Originally Posted by
Lerxst
Lee,
You are posting a lot of hearsay in an attempt to split the groups against one another. You are also combining disparate issues wrongly wrt the Wage Data request and Retro.
W-2 Wage Data for BOTH groups was a separate CBA issue that was arbitrated months ago and ruled that it is allowable (and has been used in previous mergers) as a component in the merger integration process. National is now deciding what the singular ALPA position on the matter will be. Has no bearing on Retro or is affecting the timeline at all.
The Retro arbitration is just that, both parties have floated several different proposals and it is up to the arbitrator to decide on a ratio split by either accepting one of the proposals or creating his own. This process has been separate and parallel to the final JCBA language and had had no bearing on the timeline. The JNC will be in Chicago next week to continue to work on language.
The only side guilty of holding up this process is UCH. And Jeffy is laughing his ass off every time he gets a pilot group to start pointing fingers at the other.
Here is a bit more hearsay from another forum:
Jay Pierce at it again: an opportunity to fix pay & bands?
Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:19 pm
It turns out the drafting of contractual language is only part of the three-month holdup in getting a TA.
All parties, the company and both pilot groups’ members of the JNC, have agreed to a distribution of retro pay that would compensate pilots proportionally to difference between our pay and Delta’s pay since the respective amendable dates of our contracts. L-CAL has been without a contract for one more year than us, but there are more L-UAL pilots and the difference between our current rates and the JCBA rates would be greater for L-UAL pilots. That resulted in L-UAL being due 2/3 of the money set aside for retro pay rumored to be $400M. Again, the L-CAL members of the JNC agreed to this, Jay Pierce initially approved of it and it became an AIP between the three parties.
Unfortunately, Jay Pierce after consulting with his advisors including his Merger Committee has been trying to renege on this tripartite AIP and demanded that the agreement on retro be reopened. The UAL-MEC leadership refused, but offered binding arbitration on that specific issue, but Pierce said no suggesting non-binding arbitration instead. Obviously, that would solve nothing. Pierce then made it clear in no uncertain terms that if retro pay is not changed to a 50/50 signing bonus that he will ensure that his MEC votes no on any such a TA for that reason alone. So reportedly this will be resolved according to the new ALPA Administrative manual section 40 and 45. The ALPA Executive Board will likely also recommend binding arbitration to resolve this specific issue, but Pierce has said he will not comply. So then we could potentially get into the messy business of potential receivership.
IMO, we need a TA prior to the Presidential election in case Romney wins. If we can get a TA it now appears our MECs will know who the next President will be before they vote on whether to send it out for MR.
Regardless of who wins the Presidential election if the CAL-MEC votes against sending it out to the membership in an effort to change retro pay into a signing bonus, then I see this as an opportunity to reopen and fix these ridiculous pay bands and reportedly substandard pay. One solution would be to adopt the DAL pay rates that are far less banded and we deserve at least what they are making. We could also use this opportunity to secure full retro and the same 5% of the equity that DALPA received in their JCBA.
Meanwhile, the company is laughing their a$$es off as they save tens of millions of dollars every month we are without a JCBA.
Jay Pierce is the gift that just keeps giving to the company and taking from United pilots.