AAA73Pilot
Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2007
- Messages
- 1,513
- Reaction score
- 0
CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE TO THE PILOTS
November 19, 2007
This is MEC Chairman Jack Stephan with a Chairman's message to the pilots for Monday, November 19th.
As you may well be aware, your MEC met in joint session with the AWA MEC in Denver last Thursday and Friday to discuss merger problems and other issues of mutual concern.
This meeting was the first time since the Nicolau Award was made public that both MECs met alone, without the presence of the Executive Council or Captain Prater calling for the meeting. As reported in Thursday night’s Code-a-Phone, all 24 MEC Members from both MECs had an opportunity to speak, and those who did, spoke in a very professional, business like manner. The meeting was held on “neutral ground†where each MEC would have the fewest distractions.
On Thursday, after a two hour internal session, both MECs came together and the joint meeting began with opening statements from both the AWA MEC Chairman, Captain John McIlvenna and myself. Immediately following these opening remarks, the reps joined a speakers list and started airing their views. As one would expect, the discussions were open and extremely frank, with no one mincing any words.
It was good to have the opportunity to finally sit down together with the AWA MEC, but we are disappointed that they would not agree to engage us in the process that we proposed. This process would have enabled both MECs to move forward on issues important to each. This process, if successful, would have produced a comprehensive package that would include both seniority integration issues and contract issues that would have been presented in total to both MECs for review. Your MEC feels very strongly that our pilots can not adequately assess any complete contract proposal without first seeing how our concerns with seniority issues are addressed. In order for the AAA and AWA pilots to be successful in joint contract negotiations with management, we need to be prepared and ready to present management with an agreed upon comprehensive package. Comprehensive to us means that when you are ultimately asked to ratify a single agreement that would implement the Nicolau Award, you will be able to determine if that implementation adequately meets the threshold of your concerns on contractual improvements and seniority protections. Our MEC had already selected those AAA pilots who would work with their AWA counterparts in that process to oversee the production of a comprehensive package.
So where do we go from here? At this time the AWA MEC is not interested in engaging in the process that we have outlined that could have produced a comprehensive proposal. Without a comprehensive proposal for potential ratification, the status quo of separate operations with separate contracts, separate permanent bids and separate seniority lists remains in effect.
Your MEC will continue to leave no stone unturned as we remain ready to engage the AWA MEC for the betterment of all US Airways pilots.
Thanks for listening, and as always, fly safe and continue to watch out for each other.
November 19, 2007
This is MEC Chairman Jack Stephan with a Chairman's message to the pilots for Monday, November 19th.
As you may well be aware, your MEC met in joint session with the AWA MEC in Denver last Thursday and Friday to discuss merger problems and other issues of mutual concern.
This meeting was the first time since the Nicolau Award was made public that both MECs met alone, without the presence of the Executive Council or Captain Prater calling for the meeting. As reported in Thursday night’s Code-a-Phone, all 24 MEC Members from both MECs had an opportunity to speak, and those who did, spoke in a very professional, business like manner. The meeting was held on “neutral ground†where each MEC would have the fewest distractions.
On Thursday, after a two hour internal session, both MECs came together and the joint meeting began with opening statements from both the AWA MEC Chairman, Captain John McIlvenna and myself. Immediately following these opening remarks, the reps joined a speakers list and started airing their views. As one would expect, the discussions were open and extremely frank, with no one mincing any words.
It was good to have the opportunity to finally sit down together with the AWA MEC, but we are disappointed that they would not agree to engage us in the process that we proposed. This process would have enabled both MECs to move forward on issues important to each. This process, if successful, would have produced a comprehensive package that would include both seniority integration issues and contract issues that would have been presented in total to both MECs for review. Your MEC feels very strongly that our pilots can not adequately assess any complete contract proposal without first seeing how our concerns with seniority issues are addressed. In order for the AAA and AWA pilots to be successful in joint contract negotiations with management, we need to be prepared and ready to present management with an agreed upon comprehensive package. Comprehensive to us means that when you are ultimately asked to ratify a single agreement that would implement the Nicolau Award, you will be able to determine if that implementation adequately meets the threshold of your concerns on contractual improvements and seniority protections. Our MEC had already selected those AAA pilots who would work with their AWA counterparts in that process to oversee the production of a comprehensive package.
So where do we go from here? At this time the AWA MEC is not interested in engaging in the process that we have outlined that could have produced a comprehensive proposal. Without a comprehensive proposal for potential ratification, the status quo of separate operations with separate contracts, separate permanent bids and separate seniority lists remains in effect.
Your MEC will continue to leave no stone unturned as we remain ready to engage the AWA MEC for the betterment of all US Airways pilots.
Thanks for listening, and as always, fly safe and continue to watch out for each other.
