2011 COPE Report

The TWU COPE Convention was held in Washington DC from April 4th through April 7th at the Liaison Hotel in Washington DC. In attendance from this Local were John Johnson, Doug Housley, Nan Warren and Gary Moffitt.

The Following is a brief out line of day-to-day speakers and activities.

Day 1, April 5, 2011

• Harry Lombardo
  • Jim Little serving jury duty
  • We are in a different situation
  • The wealthy are defining the American Dream for everybody else
  • Teachers are buying their own supplies yet we spent billions on Wall Street bail out
  • Lines are drawn, battle being fought
  • The international is "all in", resources are being allocated
• John D. Porcari - Deputy Secretary of Transportation
  • Transportation funded by parents and grandparents
  • "Are we doing right by the next generation?" "Probably not"
  • Recovery Act funded 15,000 local projects and 40,000 roads
  • 2012 budget proposal would repair infrastructure and develop future transportation like high speed rail (HSR)
  • 2012 budget uses "Buy American" policy, no waivers to be issued
  • Transportation is the life blood of the economy
  • HSR is not just transportation but also jobs, businesses on corridor, construction, equipment
  • Need a "multi modal" focus on transportation
  • Foreign maintenance; must have one level of safety, maintenance and inspections must be top rate
• Nick Unger - AFL-CIO (best speaker of the day)
  • "We are losing big time, have been losing for a long time"
  • Union wages impact the non-union worker by only 15 bucks a year
  • Raises have been small and don't impact anybody
  • Battle being fought for what kind of country this is going to be
  • We are the last line of defense
• Barbara Easterly - Association of Retired Americans
  • Spoke against Scott Walker, Wisconsin
  • Spoke against repealing NMB voting change
  • "Death panels" do exist, at insurance companies when they decide who gets treatment
• Betty Sutton - Congresswoman 13th Ohio (D)
• Karen Ray - Federal Railroad Administration, Deputy Administrator
  • We have been dis-investing in infrastructure
• Randy Babbit - Administrator, FAA
  • Develop "just culture" for safety
  • "I just saw a mistake and I want to tell somebody"
  • Every person is a safety manager"
  • There should be no retribution against employee
  • Have been 18 short term FAA reauthorizations, now have a bill from both houses
  • FAA job is safety, certification of people, airports, airplanes, all create jobs
  • Next Gen ATC will save one billion gallons of jet fuel every year
• Peter Rogoff - Administrator, Federal Transit Administration
  • 2012 budget proposal doubles FTA budget
  • Transit demand going up because of fuel costs, which also drives up transit costs
• Eleanor Holmes Norton - Congresswoman Washington DC (D)
• Yvette Clark - Congresswoman 11th New York (D)
  • Spoke on history and heritage of labor movement
  • Need to educate public through high schools
  • Need to educate members
• Afternoon Workshop - Lobbying
  • In attendance Nan Warren, Gary Moffitt
• Kay Granger - Meeting in Congresswoman's office
  • In attendance Gary Moffitt, John Johnson, Doug Housley, Nan Warren, Jim Germaine (Local 565)
  • This is at least my fifth meeting at Kay Grangers office and the second time we have met with Congresswoman Granger herself. Our delegation found Congresswoman Granger to be interested and concerned about the future of the AFW overhaul base and our membership. We explained the impact of foreign repair stations on the highly skilled aviation jobs being put at risk by foreign repair as well as the risk to aviation safety by lack of FAA oversight, lack of drug/alcohol testing and lack of security checks on workers. Congresswoman Granger is a Republican and has voted against us on nearly every labor related issue that has come before her, nonetheless, we felt that the depressed economy has her more inclined to listen to the issues concerning working men and women and to be somewhat more concerned with labor issues. Kay Granger was a perfect gentlewoman; as polite and respectful as you would expect your congresswoman to be. Doug Housley and I offered to arrange a tour of the base. We presented a forty-seven page booklet outlining the TWU position.

