AVIATION PROFESSIONALT E A M S T E R

Newsletter of the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition

Members of the TAMC attended a joint summit on labor fatigue at the Air-lines for America (A4A) headquarters in Washington, D.C. on March 8.

The summit was a joint effort of the A4A, FAA, labor organizations and com-panies. It was designed to encourage conversation and information sharingsurrounding fatigue issues in the aviation maintenance community. Severallabor organizations were present in addition to the Teamsters, including IAM,AMFA and TWU. Airlines represented included United, American/USAir,Southwest, Jet Blue, FedEx and UPS. The FAA had several representatives pres-ent and our host, A4A, had several as well.

Dr. Katrina Avers of the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute gave a detailedpresentation on the effects of fatigue on mechanics in the workplace. The datapresented by Dr. Avers shows that fatigue is a growing and increasingly trouble-some issue in the field. Part of the discussion included how the data was col-lected (volunteers in the workforce) and a possible way of measuring fatiguelevels instantly through the use of a tablet. The tablet is based on a reactiontime-test known as the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT), which works simi-larly to a breathalyzer. A point of concern was data revealing that a technicianwho has worked a 16-hour shift is impaired to roughly the same level as a per-son who is legally drunk. Also of concern was information revealing that be-cause of fatigue, on-the-job injuries are dramatically rising. Mechanics workingwith less than five hours of sleep has led to a nearly 500-percent increase in therate of incidents. Fatigue has also led to higher rates of ASAP incidents, with analmost 50-percent increase in incidents involving mechanics who have been onthe clock for more than 18 hours.

Data also revealed that fatigue is a much more prevalent problem in some

Volume 8, Issue 1

Lobbying Day for TAMC

TAMC Attends Joint Summit on Labor Fatigue

continued on page 3

Last March, the board of the TAMC attendedan event held by the Teamsters Military As-

sistance Program (TMAP) in Washington,D.C. Liz Belcaster and Mick Yauger started thegathering by explaining what TMAP is andhow it helps our service men and women findgood careers when they leave the military.There were presentations by high-ranking offi-cials at several companies who have workedwith TMAP and found the program to be suc-cessful. Also speaking at the event were repre-sentatives from the Department of Defense,the Department of Labor, and Soldier for Life,a transitional assistance program sponsored bythe U.S. Army.

TAMC Board Meets with Pentagon Officials

to Discuss Program Employing Veterans in

the Airline Industry

continued on page 4

Newsletter of the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition 2

Since 2008, the airline industry has consolidated from sixmajor carriers to three. This means fleet and mainte-

nance program integration, and that creates a paperworknightmare for technicians trying to make sure that the cor-rect part is installed on an aircraft.

As aircraft technicians we are always facing the task oftroubleshooting and changing aircraft parts. Whether you'reat the line, in the hangar or in the shop, you must alwaysidentify, confirm and verify the part number via the IPCand then check the effectivity of the aircraft or componentto make sure the right part gets installed. Complicating thistask is the harmonization and integration of thousands ofparts between the fleets of merging carriers. Researching ofa part can become a challenge. For instance, a B757 needs anew flight recorder control panel. The technician verifiedpart number via the IPC and the effectivity via the AMM.However, the part number from the IPC did not have themod, which resulted in the wrong part being installed onthe aircraft. In this scenario, the technician followed the cor-rect procedure and still the wrong part was installed on theaircraft. That’s just one example.

Be vigilant and verify the part you're installing has thecorrect software and/or complied with modification. Ifthere is any question at all regarding the effectivity of a part,notify your immediate supervisor and request engineeringsupport. In aviation maintenance, we must get it right everytime, so do what is necessary to ensure that the part you in-stall is the correct one.

Here is FAR 43.13 (General). Please take the time to reviewall of FAR 43 as it applies to your specific maintenance activity.

§ 43.13 Performance rules (general).

(a) Each person performing maintenance, alteration,or preventive maintenance on an aircraft, engine,propeller, or appliance shall use the methods, tech-niques, and practices prescribed in the current man-ufacturer's maintenance manual or Instructions forContinued Airworthiness prepared by its manufac-turer, or other methods, techniques, and practices

acceptable to the Administrator, except as noted in§ 43.16. He shall use the tools, equipment, and testapparatus necessary to assure completion of thework in accordance with accepted industry practices.If special equipment or test apparatus is recom-mended by the manufacturer involved, he must usethat equipment or apparatus or its equivalent ac-ceptable to the Administrator.

