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COMMO CHECK!Volume 15, Issue 3Dedicated to the proposition that a career in aviation is not something you do, it’s something you survive!12/2015The Official Newsletter of the Professional Helicopter Pilots Association,OPEIU Local 102PRESIDENT’S CORNERHello to the membership! As most all already know, the U.S. Army issued a sole sourcecontract for a period of one year to URS. It amounted to being an extension but was notin fact an extension. It was a totally new contract that was awarded without going throughthe bid process, thus the term “sole source”. With that in mind the type of contract haschanged significantly from past contracts that were termed as “firm fixed priced”. In otherwords the potential contractor would place a bid to do the work at a certain price. Theonly way that contract price could change is if the U.S. Army issued a contract modification. Under that type of contract the Company had a greater degree of leeway underwhich it operated. The new contract basically pays the contractor to administer the workand is paid a percentage of the cost of the work, which is determined by the U.S. Army.Fundamentally, this changes the way the URS is paid and leaves no room for the Company to maneuver to increase its profits. It also leaves very little room for discretionaryspending, as that eats into the profits fast. So there lies the problem that we are facedwith. The Company has CBA obligations that the U.S. Army has said they will not pay for.So now the Company and the Union must work through the issues to find a settlementthat both parties can live with. Simply saying “screw them, it’s in the CBA so they’ll haveto pay” is not going to work.The issues that we’re working on are Overtime payments, DONSA’s, a change tothe life insurance age reduced benefits. Currently the benefits are intact until age 70.Under the AECOM benefits plan that is reduced to 65. As all know, we have lot of employees over 65, so we’re working to get changed back.Recently we all received a mailing from AECOM about the impending change ofour current 401k plan vendor to Merrill Lynch. Our CBA states that the membership mustapprove of such changes by vote before they occur. I’m setting up a meeting with a Corporate HR person that is familiar with both plans, so that the changeover can be briefedand the differences between the plans. There will be ample time for questions and discussions. I hope for meeting to occur Thursday December 10th, which is our normally scheduled General Membership meeting. Then a vote will be set up so the membership canvote yes or no to allow the changeover to occur. This all has to be done by December16th or so. I would particularly love to have those personnel that are well versed in thefinancial to be present. I’m told that there is a website that has a video that briefs a lot ofthe changes. The following link will take you to the presentation: https://www.brainshark.com/mlrg/AECOM URS PresentationThe TH-72 transition for the Primary guys is ongoing. They are just finishingstage 2 of the 5 stages. Stage 1 is aircraft qualification as a pilot. Stage 2 is qualificationin the aircraft as an instrument pilot. Stage 3 is qualification in the aircraft as a ContactIP. Stage 4 is qualification in the aircraft as an Instrument IP. Finally the last stage is aDES acceptance ride. This is when you officially receive Contact and Instrument IP orders. We have lost a total of 3 people so far in the transition since it started back in thesummer. Stage 1 is tough for everybody, with a lot of memorization work learning newsystems, EP’s/limits, and new maneuvers. Then I expect the Instrument IP stage to bepretty tough for the Primary guys while the Instrument guys will probably find the ContactIP stage tough. I’ll guarantee that no one will say that it was enjoyable when they havecompleted the transition. The Army with its infinite wisdom is still trying to figure out whatwill be taught to the students, or I should say what the limitations of the aircraft will allowus to teach the students. Dumb just keeps getting dumber.There have been some personnel who have “xvac” show up on their pay statements. If you are one of them please contact HR Manager Keith Sasser at Bldg. 4509.They’re not real sure what it is yet.The Christmas Exodus is coming up fast. I would like to take a moment to wisheveryone a very happy and safe Christmas and New Year.PresidentRon ArsenaultPHPA Local 102October Minutes2October Minutes(cont.)3Treasurer’s Report4VP’s Corner5Teresa’s Corner6Meeting AgendaOffice Information
COMMO CHECK!PAGE 2GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETINGNOVEMBER 12, 2015The meeting was called to order at 6:30 PM by President Ron Arsenault. All E-Board members present. There were 35members present.Recording Secretary: The October meeting minutes were read by Jim Guy and the minutes were approved as read.Secretary-Treasurer: Rod George read the October Treasurer’s report and the report was approved as read. There are228 members out of approximately 332. That is 69%.Trustees’ Reports:Primary Division: Bill Haaren had nothing to report.Advanced Division: Mel Stobel reported that some members were upset about the cancelled DONSA.BWS Division: Mark Souza had nothing to report.Trustee at Large: Matt Hedger had nothing to report.Vice-Presidents ReportAl Hauenstein had nothing to report.Old BusinessBy-Laws Committee: The committee has not finished yet with the review. Any member can submit recommendationsto