Day 2, April 6

• Mark Miller Senator Wisconsin video
  • Events took place at special session called by Governor Scott Walker
  • Proposal to strip public sector employees of collective bargaining rights
  • All amendments proposed by Dems were tabled to fast track the bill
  • Dems decided to deny quorum causing bill to be exposed to public creating national phenomenon and public revolution
  • Republicans have a lot of money to spend
  • The people have to win this fight
• Arleen Holt Baker - Executive Vice President National AFL-CIO
  • Wisconsin not about budget is about busting unions
  • Scott Walker is actually organizer of the year, brought movement together better than we could have
  • Republican governors of Wisconsin and Florida have turned down federal money for HSR that would have created thousands of jobs
  • Right wing think tank American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is providing most (if not all) anti labor bills
  • 60% believe that nobody should have to give up collective bargaining rights
  • We have been laying off teachers, reducing services, cutting mass transit to pay for tax breaks for rich, oil/gas interests and subsidies for big business
• Ed Wytkind - Transportation Trades Department AFL-CIO
  • The Democrat elected to fill Scott Walker's seat got more votes than walker ever did
  • If the NMB voting rules were changed back to 50% plus one no one in house would have been elected
  • Delta and FedEx want congress to repeal NMB rules
  • 16 republicans broke ranks with party against repeal of NMB rules
  • NMB rules will not be repealed
  • AA is the gold standard of A/C maintenance TWU advocates against foreign repair stations
  • Flight Attendants are not covered by OSHA and they should be
  • Surface Transportation Reauthorization also on the table
  • Transportation cuts keep our workers from getting to/from work
• JoAnn Volk - Research Professor at Georgetown University Health Policy Institute
  • New Affordable Health Care
  • States are challenging constitutionality
  • You can keep old plan (grandfather plans) or go to new plan
  • Immediate benefit no life time limit, in 2015 no annual limit, some people have maxed out their limit in the middle of treatment
  • Coverage for dependants up to age 26, do not actually need to be dependant
  • 2014 exchanges to begin providing coverage
  • Individual mandate designed to offset inability to deny coverage due to pre-existing condition, i.e. you are healthy and don't want coverage, but you will be required to have coverage to offset costs due to the requirement to provide coverage to those with pre-existing cove age. Requested by insurance companies to spread risk.
• Gail Drath - AFL-CIO Government Affairs
  • Myth-busting Social Security
  • SS is not in crisis, did not cause current crisis and did not cause crisis of federal debt
  • SS has tremendous public support
  • Only 25% of Americans have defined benefit plan
  • Defined benefit is disappearing
  • 401K is a failure as a retirement vehicle, does not pool risk and money seeps out into wall street
  • 54 million receive SS, 37 million retirees receive SS
  • For 2 out of 3 SS is more than half of their retirement
  • Average benefit is $13,000
  • If not for SS half of retirees would be at poverty level
  • New attacks say SS unsustainable and breaking bank, not true
  • SS can not barrow or go into debt and can pay all of its obligations for the next 25 years
  • People who blame SS do not account for two wars, Wall Street bail out, health care cost etc.
  • Most actuaries say SS is excellently funded especially compared to private fund
  • Just raising or eliminating cap (now at $106,00) would address all possible funding issues and allow benefits to be raised
  • 18 member Fiscal Commission only allowed one day of public comments, recommended raising retirement age to 69, changing benefit calculation rate, not to include health care cost increases in COLA adjustments
• Keith Ellison - D MN5
  • Right wing has vision to create tiny elite class with a whole bunch of people to do the work with no right to collective bargaining
  • Believe in ownership society = you are on your own
  • American Dram events planned for May, June, July
  • the way to deal with the deficit - put America back to work
• Greg LeRay
  • See http://www.goodjobsfirst.org
  • Read my book
• Gwen Dunivent - TWU Political Field Representative
  • Spoke on COPE
  • Elimination of COPE Clubs
  • Need to emphasize education
• Portia White - TWU Department of Political and Legislative Affairs
  • Current House 241R/193D
  • Current Senate 47R/51D
  • On the table: FAA Reauthorization (on 18th temp extension), Surface Transportation Reauthorization (on 7th temp extension, Amtrak, NMB, regulatory issues
  • FAA Senate version - 2 year, 34.5 billion, FAA bargaining issues, health and safety for flight attendant, drug and alcohol for foreign repair stations, mandatory FAA inspections for foreign repair stations. Defeated insufficient health and safety considerations, removal of Davis-Bacon provisions, elimination of Essential Air Service (EAS)
  • FAA House version - repeal NMB elections, no health and safety for flight attendants, limited drug and alcohol for foreign repair stations, inadequate funding
  • NMB board appointments, 7-2010 and 7-2011
• Michael Burgess - meeting in congressman's office
  • in attendance Gary Moffitt, John Johnson, Doug Housley, Nan Warren.
  • In a change to past practice, Dr. Burgess met with us personally (rather than through a staffer). We presented our position on foreign repair stations, Dr. Burgess listened and asked many questions. We explained that the Senate version of the FAA Reauthorization was preferable for us over the House version .I agreed to provide some follow-up information and Dr. Burgess committed to writing a letter to the conference committee stating that the Senate bill was preferable to the House version of the bill with regards to foreign aircraft maintenance. We presented a forty-seven page booklet outlining the TWU position.

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