(b) Each person maintaining or altering, or performingpreventive maintenance, shall do that work in sucha manner and use materials of such a quality, thatthe condition of the aircraft, airframe, aircraft en-gine, propeller, or appliance worked on will be atleast equal to its original or properly altered condi-tion (with regard to aerodynamic function, struc-tural strength, resistance to vibration anddeterioration, and other qualities affecting airwor-thiness).

(c) Special provisions for holders of air carrier operat-ing certificates and operating certificates issuedunder the provisions of Part 121 or 135 and Part129 operators holding operations specifications.Unless otherwise notified by the administrator, themethods, techniques, and practices contained in themaintenance manual or the maintenance part ofthe manual of the holder of an air carrier operatingcertificate or an operating certificate under Part 121or 135 and Part 129 operators holding operationsspecifications (that is required by its operating spec-ifications to provide a continuous airworthinessmaintenance and inspection program) constituteacceptable means of compliance with this section.

[Doc. No. 1993, 29 FR 5451, Apr. 23, 1964, as amendedby Amdt. 43-20, 45 FR 60182, Sept. 11, 1980; Amdt. 43-23,47 FR 41085, Sept. 16, 1982; Amdt. 43-28, 52 FR 20028,June 16, 1987; Amdt. 43-37, 66 FR 21066, Apr. 27, 2001]

PAPERWORK: Which Part is the Right Part?

Newsletter of the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition 3

Two Teamsters from SFO Local 856/986 have received the Charles Tay-lor Award, one of the most prestigious honors for an aviation mechanicto receive. Named for the first aviation mechanic in powered flight, me-chanics need to be a U.S. citizen and to work as an aviation mechanicfor a period of 50 years in order to be eligible for the award.

Mickey Curry Curry began his careerwith the U.S. Air Force in1966. He served for 22years as a technician, in-spector and maintenancemanager. He laterworked as a technicianfor Interstate Cargo Air-lines, and an engineer

with Douglas Aircraft Company on the USAF’s C-17 program. Curryjoined United Airlines in 1988 and has worked at both the OAK (Oak-land, Calif.) and San Francisco bases.

“Whether it’s airframe heavy overhauls, landing gear or engine over-hauls, Mickey is well-respected for his knowledge and work ethic,” saidEngine Overhaul and Repair Senior Supervisor Jim Boland, who pre-sented Curry with an engraved aircraft window congratulating him onhis 50 years of service to the nation and to United Airlines. Base Mainte-nance Vice President Mark Eldred also spoke highly of Curry at the cer-emony attended by Curry’s wife Judy, his son Michael, and his daughterKimberly. Curry made a point to thank everyone involved and reflectedon his long and interesting career with the USAF and United.

Larry Anduha Along with the FAA,United Airlines had thehonor on Feb. 10 ofpresenting the CharlesTaylor Master MechanicAward to LAX InspectorLarry Anduha, who hasbeen with United Air-lines at LAX since 1964.

Anduha began his aviation career with the U.S. Air Force. He servedfrom 1958-1962, and it was during that time he received his aircraftand power-plant certification. He later received his FAA A&P licenseand attended the Brooks-Budde aircraft ground school in 1963. Hejoined the Continental/United family in 1964 and has been at LAXsince. Anduha holds a B.A. in Economics from UCLA.

Technical Services Vice president John Wiitala and Chief Inspec-tor/Quality Control Managing Director Mario Bravo were on hand topresent the award to Anduha along with his LAX co-workers andGeorge Mahurin of the FAA. Wiitala presented Anduha with an in-scribed trophy made of a scrap engine blade, a local tradition for TaylorAward winners. Bravo called Anduha “an example to many young tech-nicians and inspectors, who respect his knowledge and work ethic.”

environments than others. Scheduling methods playa big part in mitigating risks associated with fatigue,as does the time of day in which you work (midnightshifts create a higher risk of fatigue), the number ofshifts worked and frequency of shifts worked.

Lessons already learned through research and ex-perience reveal that while fatigue is common amongaviation maintenance professionals, risks associatedwith fatigue can be mitigated with proper staffinglevels, adept scheduling and taking personal respon-sibility as it relates to hours worked. Because effectivemeans of mitigation are available, there are no planson the horizon for the FAA to pursue regulation.