the committee.New BusinessOpen Enrollment: Everyone needs to go online or call to select the benefits they want. Some members found that allthey had to do was update their beneficiary’s. Most have to re-select all of the benefits also. Make sure all employeesdo this by the deadline.ARTS Pop-ups: There are two pop-ups that we are seeing in ARTS. One is the maintenance pop-up. We are require tocheck the blocks before we can save the records. This should not be showing up and Bob Price is looking into gettingrid of it. The other is the personal information pop-up. Tell everyone to ignore this one. It should never have showedup. This is for new students showing up to Ft. Rucker.Commo Check Correction: Federal law requires overtime to be paid after 40 hours in a week. There are three statesthat also require overtime after 8 hours in one day.Contract Extension: The anticipated extension to the Company’s contract arrived but it turns out that it is a new typeof contract with new language in it. This new contract will last one year then it goes up for bid. There are severalitems in the new language that we are looking into with our lawyer. One is the DONSA’s. The new contact will notallow the Contractor to be paid for a DONSA unless the employees are working. This is the same as for the DAC’s andour management personnel. This will require anyone wanting the day off to take a PL day. The Company will approveall PL’s for that day. Our lawyer is looking at the language in our CBA to see if we have a possible grievance. TheHoliday Exodus is specifically mentioned in the CBA and there are two DONSA’s in it. If they want us to work itwould be for time-and-a-half. We don’t think there will be an issue with this but we will look into it. Another issue isemployees who wear uniforms other than flight suits. The new contract will not pay for the extra money these employees get for this. The Company may have to eat that one. Another issue is Overtime. This is another topic that we arelooking at for a possible grievance. The contract has new language about how overtime is paid. The pay code for “PaidAbsence” is related to this also. It turns out that there is a problem with this. “PA” time cannot be paid on this contract. As you know, we started logging 8 hours of “Regular” time each day in October. The Company recently came upwith the “PST” time code to replace “PA” time. This allows for self-study and preparation time away from work that isrelated to our job. More guidance on how to log this time will come from management. Again, our lawyer is looking atall of these issues among others so we will decide what our plan of action will be after we speak to him. Please be pa(Continued on page 3)
Page 3COMMO CHECK!VOLUME 15, ISSUE 1November Minutes (Continued from page 2)tient and allow the E-Board to do the job you elected them to do. No solution will ever make everyone happy andthere are some limitations to what we can do because of the third party involved with our job, The Army. We cannotstrike, and flying only syllabus will get everyone’s attention but could have some negative consequences that we maynot like. We will confer with our lawyer and decide what is best.From The FloorSeveral topics came up relating to issues that were covered as long as one year ago. Among these were the 401K being paid differently for new hires, what happens to a member that fails the Lakota course, why is there now threeseniority rosters in each division, and some members who thought that the “Strike Authorization Vote” that was included in the last year’s CBA ratification forced them to vote “yes” for ratification or we would immediately go onstrike. All of these topics were covered in detail at previous meetings, some of them several times. If the informationis not being put out to the membership, remember that everyone can read the minutes of any previous meetings toget the information. These minutes are public record.The winner of the raffle took home 38 tonight.There being no new business the meeting adjourned at 8:10 PM.
COMMO CHECK!PAGE 4TREASURER’S REPORTThe undersigned, Treasurer of the PHPA, submits the following report for the month of November2015Beginning Balance Checking: 81,237.24Received from All Sources: ( ) 52,903.98Total: ( ) 134,141.22Disbursements: (-) 49,416.34Ending Balance 84,724.88AACFCU Share 44,731.91ment of receipts and expenditures will show in detail the sources offunds received and expenses to which disbursements were applied.All of which is respectfully submitted.Rodney M. George December 3, 2015Treasurer, PHPADateAACFCU CD values as of 30 November 2015:Certificate #37543-6 30,792.74Certificate #37543-7 30,792.74Certificate #37543-8 30,792.74Total Value of CDs:Total Members: 226 92,378.22The annexed state-
PAGE 5COMMO CHECK!Vice President’s CornerBy Alan HauensteinNo Submission
PAGE 6COMMO CHECK!Teresa’s CornerAka The Office ManagerMerry Christmas and Happy New YearCHECKLISTYour next general membership meetingwill be 14 JAN 2016, 630pm at the unionhall.MEETING AGENDA1.Meeting called to order.2.Officer Reports.3.Old Business.4.New Business.PHPA, OPEIU LOCAL 102PO BOX 427D A L E V I L L E , A L A B A MA 3 6 3 2 2PHONE: 334 -598-4121FAX 334-598-1620E - MA I L :L O C A L 1 0 2 @ A U T O R O T A TE . C O MHTTP//WWW.PHPA.NET
Under the AECOM benefits plan that is reduced to 65. As all know, we have lot of em-ployees over 65, so we’re working to get changed back. Recently we all received a mailing from AECOM about the impending change of our current 401k plan vendor
