Originally Posted by DrJekyll MrHyde

We opened section 6 negotiations in March '16, and "negotiated" for 5 (or 6) months before being granted mediation by NMB. First mediated session was in November '16 and as of this March '17, the mediator is not pleased with the pace of agreements (because the company is dragging its feet, naturally). So the new mediation schedule is now double its previous frequency. Two groups of sessions per month, I think each group consists of 3 days but don't quote me on the length.

We opened a year early, this March marks the amendable date of the contract. Separately there is an arbitration scheduled for mid April over grievance concerning LOA67 language requiring the company to negotiate upward pay adjustments, that negotiation supposed to start at the same (or approximate) date as our early section 6 opener in March '16, but the company claimed "challenging business conditions" and denied upward pay adjustments; subsequently the grievance was filed thereafter (in June '16 I think).

Overall the negotiations with the company have gone awful but it has played directly into our hands in terms of advancing our goals via the RLA process. I must say that our ALPA team has out maneuvered the company in this respect so far. The company has put the ball in our court. We are essentially down to purely economic items on the contract and the schedule as been doubled; so as odd as the past year has been we're actually in a very good position.

That's the rough summary, I may be off a month on a date or two.