Other topics of discussion included increasingawareness of fatigue issues among the rank and file,duty time regulations imposed by the FAA, em-ployer-imposed duty times, and personal responsi-bility of a technician regarding self-regulating timeon the clock. The role of labor organizations and theeffect of collective bargaining agreements on em-ployer-imposed duty times were also discussed.

TAMC Chairman Chris Moore meetswith House Aviation SubcommitteeTAMC Chairman Chris Moore met with House Avia-tion Subcommittee staff on February 26. The AviationSubcommittee (ASC) had asked for the union’sthoughts on the upcoming FAA reauthorization bill.The TAMC discussion covered our agenda of stan-dardizing drug and alcohol testing at foreign repairstations, as well as the current lack of FAA inspectionsat those stations.

The discussion also covered the looming me-chanic shortage, along with the TAMC veteran’splacement program. The committee is very inter-ested in the project, and they asked that the TAMCprepare a proposal for the committee to review.

The TAMC remains vigilant in our support oftighter safety standards at foreign repair stations, andstrong in our commitment to provide good airlinejobs for qualified veterans.

Lobbying Day continued from page 1Teamster Mechanics Receive

Charles Taylor Award

Newsletter of the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition 4

SouthwestThe negotiating team for Southwest ma-terial specialists has reached a tentativeagreement to amend their current collec-tive bargaining agreement with South-west Airlines.

The negotiating team is comprised ofTeamsters Airline Division InternationalRepresentatives, local union businessagents and rank-and-file committeemembers. The agreement marks an endto a successful round of negotiations thatoriginally began in September of 2013.

The agreement is a result of bargainingthat led to an agreement-in-principle onMarch 3, 2017. If ratified by the member-ship, it will include a 20 percent signingbonus, 8 percent pay increases effectiveon the date of ratification and an averageof 27.3 percent pay increases over the life-time of the agreement. The new agree-

ment also eliminates the two-tier payscale and the 21-year maximum salarycap by creating a new 11-year scale.

A copy of the highlights and the fulltentative agreement will be sent to eachmember for review, along with a time-line and instructions for voting. Thecurrent collective bargaining agreementcovers more than 300 material special-ists that deliver, store and stock aircraftparts. The agreement covers membersof Teamsters Locals 19, 986, 455,104,781, 769 and 210.

“I am pleased with the ability of theunion negotiators and Southwest Airlinesto work cooperatively to convert theagreement-in-principal into a tentativeagreement, and to do so without enteringinto the cumbersome federal mediationprocess,” said Capt. David Bourne, Direc-tor of the Teamsters Airline Division.

ExpressJet/ASAProfits over people have been prioritizedin the last, best and final offer made by Ex-pressJet subsidiary Atlantic Southeast Air-lines (ASA) to the TAMC NegotiatingCommittee.

Federally mediated negotiations betweenmore than 360 mechanics represented bythe International Brotherhood of Team-sters (IBT) and ASA ended on Thursday,March 30. The carrier told the union thatit had provided all of the wage increasesit was able to, and that further bargainingon economics would be fruitless.

Under the Teamsters Constitution, such a“last, best and final” offer must be votedupon by the membership. The IBT isplanning to ask its membership to voteon the carrier’s proposed contract in thecoming weeks, with a final result likely tobe announced in May.

NEGOTIATIONS ROUNDUP ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

TAMC Chairman Chris Moore addressed the gathering.Moore explained the problem of the growing shortage of avi-ation mechanics, and how the TAMC could help to fill thegrowing need with service members whose Military Occupa-tional Specialty (MOS) is in aircraft maintenance. Boardmember Bob Fisher spoke about the possibility of an appren-ticeship program with United Airlines as one way of transi-tioning service members who haven’t completed the A&Prequirements during their time in the military. The Honor-able John Goglia, the first and only airframe and power plantmechanic to receive a presidential appointment to the Na-tional Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), then spent timediscussing the worldwide shortage of mechanics and howvital it is to replace the generation of mechanics that areabout to retire.

After the formal meeting, there was an open discussionfollowed by an awards ceremony. During the open discussionMoore, Fisher and Goglia met with representatives from theDOL that are specialists in apprenticeship programs. This dis-cussion led to a commitment to further explore avenues tohelp service members find careers when they rotate out.

The board held its annual meeting after the event and dis-cussed items such as the AMC competition, which occurs inOrlando later this year, as well as the planning for next year’sevent. The TAMC met on March 31 in Washington, D.C. todiscuss the agenda for the next 12 months. Further updateswill be forthcoming.

