The 2007 COPE Legislative Conference was held in Washington D.C. July 9th through July 11th. Tony Acosta, Jason Stingley and I attended on behalf of Local 567.

This is the third convention I have attended on behalf of this local. I finally feel I am doing a good job in expressing the wishes of the local to our area congressmen (if I do say so myself). Attending one of these conventions is not simply a matter of showing up, listening to various speakers and shaking hands with the politicians and officials who are paraded in front of us. In fact, there is a fair amount of preparation involved. Over several COPE meetings prior to the convention important issues were identified. These issues included:

• Our job security being endangered by heavy overhaul work moving to foreign repair stations and the threat of foreign ownership of domestic flag carriers,
• Loss of members jobs due to unfair enforcement of security regulations,
• Unfair executive compensation packages,
• And the Employee Free Choice Act.

Of course, there were many other concerns that were raised locally concerning health care, the prescription drug plan, illegal aliens, medical costs etc. The problem gets to be that congressmen and their staff’ are very busy, a typical meeting usually lasts only fifteen to thirty minutes. And while it may make you feel good to go to a meeting and complain that too many aviation heavy overhaul jobs are going overseas and that Arpey’s bonus plan was unfair, that complaining is not especially constructive as far as rectifying the problem is concerned. Therefore you must be prepared with specific well-worded proposals on specific legislation in order to get the most bang for your buck, so to speak, in your thirty minute meeting.

Fortunately, the TWU lobbying effort had been in full swing for quite some time before the convention, and, in fact, the TWU had been meeting with James Oberstar (chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee) to ensure protective language is included in the 2007 FAA reauthorization bill. In an effort to level the playing field between foreign repair stations and domestic repair stations and thus encourage overhaul work to remain in the United States, the TWU proposed the following:

• That the FAA requires all maintenance on aircraft used in US service to be done at FAA certified repair stations.
• That all repair stations, foreign and domestic meet the same standards, including but not limited to drug and alcohol testing and airmen certification.
• That the FAA place greatest oversight on those foreign stations which are determined to be the greatest risk to safety and security.
• That all foreign repair stations be subject to the same unannounced inspections US repair stations are subject to.

We visited six congressional offices (the most we have visited) on this last trip to Washington. All six were astounded to learn mechanics in foreign repair stations did not have, nor were they required to have, an A&P license, take drug tests, and read or write English. They were equally astounded to learn that the FAA could not perform a random unannounced inspection at a foreign repair station. Especially troubling is the fact there is no requirement for aircraft overhaul to be done at an FAA certified facility. Congressmen and Senators are approached on a daily basis by people from all industries seeking favors and incentives. It is impossible for them to understand the intricacies of all the businesses that approach them. Therefore a large part of lobbying is to educate your Congressman and Senators about the intricacies of your business. We left our Representatives with an education that painted a very bad picture of foreign repair stations. But why should they believe us? Because supporting documentation was compiled during preparation for our meetings and given to our Representatives.

Foreign ownership of US flagged air carriers also threatens our job security. In the past couple of years we have seen the Bush administration try to weaken the foreign ownership restrictions. We spoke against these efforts. Bear in mind that five out of the six offices we visited were held by Republicans. To their credit, none of our representatives spoke in favor of their president’s efforts to weaken foreign ownership restrictions. All expressed the opinion that the issue of increased foreign ownership is dead.

While the FAA reauthorization bill would cover most of our issues on foreign repair stations, it did not cover all of them. The security aspect is addressed in H.R. 1981. This bill will require the Transportation Security Administration to establish security standards for foreign repair stations. Our representatives were surprised to learn that our members could loose their jobs after being brought back from recall or when transferring to another station due to the different security screening procedures required to get an AOA badge (the requirements at MIA are different from the requirements at DFW for example) while there is no security screening requirement at all at a foreign repair station. For the most part they seemed to agree that it made no sense to screen Americans in America where the risk is low and not to screen foreigners in foreign countries where the risk is high.

In face of the unjust management bonus payout this year, we also spoke in favor H.R.1257, the Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act. While this act falls short in that it only calls for a non-binding shareholder vote on executive compensation, we felt that by subjecting executive pay to greater public scrutiny corporate America may be a little less likely to steal money from the workforce.

The Employee Free Choice Act has been a major topic over the last several months. Even though the Senate has blocked this bill for the time being, it is fairly certain that the EFCA will resurface. Therefore, we took the opportunity of these congressional meetings to rebut the arguments that our Senators have made again this act. I had previously written to both Senators Hutchison and Cornyn speaking in favor of the EFCA. They both personally replied that they would not be able to support the EFCA because they believed it deprived people of the right to a “secret” ballot. While that is true, the current system under the NLRA places the employee (a perspective Union member} in a kind of double jeopardy situation in that the employee is subject to harassment by the employer during the card signing phase of a representational campaign and during the election phase of the campaign. The proposed EFCA may not be without flaws however the advantages of the act far outweigh the disadvantages for employees, if not for employers.

For the record we had meetings with the following people:

• Andress Boggs with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s office,
• Allissa Merrit with John Cornyn’s office
• Rachel Carter with Kay Granger’s office,
• Rod Hall with Eddie Bernice Johnson’s office,
• Kimberly Reasoner with Michael Burgess’ office,
• Congressman Kenny Marchant

Generally we felt well received by everyone whom we met with, a little more so with some and a little less so with a few of others. This year makes the second consecutive year we have spoken to Kimberly Reasoner and Rachel Carter. This afforded us the opportunity to get some feedback on last years meetings. I was most impressed by Republican Kenny Marchant. He has voted along party lines against us on every issue that has come before him for a vote. Nonetheless, he committed to support us on the foreign repair station restrictions contained within the FAA Reauthorization Act and H.R.1981. Congressman Marchant expressed that he wanted to do what was right for the people in his district and if supporting foreign repair station restrictions was good for preserving jobs for people in his district, he was for it.

As you all should be aware, the base is located in Kay Granger’s 12th district. Rachel Carter, Congressman Granger’s Senior Legislative Assistant, felt that Congressman Granger would be able to support us. Kimberly Reasoner, Michael Burgess’ Legislative Counsel, felt that Congressman Burgess could also support us on foreign repair station issues.

During previous COPE Conventions I have attended meetings in congressional offices with large delegations combined from several locals where several issues were discussed in general terms. This year our delegation was small and our issues focused on several specific pieces of legislation. Personally I feel it is a much better approach, as it gets a few specific issues in front our representatives with precise reasons as to why they should support us. It also puts them somewhat on the spot when we ask them to support a specific issue. We will be able to examine their voting records and see how they did.

An example of how the 2006 elections have shifted the balance of power in Congress can be seen in James Oberstar’s chairmanship of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. Once the Democrats came into a majority they were able to name Congressman Oberstar chair of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. Congressman Oberstar is a staunch supporter of Labor and has assured us that the FAA reauthorization bill will not come out of his committee until it incorporates the language we need. Remember that he has been lobbied on behalf of the TWU by Roger Tauss and Portia White. These are your COPE dollars at work to preserve your jobs.

In conclusion, I feel this was the most productive COPE Convention that I have attended. We visited more congressional offices than we ever have in the past. We were able to present several specific pieces of legislation directly concerning our job security and gain support (if somewhat tentative) for that legislation. Furthermore, we continue to develop relationships with our Senators and Representatives.

Gary Moffitt
Legislative Director

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