June 09, 2012

VIA EMAIL

Re: Your June 8, 2012 Letter

Dear Mr. McKeen:

I am in receipt of your June 8, 2012 letter in which you expressed the Company’s concern about the risk of operational disruption on the part of the CAL pilots. I can assure you that the CAL MEC and the Continental pilots are well aware of our legal obligations under the status quo provisions of the Railway Labor Act and that we take those obligations seriously.

We remain committed to completing a Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement by June 15 or seeking a release from the NMB. The RLA does not bar us from setting internal goals or from communicating about those goals. The CAL MEC firmly believes the Company should do its part to complete bargaining by that date, and we remain convinced that it is appropriate to continue to seek a release from the NMB if we have not seen sufficient progress toward such an agreement by that date.

As we move forward, I can also assure you that the CAL MEC and the pilots of Continental fully recognize that our lawful right to engage in self-help, should it become necessary, commences only 31 days after the NMB grants such a release. Although you assert that ALPA’s and the CAL MEC’s communications urging prompt completion of an agreement constitute a “campaign designed to incite concerted pilot action if an agreement is not reached by mid-June” you do not identify any basis for that claim and there is none. I have not authorized and we have not issued any communication with the intent or design to “incite” or encourage unlawful conduct or cause operational disruption. We oppose such conduct. Our efforts are concentrated on achieving an agreement.

I will remind our pilot group over the coming days as I have previously that we cannot engage in activity disruptive of Continental’s operations and that such activity would in fact be counterproductive. We will continue to make every reasonable effort to ensure that ALPA, the CAL MEC, and all Continental pilots continue to comply fully with our obligations under the RLA.

In the meantime, I appreciate your stated desire to move forward in negotiations in an expeditious and productive manner. I submit that both parties can spend our time and energy most productively by focusing on how we can reach agreement in principle on a Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement by June 15, 2012.

Yours truly,
Captain Jay Pierce
CAL MEC Chairman Air Line Pilots Association, International

cc:
Captain Lee Moak
Captain Jay Heppner
CAL MEC