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Bargaining Update: September 2016

Published: Sep 23 2016 1:01PM

NATIONAL BARGAINING UPDATE

The BMWED/SMART-Mechanical coalition resumed negotiations with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC) on September 14, 2016, Crystal City, Virginia.  

After over two years of negotiations, the carriers presented a full proposal regarding wages, work rules, and design changes to the healthcare plan.  The carriers’ proposal is provided here. The BMWED-SMART Mechanical proposal is here. The BMWED/SMART-Mechanical coalition and the NCCC mutually agreed to create a Small Bargaining Committee (SBC); the SBC is charged with working through the parties’ respective proposals, to focus discussions on key issues in an effort to reach a voluntary settlement without going to mediation or a Presidential Emergency Board.

The carriers’ healthcare expert consultant also finally responded to the SWG’s healthcare analysis at the September 14th session.  The carriers’ expert confirmed that the SWG’s efforts of fact finding will be of significant value for the bargainers: The SWG’s findings, as driven by the bargainers and as confirmed by both the BMWED/SMART-Mechanical coalition and the carriers’ expert consultant, appears to offer a viable path to reaching a voluntary agreement.  However, more work needs to be completed by the SWG to further refine facts and information for the bargainers to consider.  Again, the SBC will help drive the SWG’s future efforts and developments.  

Following the September 14th bargaining session, BMWED President Simpson noted that, “It appears that the BMWED/SMART-Mechanical Coalition, along with the TCU, has found a very viable solution to the elephant in the room [healthcare] for this round of bargaining.  There is still work to be done to ensure that it is indeed a viable solution, but I am confident that the SWG and SBC will get the necessary work done so that the bargainers can continue to make educated decisions."

The SBC and the SWG are scheduled to reconvene in October and November of this year.