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Local 591 Administrative Executive Board Member
Russ Dittmer - 2025 January/February Lookback
Sisters and Brothers,
During these first two winter months of 2025, while I haven’t travelled as extensively as last year, I did travel to the Northeast Region (JFK) and Southeast Region (MIA) for the Q1 Quarterlies. I also attended the Q1 Quarterlies for the Central Region, for the West Region (SFO) via Zoom, but I was unable to attend the Southwest Region (DFW) Quarterly due to a scheduling conflict. I also travelled to our Grapevine TX office to provide administrative assistance to the Election Committee, providing the Committee access to our office and the necessary Member mailing address information to provide to BallotPoint, as well as providing any preliminary document editing assistance they may need for the upcoming election cycle.
I was quite pleased that the TWU Veteran’s Committee was able to utilize our Local 591 office and meeting room in Grapevine TX for their meeting in January, and I sincerely hope the TWU Veteran's Committee finds the opportunity to come back again soon.
As I have done since 2019, I received and archived all of the Master Seniority Lists from the company. In the past I have worked with many Members, and Local 591 Reps, to provide the Membership the assistance and the necessary information in order to review the annual and contractually official Master Seniority Lists and any guidance on writing seniority protests. This year, I added a web page on our website with all of the official Master Seniority Lists linked, and the Seniority Protest Form (both the original hand-written form and now in a form-fillable option as well). My goal is to ensure Members are more aware of the official Master Seniority Lists, have greater awareness of the time requirements, and to also provide all of the necessary information in one convenient place, in case they find the need to submit a seniority protest. While the Association and the company jointly hold authority over the seniority protest process, and the final determinations, I have been tasked on behalf of Local 591 with ensuring that our Members who submit seniority protests receive answers. My goal moving forward this year is to get any remaining unanswered seniority protests from our Member answered shortly after the current seniority protest window closes in early March of this year. That Annual Master Seniority Lists and Seniority Protest Forms web-page can be found here: CLICK HERE
I’ve also been working on incrementally improving navigation functions on our website. Unlike many flashier websites, our website is really not about bells, lights, and whistles. Our goal with our website is to help you find and get the Local 591 information you need quickly. In order to do that, frankly, we need your help. We’re glad to post stories and such, but what we REALLY NEED are suggestions from you on how we can make our website more user-friendly for you. After all, our job is to make sure you can get the information you need, and find the contact information you need, as quickly as possible. Please don’t hesitate to send us suggestions on how to improve the website and navigation to make more sense, or simply be faster, for you, at info@local591.com.
The next topic I need to bring up focuses on all of the revisions to the procedure manuals we use every day. I have been tracking the changes for a few years now, and in that time I have found it useful to remind everyone just how often these manuals get revised. I think this is important for two reasons. The first reason is that we are all required to follow and comply with the current revisions to every procedure manual that applies to our work. The second is because it’s sometimes easy to forget just how often, and how many changes are constantly being made to the procedure manuals we are required to follow. Below is a visual of the last seven years, and the number of changes the company has made to some of the procedure manuals most of us use on a daily or weekly basis.
Please remember that the chart above doesn’t even include any of the aircraft manuals, equipment manuals, parts catalogs, or any other specific technical manuals. Those technical documents are constantly changing as well. In addition, the above are only some of the procedure manuals the company publishes and continually revises that we must remain in compliance with. With this in mind, every time you accomplish a task, try to remember that the way the manual guided you to do the job yesterday may not be the same way that manual guides you to do the very same job today. We live and work in an industry that is constantly changing and adapting to new information, methods, and technologies, and in order for us all to succeed, we must strive to keep up with those changes.
Transfer awards, how they are posted, and how they are processed continues to be a topic of frustration for many. This Article 9 Filling of Vacancies change from the Settlements and Clarifications Letters (M&R and MLS) went into effect with the first Re-Bid of 2025. This should come as no surprise but the company ‘automated transfer and bid system’ is still not fully automated. This means the “pecking order” you see on the company transfer page is often not accurate. The company and Unions are aware of this ongoing problem. Because of this continuing technical issue, all Tech Ops related transfers will continue being processed manually. There is a note at the top of the TWU-IAM Association Transfers & Bids page stating “… all postings will be awarded manually by Talent Acquisition and Tech Ops Admin …”
A fellow Member contacted me about some of the challenges he had when getting his pension estimate information. For those Members who were previously eligible for a pension, until it was frozen in bankruptcy in 2012, he asked me to make sure everyone had the information on how to get their pension benefit information. Once he got his, he made a simple step by step for us all. First, you call Fidelity for AAL @ 1-800-354-3412, and ask for “pension” at the prompt. When you get a person, request your “Pension Calculation”. It may take a few weeks for Fidelity to send the information. That said, it’s better to have that information now, to make sure it’s accurate, than to wait until you’re ready to retire and then have to get something fixed. If you have any issues, he said you can contact AA Pension services via email at retirement.services@aa.com. I have already extended my thanks to him for doing the legwork, and I want to say this is another excellent example of Unionism - Members helping Members.
For the final thought of this lookback, I want to focus once again on safety and compliance. Those two words, SAFETY and COMPLIANCE aren’t just catchphrase words. Those words and what they mean are critical to everything we do. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the business we’re in involves working in a very dangerous and often chaotic environment, working on highly complex machines for all of the Mechanic & Related work groups, and handling all of the parts and special tooling for our Material Logistics brothers and sisters.
Being diligent and making sure we are working 100% In Accordance With approved manuals must be our everyday goal. By working 100% In Accordance With, we maximize the likelihood that all of the passengers who fly on our planes will arrive at their destinations safely, and that all of our fellow worker brothers and sisters will go return to their homes and families safe and sound.
We’ve all either thought to ourselves of heard others say things like: “this time I don’t need to wear my seat belt”, or “this time I can stand higher on that ladder”, or “this time I don’t need to put the safety rails up”, or “this time I can bend the rules and not follow the approved manuals.” In EVERY one of those types of instances, and so many other similar types of poor-decision making situations, regardless of whether the outcome is nothing bad happened or the worst possible outcome occurred, by making that poor decision to start with, we both take on unnecessary risk for ourselves, and we often also impose unnecessary risks upon others. Please take the necessary time to do the job right the first time, take the time necessary to pull up and follow the proper procedures, and take a moment to remember that nothing you do in your normal course of work at this company is worth risking your life or your livelihood over.
Fraternally
Russ Dittmer
Local 591 Administrative E-Board Member
+1-214-205-4752 (cell)
russ.dittmer@local591.com
Professionalism On The Ground Builds Safety In The Air.
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