September 18th, 2020

IAM COMPLETING VOTER ELIGIBILITY CHALLENGES, PRESSING FOR EXTENSTION OF PAYROLL SUPPORT PROGRAM

As previously reported, Republic Airways management purposely included management officials on its voter eligibility list to the National Mediation Board (NMB) to slow the representation election process down and interfere with our right to form a union. The IAM is in the final stages of preparing legal challenges to the inclusion of supervisors, and other workers who do not belong in the mechanic and related classification, and we will report to you when those challenges are submitted to the NMB.

Republic management’s strategy is simple: They believe that those dedicated workers who management will layoff on October 1st will no longer be interested in joining a union and they hope to include management workers to tilt the scales in their favor. But their plan is flawed.

When we vote in the IAM, one of the many things that we will focus on is legally enforceable recall rights that would apply to AMTs who are laid off on October 1st and beyond. The fact that Republic management has not provided AMTs who have received layoff notices the legal right to return to their jobs when the airline industry recovers is deplorable. The fact that AMTs cannot maintain their employment in other locations on Republic’s system based on their seniority is equally deplorable and demonstrates that Republic management has absolutely zero respect for AMTs and our families. This can and will be immediately addressed once we form our union with the IAM and the IAM is legally certified to represent us, which would be the day we win the vote. It’s clear why Republic management and its high-priced law firm, Ford and Harrison, seek this delay.

In other news, IAM members fanned out across the country to press elected officials to extend the Payroll Support Program (PSP). If we are successful in extending the PSP, and Republic management takes additional federal aid, layoff would be prohibited.

Please click here to read more about the IAM’s push to extend the PSP.