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Contrails 17
June 7, 2015
Patience
Today is the third day since your Negotiating Committee concluded a tentative agreement (TA) with the company. Our representatives are still in the process of assessing the agreement, discussing its details with negotiators, subject matter experts, and each other. Rumors, innuendo and misinformation sprout like weeds in the public arena during contract season, and particularly when we arrive at a TA.
The reason our governance calls for the TA to be in the MEC’s hands for seven days, is to give them time to review the details and truly think about how all the pieces fit together, what the value of the agreement looks like, and what are their other alternatives should they choose to disapprove the TA and not to send it to you for your ratification.
And the difficulty for our members, for you, is that the tentative agreement is not released until the representatives discuss it in open session. But again there is a reason we do business this way. The representatives have been deeply invested in this process for over a year now. They directed and guided the process and now the result is before them. You, on the other hand, have not witnessed the collation of your input, the debate on the pilot’s wishes, the direction to the negotiators, the many updates from the negotiators, the re-direction, the financial analysis, the NMB briefings, and the many, many proposals that have been exchanged back and forth between the Company and your union.
This deliberation period between reaching a TA and the actual MEC vote on whether to approve the TA or disapprove, is invariably being filled with speculation and increased activity on various public websites, and most of that filler will be negative. We assure you, that when this TA is discussed in open session, you will be given an immediate update with facts in bullet point format along with communication pieces with the TA details. Until then, we can only ask for your patience and understanding, with the knowledge that you have the final say on any agreement that the MEC passes your way by exercising your vote in membership ratification.
Air Line Pilots Association, International