View Single Post
Old 06-15-2012, 01:31 PM
  #6  
Monkeyfly
Not retiring avatar
 
Monkeyfly's Avatar
 
Joined APC: Apr 2010
Position: 777 CAP
Posts: 767
Default

Dear United Pilots,

As you know, we have spent the last two weeks in New York in contract negotiations with United’s management team. Commitments were made by the company that these were going to be “end game” negotiations that would wrap up today.

Despite the fact that we heard reports that a Senior Vice President at United said that CEO Jeff Smisek was telling people “the pilots will not have a contract by June 15th,” we came to the table in good faith for the last two weeks.

It turns out that the company had no intention at all of completing negotiations by June 15 and it is becoming more and more apparent that they have no desire to reach a deal in June. Their apparent strategy is to keep us in a permanent holding pattern so that they can continue to offshore and outsource our jobs. Their latest proposals on Section 1 –Scope are an expansion of that strategy.

Over the last two weeks of negotiations, all we have seen from the company are proposals that do nothing to restore the sacrifices we’ve made to help this company stay in business since September 11, 2001. In fact, many of the proposals would actually take us even further backward in the areas of Scope, Compensation, Retro Pay, and Retirement and Insurance (R&I).

We have been in negotiations for two years since the merger announcement, including more than 15 months of intense negotiations under the supervision of the National Mediation Board. Yet, we are not yet close to a final deal, which is completely unacceptable. CEO Jeffery Smisek and the rest of the executive team are profiting handsomely from their latest raises and bonuses while we are being forced to sit back and watch our jobs being offshored and outsourced.

You know the facts. We have been working hard under bankruptcy conditions since 2003. We have sacrificed our wages, job protections, work rules and pensions in order to ensure the survival of this airline. In 2006, when United came out of bankruptcy, the company got its “fresh start;” yet, we continue to languish under the bankruptcy terms. Clearly, the pilots never got their own “fresh start.”

No one can claim that the United Pilots have not bargained in good faith. The same cannot be said of the company. It is clear that the only way the company will be motivated to negotiate in good faith is to secure a proffer and a “release from mediation” that will create a true clear deadline and time-clock – and the potential for self-help for us after the 30-day “cooling off” period expires. Without the release, the Railway Labor Act (RLA) process will continue to be an endless maze that has no definitive completion date or triggers to create closure, which is exactly what the company wants.

That is why yesterday, Continental MEC Chairman Captain Jay Pierce and I have once again asked the NMB to grant a "release" so we can move forward to a fair contract after nine years of sacrifices. ALPA President Captain Lee Moak, who has already made two separate requests for a release from the NMB, has also asked the NMB for a third time to grant a release. Click Here to read Captain Moak’s letter.

In the meantime, we must not allow ourselves to be baited into premature self-help, which would give the company an excuse to drag us into court and gain even more leverage over our negotiations. We will remain professional and responsible in all our dealings at work. As we have stated before and will continue to state, now is not the time to for us to act out our frustrations or take actions to impact the operation. We do not want any pilot to jeopardize himself, the Association, or the MECs' Strategic Plan. We must maintain the Status Quo until we are released by the NMB and the 30-day Cooling Off period has expired.

We remain committed to getting a deal done under the RLA process through negotiations but see absolutely no contradiction in using that very same process to push for a release that will set a final deadline for closure and success.

We are United.


Captain Jay Heppner
Chairman, United MEC
Monkeyfly is offline