‘Double Trouble’ for Tulsa’s TWU: Contract Ratification, Rival Unions

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

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These are trying times for Transport Workers Union Local 514.

The union, which represents about 5,600 workers at American Airlines’ Tulsa maintenance base, is encouraging members to ratify the bankrupt airline’s latest contract offer.

It’s also trying to ward off membership drives from two rival unions — the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, The Journal Record‘s D. Ray Tuttle reports.

If the Teamsters or AMFA succeed in their membership drive, they would represent the mechanics. The TWU would remain as the voice of the Stores unit.

TWU officials, of course, don’t think the Tulsa maintenance base needs another union. The AA bankruptcy has been hard on the union, officials tell the Journal.

The tentative contract gives mechanics and store clerks a 15 percent wage increase over six years, better health coverage, and “market wage readjustment” after 36 months, the Journal reports.

In plain language, Cirri said that after three years, the company will compare the average salary of workers at United Airlines, Delta and US Airways with salaries earned by workers at AA.