Dedicated Mechanics Working Together to Protect Our Jobs

By: Dominick Chierico, 13-year UAL Building Maintenance Mechanic, Newark, NJ

My name is Dominick Chierico. I am a Building Maintenance Mechanic at EWR (Newark Liberty Airport in Newark, NJ) and have been with United for 13 years this coming July. I have successfully completed training to enable me to hold a universal recovery license for refrigeration and a black seal license to operate and repair boilers. I love my job and I want to keep it.

Our Building Maintenance Department at EWR works to maintain a 30-year-old plus conveyor system, jet ways and various building maintenance responsibilities, some as simple as changing a light bulb to a full-blown construction project of building an office. Our job includes rough construction, studs, electrical, dry wall, door openings, cove base molding, taping and spackling joints, painting and carpeting and installing ceiling tracks and tiles. We do our work in a timely and professional manner. We are all qualified to do the work United has hired us to do. 

United has lost sight of the fact that we are there to help the company be successful. The money spent on outside contractors that are hired by United would be better spent on hiring more building maintenance mechanics. Once a contractor is finished with what they were hired to do, United then pays building maintenance to clean up all the problems the contractors have created. This could take months of work to complete and our everyday work suffers. Another problem is when we start the cleanup process it costs United more to pay for the same material all over again. No one inspects what the outside contractors do or holds them accountable. When we do the work in-house, we hold ourselves accountable for the work and United does not have to worry because we are the company.

I am always looking for ways to take on additional work. One way is repairing other airline jet ways and conveyor systems. For example, during the 2007 Thanksgiving holiday rush, the Air Canada jet way broke down on Wednesday evening just before the start of the holiday weekend. Air Canada’s contractor told them that they wouldn’t be out to fix the jet way before Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) and when they came out would have to charge them the holiday rate. My lead and I spoke with the Air Canada representative and offered to repair it immediately. He spoke with his station manager who approved for us to move forward with the repair. As a result, the Air Canada jet way was repaired within the hour at a normal rate, not the holiday rate. Our only connection to Air Canada is that their jet ways are in our terminal. The building maintenance staff works really hard to make sure United stays successful.  

When I started at EWR on April 21, 1995, there were 21 mechanics, and now we have 11. United management refuses to put on additional mechanics that they recognize we need. Through their own admission, as they have told us on numerous occasions, we cannot handle the work we already have. I would like to see the Teamsters come in and rectify this problem.

I think with the clout and professional negotiators the Teamsters have, we can prove to United that we are an asset to the company.    

AMFA has made claims of protecting our work in building maintenance. I’ve read the contract and the only language I see is language protecting our work in the hubs only, not in the line stations. It seems to me that the only thing AMFA accomplished here is giving United the wiggle room to contract out the work in line stations. So I guess I’m paying AMFA union dues to protect someone else’s job, but not my own. It is time for change. The possibility does exist that we at the line stations could be on the outside looking in while the hub stations maintain their jobs and know where their next paycheck is coming from.                                                            

With the Teamsters, I see us all working together for equal representation, in both the hubs and the line stations. I see the Teamsters negotiating a well-rounded contract which will find an even ground on wages and JOB SECURITY. We can all stand together and fight United’s mission to contract out everything we do, which is destroying the company and our family’s livelihoods in the process. From what I have seen, if you prove to United they can do without staff, even for a minute, they will move quickly to do without staff on a permanent basis. We have stood behind United when the airline was in financial trouble. We have taken pay cuts so the airline could stay afloat. So now it is time for United to stand behind us and realize we are an invaluable asset to the company. 

I would like to finish up with the fact that there is going to be an election for representation. It is our duty to vote. The last thing we need in this time of change is to give United the upper hand. We need to show solidarity and get out and vote. This is the most important thing we need to do to secure our future at United.