Piedmont Bargaining Update for November 2017

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Our CWA bargaining team met with the company’s bargaining team from November 7-9 and continued working toward a fair and equitable contract. Talks and proposals were focused on economics for all three days. 

On Tuesday, we presented the company with a comprehensive proposal in response to its proposal at our last round of bargaining. Our comprehensive proposal included Attendance at Hearings, Benefits, Differentials, Drug and Alcohol, Holidays, Overtime, Scope, and Wages. In each of these articles there are only one or two issues holding us back from reaching tentative agreements. We believe the movement we made in our proposal showed the company we are serious about reaching a tentative agreement. 

The company responded on Wednesday with what they thought was movement toward our proposals. Although none of their proposals came as close to ours as we would have liked, we did have productive conversations. We believe they understand our positions and that we will not move from them. 

Prior to leaving on Thursday we presented counter proposals on Article 8: Overtime; Article 10: Uniforms; Article 11: Holidays; and Article 12: Vacation. We believe, based on conversations at the table, that we could have reached tentative agreements on those articles if we had had more time. In each of those proposals we believe we addressed the company’s objections to our previous proposals while still getting what we wanted. We hope that when we meet again, we will reach tentative agreements on those proposals.

There is still a large gap between our proposals on compensation. We were disappointed by the lack of movement the company showed in their last proposal. We both acknowledged that there are some philosophical differences between our positions on compensation. We will need your help to put pressure on the company through mobilization activities to let them know we deserve a fair wage. 

We have planned mobilization activities for November 20. Members will be hand billing and informational picketing at BOS, CLT, DCA, PHL, and PHX. It is time to take our message that Piedmont employees deserve a fair wage to Piedmont and American customers! We have already applied for permits at those locations. If you work at one of those stations, please contact your Local to find out how you can help send a strong message to the company. 

The company could not meet in December, so our next bargaining session will be January 23-26, 2018. Last January, we reached an agreement to extend the raises in the contract that expired in 2016 through 2017 in hopes that we would reach a new contract before the end of the year. The agreement for wages does not extend into 2018. Therefore, there will be no raises until we reach an agreement on a new contract and it is ratified by you the members. Any proposal we agree to on compensation will include a request for retroactive pay back to January 1, 2018. 

In Unity,

Marge Krueger, Chair
Paul C. Castaneda, Co-Chair
Anthony Barden, President, CWA Local 3645
Rick Brower, President, CWA Local 7040