united airline pilots have been without a contract since 2007. ual pilots latest update February 25, 2011.
"" Message From the Master Chairman
Many pilots have understandably expressed concerns and questions about the progress of contract negotiations. Obviously none of us are pleased with where we are to date. We wanted this negotiation complete in the weeks following the merger announcement.
When the MEC approved the Transition and Process agreement, all parties to the agreement were planning on achieving a new Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (JCBA) by October 2010. At the time this seemed a difficult but not impossible target date, but only if there were absolutely no hitches in the negotiations process, which, as we know, did not come to pass.
The current hurdle, however, remains the gulf between the terms of the company’s and ALPA’s comprehensive proposals, made on October 28 and December 15, respectively. Quite simply, the two offers are far apart with numerous open items. None of the parties fully appreciated the extent of the differences in the two airlines and the amount of challenging, painstaking work required to marry such dissimilar corporate cultures and contracts, but, again this is where we find ourselves today.
So, where do we go from here? We understand the urgency of fixing our substandard contracts. We also recognize that days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months, and that this has to stop to get the contract we deserve in the near term. Therefore, last month we orchestrated a series of meetings with all the parties including one which CAL-MEC Chairman Jay Pierce and I met with UAL CEO Jeff Smisek . We reiterated our desire to move negotiations forward as expeditiously as possible. Getting to an agreement requires meeting and we couldn’t allow this time to pass with no interaction while waiting for the NMB process to begin. As a result of that meeting, and to continue to move the process, both ALPA and the company negotiating teams continued to meet at the table, even prior to the first meeting with the National Mediation Board in Washington last Friday, February 18.
National Mediation Board member Linda Puchala, Senior Mediator Patricia Sims, and Mediator Gerry McGuckin were very direct during our two-hour meeting. Ms. Puchala said that they are dedicating mediator time at taxpayer expense and that they expect the parties to make good use of the federal mediator’s time by negotiating toward an agreement. She said when it is apparent that the parties are in a position to move expeditiously and are making progress at the negotiating table, the Board’s role is to make the mediator available at increasing intervals. Mr. McGuckin will be coming to observe negotiations next week. His schedule thereafter and the degree of the NMB’s involvement in our weekly negotiating schedule could vary from one to two weeks a month to every week, and will depend on his assessment of the rate of progress in negotiations. The NMB exists for the purpose of bringing parties to agreement and times the full placement of its limited resources to bring contracts to conclusion. Complete allocation of mediator time will occur at the point of negotiations when bargaining has reached its mature stage.
It is the view of the MEC and its advisors that a window of opportunity for an expedited industry-leading contract opened with the announcement of the merger last May, but there is always a risk that this window of opportunity could shrink for many reasons. We all read the news and recognize that external factors that are beyond our control, such as the price of oil as an emotional and speculative result of the revolts in the Middle East, are not helpful. The time is now to get an agreement for all kinds of reasons, including that we do not control the window and clearly because we have lived under this agreement for far too long and it is well past due.
UAL management continues to reiterate that they share our desire to achieve a JCBA, and they appreciate that they cannot effectively compete in the world marketplace with a bifurcated pilot group. Wall Street also understands that United’s business traffic customers are far more demanding than U.S. Airways’ cost-conscious clientele. Markets will reward our more direct competitors, such as Delta, that avoided protracted contract negotiations. Such employee buy-in directly enhances customer service and the bottom line.
At the moment, with $8.7 billion in cash, albeit not absent debt, the company can and must manage and pay for merger-related expenses, including a JCBA. Thus, the task at hand is to quickly resolve less critical but still important issues and sections, and refocus on the items that we said it would come down to all along: industry-leading pay, scope and necessary key work rule changes.
Once the two parties are close, the National Mediation Board has a great deal of power to push both sides towards an agreement, by punishing behavior at the bargaining table not conducive to reaching an agreement. In contrast to the Bush Administration’s prohibition on strikes in the transportation industry, the Obama Administration’s NMB has shown no such compunction. Already Alaska, Hawaiian, Spirit and, just recently, FedEx, have successfully negotiated improvements to their contracts. The pilots of Spirit Airlines were permitted to go on strike by the NMB because Spirit’s management refused to budge from their “take it or leave it” negotiating position. In contrast, at American the NMB made the services of the mediator unavailable for a time between the APA and the company because of the lack of movement at the table.
To that end, I have directed our negotiators to meet with the company on an extremely aggressive schedule in order to get to a point where the NMB will be able to use its authority to push both parties to a successful JCBA. I am confident that this will occur in as expeditious a manner as is possible under the circumstances, and will do everything in my power to make it happen. We have but one focus – Contract, Contract, Contract!
Fraternally,
Captain Wendy Morse
Chairman, UAL-MEC""
