August 30, 2012

Dear United Pilots,

On behalf of my fellow MEC officers, I wish you all a very pleasant upcoming Labor Day. While established to honor the successes and sacrifices of labor, Labor Day traditionally marks the end of summer. To the great majority of pilots on this property, it has been many years since summer has been anything that could be defined as enjoyable. With chronic under-staffing and numerous other mismanaged aspects of this merger, including this week’s “connectivity problem” that delayed hundreds of flights, combined with seasonal weather, heavy customer demand and other distractions, this past summer was especially challenging. Allow me to congratulate you on your exceptional professionalism. Day after day, you met these challenges and maintained a safe operation.

Many of you have had difficulty bidding a holiday with your family and friends for a number of years. It is likely that this year has been no different. At last count, 1,436 of you have been even less fortunate, having been furloughed from your hard earned pilot jobs at United Airlines, in many cases for a second time.

It had been our MEC’s and my hope that the Continental and United MECs would be considering a Tentative Agreement by Labor Day. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Many have wondered and questioned why there has been a delay since the announcement of an Agreement in Principle on the major economic sections on August 2. While the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) has provided very informative updates to the pilots discussing the varying stages of the JCBA, the Continental and United MECs met in special joint session this week to get detailed briefings on the status of our Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (JCBA).

The two MECs heard briefings from Continental MEC Chairman and me, the National Mediation Board, ALPA attorneys and staff, the JNC and the two MEC Communications Committees. Much of the discussions were centered around the processes of accepting and voting on an eventual Tentative Agreement. But more importantly, the two MECs came away from the meeting with a better and clearer sense of the current status of the JCBA.

After reaching Agreements in Principle on the major economic issues throughout the JCBA, the NMB adjourned the mediated sessions recognizing that there remained several open/unresolved items, leaving it to the parties to conclude those items without NMB supervision.

While simultaneously attempting to resolve those open items, the JNC, supported by their applicable subject matter experts, attorneys and staff, resumed the arduous task of converting agreements in principle into specific contractual language. Recall that in the last few months, all JNC members and many committee members from both MECs were involved in small group discussions with their company counterparts to hammer out specific areas of the JCBA. Much of the negotiations were framed on whiteboards rather than pushing paper with specific language that could be easily transposed into the JCBA. Alone, this process of converting whiteboard bullets into contractual language requires time and attention to detail.

However, management, for reasons known only to them, has inserted terms into some language proposals that were either not discussed or not agreed to. While some of this is expected, some insertions have made the proposals unacceptable to ALPA. This fact, along with the unacceptable pace of closing out the remaining items from August 2, has prompted us to re-engage with the NMB and we have asked for their assistance in closing out the final items.

Following a conference call on Tuesday with management and the NMB, the NMB has called the parties together in Washington to meet on Wednesday, September 5 in an attempt to resolve many of the open items. Management’s personal commitments prevented the company from meeting any earlier.

Further, the UAL MEC is continuing with its Strategic Plan to bring this JCBA to conclusion on the behalf of all United Pilots. You should expect to hear more in the next few days from our various MEC Committees either updating you on their activities or soliciting your assistance. I urge you to heed their messages.

To those of you who volunteered to represent your fellow pilots, served on a committee, or hosted a Family Awareness event over these past months, you have my sincere thanks. While the various AIPs morph into contractual language, I ask you once again to dismiss early rumors and to reserve your judgment until the TA is complete, in final form and presented to you for your consideration.

This holiday perhaps will establish the beginning of the end of our bankruptcy contract after nine dark years. Please enjoy this Labor Day with a measure of positivity and hope for the future. The road ahead will continue to offer many challenges but as a union of United pilots,we will meet them head-on and find success.

We are United,

Chairman, United Master Executive Council