Originally Posted by APC225

March 6

Dear United Pilots:

On Monday afternoon, the UAL-MEC Grievance Committee, in accordance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement covering United Pilots and pursuant to Section 17 of the Agreement, filed a grievance on behalf of all the United Councils. This grievance claims a violation of Section 3-L and Letter of Agreement 05-02 “when the company disbursed profit sharing on or about February 14, 2012, contrary to the negotiated terms and established past practice of the United Pilots Collective Bargaining Agreement.” Therein, ALPA is seeking that the company be ordered to determine the profit sharing entitlements to be paid to United Pilots for 2011 and subsequent years based on the current contractual language in the United Pilots’ CBA.

This grievance is related strictly to the company’s Document Plan for 2011 Profit Sharing which restructured the way employees were paid profit sharing but did not conform to the United Pilots’ CBA.

Additionally, the Grievance Committee today triggered the timeline under the dispute process of the Transition and Process Agreement (TPA) Section 12 stating that management violated Section 4-A of the TPA when it entered into bilateral negotiations and a purported agreement outside the scope of the TPA which states,

The Continental CBA and United CBA will remain in effect for the respective Airlines and Pilot groups in accordance with the RLA except as modified by this Transition and Process Agreement or by the JCBA, or except as an Airline Party or Airline Parties and ALPA otherwise agree with respect to their particular CRA. Until the effective date of the JCBA, each of Continental and United will continue to operate under their respective Pilot CBAs as modified by this Transition and Process Agreement and by other agreements that may be entered into by ALPA and one or more Airline Parties with respect to their particular CBA. Until the effective date of the JCBA, each of Continental and United will continue to operate under their respective Pilot CBAs as modified by this Transition and Process Agreement and by other agreements that may be entered into by ALPA and one or more Airline Parties with respect to their particular CBA. The Continental CBA and United CBA will remain in effect for the respective Airlines and Pilot groups in accordance with the RLA except as modified by this Transition and Process Agreement or by the JCBA, or except as an Airline Party or Airline Parties and ALPA otherwise agree with respect to their particular CBA.

Allow me to again emphasize that this grievance is over management’s process of bypassing trilateral negotiations that are prescribed in the TPA. This grievance is not about the Continental Pilots or their MEC or its leadership. It is management that erroneously completed bilateral negotiations over an item that should have been addressed only in proper trilateral negotiations, such as for a Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (JCBA) or for an extension of the TPA.

Both of these grievances will go through an expedited process and be heard by the System Board of Adjustment. Because they are open cases and involve outside legal counsel, no further details may be given prior to their hearings, but it was important for the United Pilots to know that they had been filed. We will keep you advised of their progress through the legal and grievance systems.

We are United
Chairman, United Master Executive Council