In an August 2003 decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit addressed several issues concerning agency fees. These are the reduced payments that union members still must remit if they object to paying dues to cover union expenses not otherwise germane to the collective bargaining process, such as the financing of political activities that an employee may oppose.

The facts began when David Conrad was assigned to a mechanic position by TWA in May 1996. He thus became subject to a collective bargaining agreement between the IAM and the airline. The agreement required him to join the IAM and authorized TWA to deduct union dues from his wages each month. In November 1997 Conrad requested that the IAM place him on agency fee payer status.

The IAM complied with his request and notified TWA to stop deducting union dues. Conrad, however, was not satisfied with this arrangement. He advised the IAM that he would pay agency fees only if TWA deducted them directly from his pay. The IAM relayed this request to TWA, but the airline refused, basing its decision on the collective bargaining agreement, which required it to deduct monthly dues conforming "to the applicable rates for employees of his classification at his point on the system."

Conrad, however, refused to pay the agency fees directly to the IAM. After unsuccessful negotiations, the IAM asked TWA to terminate Conrad for failure to pay union dues. Accordingly, TWA informed Conrad that he was being terminated.

Conrad then requested a hearing before the TWA-IAM System Board of Adjustment, which rejected his grievance and noted that TWA had fulfilled its obligations under the CBA. The airline then formally terminated Conrad.

Conrad subsequently sued the IAM and TWA in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri. He claimed that the IAM violated its duty of fair representation and that TWA breached the agreement. In addition, he claimed that both defendants violated his first amendment rights.

The defendants filed motions for summary judgment, wherein they asked the court to rule, before trial, that there was not enough of a legal basis for the case to continue. The Court granted summary judgment, noting "the IAM was not responsible for the system which rendered [Conrad] unable to satisfy his dues obligation by having it withheld from his paycheck. Rather, TWA was responsible for that inability because of its antiquated payroll system." The Court dismissed Conrad's claims, and he filed an appeal.

The Court of Appeals, however, dismissed TWA as a party because of its bankruptcy and subsequent sale to American Airlines. It affirmed the grant of summary judgment to the IAM. The Court stated, "TWA was entitled to insist that the IAM and Conrad adhere to the terms of an agreed checkoff clause that was expressly authorized by the Railway Labor Act." Because TWA chose to exercise its contractual right under the Agreement, the IAM was not liable to Conrad, whose dismissal was upheld.

Readers who want to view the entire decision of the Eighth Circuit may find it at 338 Federal Reporter Third, page 908.

The Secret Ingredient for Maintenance Success

What is one of the most overlooked factors concerning a maintenance department's performance? What if I could tell you about this "secret ingredient," which can improve performance mechanically and financially? How much would it be worth?

Unbelievably, the component that may be missing is motivation. There are many experts who tell us how to motivate workers, but few that help us understand what motivation really is. In upcoming issues, we will discuss some of the facets of motivation: the two types of motivation, determining motivation levels and their effect on performance, and how to use this information to increase motivation and, possibly, your bottom line.

There are two types of motivation, extrinsic (external) motivation and intrinsic (internal) motivation. As the names imply, extrinsic motivation is brought about by external factors like compensation and rewards, while intrinsic motivation is something inside of us that makes us try harder. To get a better grasp on the difference, look at it this way: if we offer our technicians a bonus if they complete a job ahead of schedule, this external motivating factor may encourage them to step up the pace. Internal motivation can be thought of as a young child going to the playground to practice basketball. The motivation is playing the game, not a reward or compensation. External motivation yields a reward; internal motivation makes you feel good.

But what about increasing profits? A study performed by Surcon International shows that 40 to 50 percent of an organization's profit margin fluctuations can be determined by the motivational levels of workers. No, that's not a typo-50 PERCENT. There is no other single factor that contributes to these fluctuations as much as motivation. If this is the case, why don't we focus on motivation more than we do? Perhaps because there are so many people out there who try to tell us how to motivate, we have become victims of information overload. If you ever stay up and watch late-night television, the airwaves are flooded with infomercials about motivating yourself and others. Any management publication has least one article per issue about how to motivate. And, it is difficult to determine which of thousands of volumes of text have information that we can actually use.

Our best approach to motivating people is to understand that intrinsic motivation is the key to outstanding performance. In fact, if we add external rewards to activities that are already being performed above expectations, performance tends to decrease. Can that be true? Performance declines if you add a reward? According to many studies, that is the case. But what can we do to internally motivate our employees? Is there a way to determine how much effort we should spend on motivating our people? Stay tuned for the answers to these questions and more in upcoming issues of Aviation Maintenance.

For more information about the Surcon study referred to in this article, go to www.surcon.com.