A strike vote is next. My guess is that after the 30th if we ask to get released, the UAL MEC will have to track down JP from his VACATION getaway to get his blessing on the Strike vote communication....
Remember JP was very critical of Wendy Morse for going on vacation last December during the PS negotiations, now he takes off on vacation himself when the going is getting tough....
April 24, 2012
Dear United Pilots:
As we all have experienced throughout our lives, timelines are common; they come and go, often without notice. However, attached to any meaningful timelines are usually consequences. If debtors don’t pay their bills on time, students don’t complete their exams on time, taxpayers don’t mail their taxes on time and employees don’t get to work on time, there are penalties. If passengers don’t get to their gates on time, the ship sails without them.
Until now, whenever a timeline was inserted into these negotiations, it has always been one that would prove to be detrimental to the pilots. While attempting to negotiate the Transition and Process Agreement (TPA), we insisted on no terminable provisions prior to JCBA but were forced to settle on a timeline. However, when negotiations went past that deadline, it was the pilots who lost profit sharing, domicile and flying protections, etc. During the TPA extension talks, there was an attempt to again include consequences (monetary penalties and non-terminal provisions) should management not conclude a deal, but they refused.
In our latest discussions before the National Mediation Board’s mediators, management again easily agreed to a timeline but, as in the past, without any penalties against them for failing to abide by it. The only people who are harmed by missing that kind of a timeline are the more than 11,000 pilots who must go on without a JCBA. Under the law defined by the Railway Labor Act (RLA), there are no palpable incentives or motivations for management to reach a JCBA. Setting yet another useless timeline that the company could disregard is hardly in the best interests of all the United Airlines Pilots.
Seeking a release under the RLA is the only legal and meaningful leverage available to this pilot group. Agreeing to palpable timelines with real consequences will truly determine who is motivated to complete a JCBA and who is not.
The United MEC has sought out and hired some of the most highly regarded professionals working in Washington, D.C. They know how labor relations work and how to work within those parameters. They have represented more than 20 labor organizations at different times in the past. Teamsters, Machinists, Brick layers and the Police Association are but just a few of those who have benefitted from their services. One of their recent clients was the NFL Players Association. The NFLPA is significant due to the fact, like our profession, that football players have diverse highs and lows in their contracts that make their negotiations extremely complicated. We have hired the right people with the right relationships to get the job done.
Your entire MEC and the MEC structure are committed to getting us towards a JCBA. As reported to you in January, we created a Strategic Planning Group to help plan, organize and work together in a concentrated effort to secure a JCBA. The Negotiating, Grievance, Communications, SPSC, Family Awareness and Legislative Committees’ efforts have been directed, focused and coordinated with each others to ensure we are on the same correct glidepath and course for a JCBA. They each have a specific job to do in achieving our mutual goal.
The goal of the UAL MEC Strategic Plan is real and achievable – the conclusion of a JCBA for all of our pilots. The time for delay is over. Our pilots deserve a new contract.
We are United,
Captain Jay Heppner
Chairman, United Master Executive Council
AIRLINEPILOT CENTRAL