFE Aircraft Maintenance Act at the House Aviation Committee level.  This Bill, which was partially written by Local 591, is one that will level the playing field with foreign maintenance and add much transparency for passengers on where, and how much, airlines are outsourcing their aircraft maintenance work.

In early 2020 we overwhelmingly passed what are by far the best M&R, MTS, MCT, and MLS contracts in the industry.  We clearly achieved the goals sent out from the Membership of maintaining and/or growing the number of jobs in the respective workgroups at American, while having an overall compensation package that leads the industry.

This was done right before the COVID-19 pandemic crippled air travel and led to massive losses for the airlines.  As a Local, along with TWU International Government Affairs, we were very active in the political efforts to secure the Payroll Support Program money three times, that kept all, but a small amount for a short period of time, of our Members employed.  Our legislative efforts put money in our Members pockets, and not in the company coffers.

While COVID restrictions kept us from meeting in person, we embraced technology and continually held video meetings on Zoom.  For the first 6 months of the pandemic, we held weekly meetings in each region with all the reps, with a primary focus on safety.  This in addition to the weekly all-rep call every Friday which we continue to do. 

In the meantime, we have been working to both understand and implement the JCBA to its fullest.  We have several issues where we believe the company is violating the agreement, like with the verbiage in M&R Article 6-K and the use of vendors, we have started the necessary contractual steps to strike for arbitrators.  In fact, we have started that same process to strike for arbitrators on several other grievance cases.  Once we ultimately prevail in arbitration on those grievance cases, we will finally get the full value of the contract that was negotiated.

In May 2021 with restriction lifted around the country for meetings, we were able to hold in-person Membership meetings, and have continued to stream the meetings live via Zoom so those unable to attend, or in a different station, can stay informed.  And in  September 2021, also were able to bring back our tradition of serving food on Labor Day—which we look at as OUR DAY. 

Later in September we attended the TWU International Convention.  At this convention, I had the honor of reading the Resolution to pass the SAFE Aircraft Maintenance Act.  The resolution passed unanimously, and the work began immediately to push Congress on the Bill.  Also, at the convention, and from listening to our Members, Locals 514, 567, and 591 joined together to work to transform and/or end the TWU/IAM Association as we know it. 

With the term that began on Friday, we have been busy pushing to get the SAFE Aircraft Maintenance Act reintroduced in Congress.  I am very happy that our efforts were successful and that the Bill was reintroduced in the House of Representatives, along with recognition of the efforts done by the Transport Workers Union with a quote in the Fact Sheet of the Bill. Incidentally, the quote used by Congress originated in an Aircraft Maintenance Outsourcing updated White Paper authored on behalf of Local 591.  We will need an active Membership, along with your family and friends, to support this legislation by pushing your representatives in Congress to pass this Bill.  Once the Bill is passed, we will need your support with pushing the Senate to pass the Bill as well.  Our collective expanded Member support can be an email, filling out the pre-written Call to Action letters linked on our website, making phone calls, or joining us on twitter and tweeting campaigns with all of Congress.

We also must finish what we started at the TWU International Convention and redouble our efforts to remove the IAM from the Association.  I take much pride in the Local that Local 591 has become, from pushing professionalism, taking the fight to our company, representing our Members very well, being very fiscally responsible.  That said, I know we can be much better if all Members were under one Union umbrella, and that should be TWU.  There was a time during the Jim Little years that I would not have said that; however, with the changes that have happened with the TWU under the leadership of President Samuelsen, the focus is now to fight to better ourselves and better our professions.  As I said, I am proud of Local 591 because of the fight we as a Union family have put forth to better the profession[s] and the livelihoods of our Members.