Scott Kirby and the rest of his dishonest and greedy management team are attempting to mislead United employees once again. As Mr. Kirby begins to realize that he cannot cause an involuntary furlough of all full-time employees to part-time, he is doing his best to cause mass confusion. As I have stated previously, in discussions with United management the carrier never put forth an idea that did not violate our contract, the CARES Act, and your rights under both. The IAM could not agree to any company proposals that violated your contract or federal law.
Additionally, United demanded that your union and each IAM member not file a grievance against the company for their violations or pursue any legal action to protect your rights. We cannot and will not give up our rights to fight this injustice.
If Scott and the rest of his management team thought they had the right to involuntary layoff every single full-time worker to part-time, why would they ask us to waive our rights under the law and the contract?
Every IAM member at United should understand that Mr. Kirby is willing to upend the lives of approximately 15,000 dedicated and hard-working United employees and their families to save $60 million dollars over the next several months. Think about that. United currently has approximately $10 BILLION in cash available, yet he fully intends to violate your contractual rights, break the law under the CARES Act, and take food off your family’s table.
At the same time, we are RIGHT NOW, through the use of voluntary COLAs, saving United’s dishonest management team $30 MILLION PER MONTH and will save approximately $150 MILLION through September 30th.
And, we worked our asses off to enhance, incentivize, and expand voluntary program offerings, but Kirby refused to even discuss costs savings. That is because this is not about cost savings, it is about Scott Kirby wanting what he wants when he wants. Which is why he feels it is OK to cheat American taxpayers by taking their money intended to maintain salaries and jobs and ignoring the requirements of the CARES Act. No wonder Scott Kirby has been banned from several casinos for breaking the rules. This time his disrespect for the rules, our contract, and the law will rip off $60 MILLION from United’s workers to go directly into Kirby’s greedy hands.
But Scott Kirby isn’t as smart as he thinks. Scott, I suggest you read United States Senator, Josh Hawley’s letter to the CEO of United Airlines, Oscar Munoz, who knew how to run a company, cared about his employees and who you have made look really bad.
https://iam141.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Senator-Hawley-full-statement.pdf
As you can see, Senator Hawley thinks you’re a greedy, lying cheater too and demands you rectify this wrong immediately. I urge every United employee to print out Senator Hawley’s letter and bring it to your Supervisor at the start of your next shift.
Fraternally and in Solidarity,
Michael G. Klemm
President and Directing General Chairman
IAMAW, District Lodge 141