Veterans Program continued from page 1

The Teamsters first won the right to repre-sent the mechanics at ASA in October2010, when it was a stand-alone regionalcarrier. It was purchased by SkyWest andmerged with ExpressJet shortly thereafter.Bargaining on a first contract commencedshortly after the mechanics’ vote, but hasfailed to produce a contract after morethan six years of negotiations, several ofthose years with the help of a federal medi-ator with the National Mediation Board.

“The Teamsters Airline Division is very dis-appointed that the company could notmeet what we feel are reasonable wage pro-posals. Mechanics are leaving ASA to go tobetter paying airlines. Our Teamster me-chanics at United and UPS make more intheir first year than ASA mechanics makeafter 10 or 15 years. That’s a reflection ofhow this airline treats it workers. We’re dis-appointed, and we think our membershipwill be too when they vote in upcomingweeks,” said Capt. David Bourne, Directorof the Teamsters Airline Division.

ASA merged with ExpressJet Airlines in2011. Its shrinking fleet of regional air-craft flies as a feeder for Delta Airlinesand American Airlines. ASA flies morethan 20 percent of Delta’s regional routes.

“The poor morale, rapid attrition of me-chanics and inability to attract new me-chanics will inevitably have an impact ontheir performance as a carrier,” Bourne said.

NetJets As we reported in our last announcement,union negotiators presented managementwith a comprehensive proposal to resolveall outstanding issues, including pay andsubcontracting. We expected managementto respond with a counter-proposal thisweek that would move us closer to a

complete agreement on a new contract.What we got back is more of the same –they want to do aircraft maintenance onthe cheap, and they want to use someoneelse’s workforce to do it.

NetJets’ marketing materials tell a verydifferent story. For example, their websitestates: “What sets NetJets apart? TheHighest Safety Standards. Our safetystandards are second none. We have themost stringent maintenance and opera-tional procedures in the industry.”

If there were truth in advertising, theirwebsite would also include some otherpieces of information that really “set Net-Jets apart:”

• Every year, thousands of mechanicswho aren’t employed by NetJetswork on NetJets aircraft.

• NetJets proudly pays its aircraft techni-cians and related workers significantlyless than the average pay of workers atcommercial and cargo carriers.

• For more than five years, NetJetsmanagement has steadfastly ignoredthe advice of their own safety per-sonnel – personnel that insist thatthey need more NetJets techniciansat locations around the country toservice aircraft when there is a me-chanical problem.

• NetJets customers can be assuredthat the company will maintain atechnician-to-aircraft ratio that is al-ways significantly lower than othermajor airlines.

• The NetJets fleet may be the largestin business aviation, but aircraftmaintenance is definitely not part oftheir business plan.

We have the right to truthfully inform

both NetJets customers and the generalpublic about our labor dispute. This in-cludes bringing attention to the com-pany’s outrageous level of maintenancesubcontracting critical to its fleet, andalso how NetJets pays their safety workersway less than the industry average forpassenger and cargo carriers.

Between now and the next round of bar-gaining that’s exactly what we will do. Youshould have already received an emailwith copies of newly released materialsconcerning the labor dispute. The stew-ards and Local 284 will also be seekingvolunteers to participate in upcoming in-formational activities.

The company’s proposals on pay, benefitsand job security fall far short of what it willtake to get an agreement that the member-ship and this union will support. If man-agement thinks they can deceive or frustrateour members into accepting an inferioragreement after all this time, they havemade a major miscalculation. Let’s keep upsolidarity and unity on the floor - that’s thekey to our success at the bargaining table!

In attendance for the union: NegotiatingTeam: Technicians John Wolfe, IsaacThielman and Tom Piteo; ControllerTom Freeman and Local 284 PresidentMark Vandak. Division: InternationalRepresentatives Paul Alves and ChrisMoore, Outside Counsel Jonathan Wentz.

In attendance for the company: SeniorVice President of Global MaintenanceTodd Hattaway, Vice President and Asso-ciate General Counsel Mike Maratto, VicePresident of Repair Station OperationsMike Limbert, Director of MaintenanceOperations Roger James and Staff Coun-sel Jeff Nagle.

NEGOTIATIONS ROUNDUP continued –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-----------------------------------------------

Newsletter of the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition 5

TAMC ONLINECheck out previous issues of the Teamster Aviation Professional atwww.teamsterair.org/tamc/newsletter.

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