TWU “Suspends” Tentative Contract Agreement for 11,000 Fleet Service Workers at American Airlines

Unresolved Issues Prevent Union from Recommending Agreement to TWU Members

DALLAS --The Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), bargaining agent for fleet service workers at American Airlines, has “suspended” a tentative agreement announced last week with AMR for fleet service workers who handle baggage, clean aircraft, deice and fuel planes, move freight and are charged with other responsibilities on the ground at the airline.

TWU International President James C. Little, in reversing the actions of the fleet service bargaining team, which had decided to send the agreement to members with a “no” vote recommendation, said, “If we can’t recommend it, we’re not sending it. Certain issues on the bargaining table had not been resolved. This agreement should be considered suspended until outstanding issues are fully resolved.”

The parties held talks this week to correct the items under discussion. TWU had not intended to publicly release word of the suspension, however some members of the media learned of the change in status of the fleet contract prompting the public announcement.

 Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) represents 200,000 workers and retirees, primarily in commercial aviation, public transportation and passenger railroads. The union is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO. For more information visit www.twu.org.

The TWU Fleet and Ground Service Negotiating Committee reconvened with American Airlines management in Washington, D.C. the week of May 24th through May 28th.

During this week-long session, proposals were passed by both sides and early this morning, May 28, 2010, a Tentative Agreement was reached.  

Although the committee cannot recommend the T/A, we believe the membership should have the final say. The decision to bring the T/A was made based on the NMB's premise that there would not be any other meetings scheduled until the end of year or possibly later.

Your Negotiating Committee believes the members should use their vote to decide.  The committee also took into serious consideration that the NMB would not look favorably upon the negotiating committee not allowing the membership to vote on the Companies final offer.

Please refer to the website for specific information on the details of this T/A. During the coming weeks your committee will be structuring the final language to prepare a full text to send out to the members before voting.  You can view the T/A summary here.
                                 
We thank all of our Members for your continued support.