Independent Fire/Security Officers Association

A collective bargaining agreement has been reached between IF/SOA & Pratt and Whitney, effective May 18th, 2015.

To the Union brothers and sisters of the Teamsters, I.A.M & I.A.F.F., we thank you immensely for the continuing support in helping IF/SOA reach an agreement with the company.

Brothers and Sisters,

As of right now we have the company's Last, Best & Final offer. The details of this offer will be discussed at the ratification meeting on Sunday. The details for the meeting are as follows: 

Ratification Meeting

Sunday May17th, 2015

2:00pm

IAM LL1746 Hall

357 Main Street

East Hartford, CT 06118

I hope to see everybody there as we vote on this contract.

Brothers and sisters

The tide changed pretty quick today after days of back and forth on subcontracting and your committees insistence not to mess with our job security, (Letter 12), this was taken off the table today intact and we can now move on to the economic portion of these negotiation's.

After being reminded by the company how well we are paid compared to non- bargaining unit people, (that's why we are union), we have started this process and its where we ended today. We will pick back up in the morning. 

So as we head into the final day of these negotiation's , like I said before, its our intent to bring a fair contract back to the members that we can recommend for ratification on Sunday.

In Solidarity

John

5/12/15

Negotiations update.

The talks are turning into a concessions/subcontracting negotiations.  Things did not go well.  We through contract negotiations, gave up many things in past years to maintain a strong subcontracting language.   Letter #12 is the heart and soul of our bargaining unit.

They have either flat-out rejected or gutted all our current proposals.  We have received nothing of substance.  How is this bargaining in good faith?  How much more do you want to lose from the Company to maintain a job with no job security.

We did make some progress with housekeeping issues such as name changes and dates on letters.

They proposed to make it a condition of employment for the Middletown facility's members to be Medically trained to either the EMR or EMT level for as long as employed in the facility.

They have not mentioned any proposals to hire, just to backfill with vendors/contractors. Example: Spokesman Chris Smith stated they could use contractors to fill in and run the Ambulance in Middletown if current members decided not to renew their certification or were not available.

In East Hartford they said the Rentschler field events (Football Games), X7/X8 stands and new construction on property (new H.Q building)  would be covered by vendors/contractors as it would in Middletown.

Chief Steward Prisco Monico

Here is where we are at... 

 The union and company have tentative agreements on current language either side has no proposals for.    

Letter #12 is still open 

Job posting preventing East Hartford members to post for Middletown jobs still open 

Medical skill mandate in Middletown still open 

We still have not seen any economics from the company 

 Some company overtime proposals still open 

 We are still far apart and time running out. Time to turn up the heat people ... Back at it tomorrow!

The Union and Company got back together going over the Unions proposals with another round of Q&A’s. A few tentitive agreements (TA's), on some current contract language clean-ups.  The company then supplied the union with their proposals..

Brothers and Sisters

Opening Day negotiations 2015

The Union and the company met on April 21, not much to report on this day. It was a meet and greet, session that lasted about an hour. State of the business addresses by Renee Welsh,(PW F&S Admin) and Gary Nester(PW Lead negotiator). The Unions Attorney and President also had some opening remarks. The Union passed some non-economic proposals to the company and gave some explanation for each. The company was not prepared to give any proposals at this time, Shocker!  We meet again on Wednesday April 29th; the company may have some proposals by then.

The following are the remaining dates for negotiations:

4/29, 5/6, 5/11, 5/12, 5/13, 5/14, 5/15 and if needed 5/16 with ratification set on 5/17

A special thanks for our guests who attended opening day to show support for IFSOA (IAM District 26, IAM LL1746, IAM LL700, IAM LL743 and Teamsters LL1150)

We have a lot of work ahead of us, as we stand UNITED for a fair CONTRACT. I will update the site as things happen.

In Solidarity,

John Moran

President

UTC/IFSOA