CAL MEC Update Fri 9/17
09-18-2010, 05:33 AM
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CAL MEC Update Fri 9/17
Again, only the relevant parts related to negotiations and the merger:
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN
I am pleased to start this week by letting you all know that recall letters have been sent to our furloughed pilots. We have been told that they should expect to enter training during the fourth quarter of this year and that the goal is to get all who return back in the cockpit by summer 2011. Our Membership and Furlough Assistance volunteers will coordinate with Flight Operations to help ensure a smooth return.
I met with members of the National Mediation Board (NMB) in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday at their request in order to provide an update on the status and tone of our ongoing negotiations for a joint collective bargaining agreement. They were receptive to our visit and I was pleased with the way things went during the meeting. I can only say that the NMB, under the current administration, is fully aware of the shortfalls that labor has endured as a result of concessionary contracts and bankruptcies. We will continue to keep them updated. I wish I could have given the NMB, and I wish I could give you, a definitive answer as to when these negotiations will conclude. I cannot. So much depends on the interaction between the UAL MEC, the CAL MEC and then with management. However, while I cannot tell when they will conclude, I can say certainty how they will conclude. They will conclude with a contract that meets the goals and demands of the Continental pilot group.
In my brief to you last week, I indicated that progress had slowed down and that management was having a difficult time coming to grips with the reality that this is neither a status quo nor concessionary contract. This week things got back on track and we reached an agreement in principle on the leaves of absence section. That said, it does not bode well for a timely resolution to the contract if we continue to stutter step our way through negotiations. Now that the shareholders have approved the merger, maybe management will reprioritize and place the successful completion of the negotiations higher on their list. Certainly, if negotiations continue at their current pace, when we evaluate the progress in mid October as set up in the Transition and Process Agreement, we will have much more road in front of us than behind. I stated these thoughts during my interviews with the media that were present at today’s Continental shareholders meeting.
Randy *****, Brian ******** and I attended the meeting, in uniform, as a visible reminder that there is much more to the success of this merger than approval by the shareholders. The vote, which was expected, was simply another one of the mainly procedural checklist items in the merger process. Larger hurdles remain that have much greater significance to the airline’s ability to fully integrate and benefit from the purported financial gains promised in this merger. Chief among these is the negotiation of our joint collective bargaining agreement, which must be achieved before the pilot seniority lists can be combined and the two pilot groups are merged into a single operational workforce.
...
NEGOTIATING
The ALPA Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) concluded this week with an Agreement in Principle (AIP) on Section 12 – Leaves of Absence. This section passed between the JNC and management four times this week alone and the AIP clearly demonstrates the value of maintaining open dialogue and discussion. Additionally, the JNC and management worked on Section 4 - Expenses, Lodging, and Transportation, and progress on it is being made.
Also this week, ALPA’s Economic and Financial Analysis Department (E&FA) joined the JNC in Denver to begin real-time costing and evaluation of Company proposals. E&FA will play an increasingly important role in future negotiations as the larger sections of the joint collective bargaining agreement (JCBA) are discussed and negotiated.
As of today, twenty sections and one Letter of Agreement (LOA) of the JCBA have been passed to management, and AIPs have been reached on six of them. As you recall from previous updates, the AIPs will not become tentative agreements (TAs) until they have been converted to final language that is agreed to by the parties. Furthermore, individual sections will not be closed out until the JCBA has been completed in its entirety.
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN
I am pleased to start this week by letting you all know that recall letters have been sent to our furloughed pilots. We have been told that they should expect to enter training during the fourth quarter of this year and that the goal is to get all who return back in the cockpit by summer 2011. Our Membership and Furlough Assistance volunteers will coordinate with Flight Operations to help ensure a smooth return.
I met with members of the National Mediation Board (NMB) in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday at their request in order to provide an update on the status and tone of our ongoing negotiations for a joint collective bargaining agreement. They were receptive to our visit and I was pleased with the way things went during the meeting. I can only say that the NMB, under the current administration, is fully aware of the shortfalls that labor has endured as a result of concessionary contracts and bankruptcies. We will continue to keep them updated. I wish I could have given the NMB, and I wish I could give you, a definitive answer as to when these negotiations will conclude. I cannot. So much depends on the interaction between the UAL MEC, the CAL MEC and then with management. However, while I cannot tell when they will conclude, I can say certainty how they will conclude. They will conclude with a contract that meets the goals and demands of the Continental pilot group.
In my brief to you last week, I indicated that progress had slowed down and that management was having a difficult time coming to grips with the reality that this is neither a status quo nor concessionary contract. This week things got back on track and we reached an agreement in principle on the leaves of absence section. That said, it does not bode well for a timely resolution to the contract if we continue to stutter step our way through negotiations. Now that the shareholders have approved the merger, maybe management will reprioritize and place the successful completion of the negotiations higher on their list. Certainly, if negotiations continue at their current pace, when we evaluate the progress in mid October as set up in the Transition and Process Agreement, we will have much more road in front of us than behind. I stated these thoughts during my interviews with the media that were present at today’s Continental shareholders meeting.
Randy *****, Brian ******** and I attended the meeting, in uniform, as a visible reminder that there is much more to the success of this merger than approval by the shareholders. The vote, which was expected, was simply another one of the mainly procedural checklist items in the merger process. Larger hurdles remain that have much greater significance to the airline’s ability to fully integrate and benefit from the purported financial gains promised in this merger. Chief among these is the negotiation of our joint collective bargaining agreement, which must be achieved before the pilot seniority lists can be combined and the two pilot groups are merged into a single operational workforce.
...
NEGOTIATING
The ALPA Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) concluded this week with an Agreement in Principle (AIP) on Section 12 – Leaves of Absence. This section passed between the JNC and management four times this week alone and the AIP clearly demonstrates the value of maintaining open dialogue and discussion. Additionally, the JNC and management worked on Section 4 - Expenses, Lodging, and Transportation, and progress on it is being made.
Also this week, ALPA’s Economic and Financial Analysis Department (E&FA) joined the JNC in Denver to begin real-time costing and evaluation of Company proposals. E&FA will play an increasingly important role in future negotiations as the larger sections of the joint collective bargaining agreement (JCBA) are discussed and negotiated.
As of today, twenty sections and one Letter of Agreement (LOA) of the JCBA have been passed to management, and AIPs have been reached on six of them. As you recall from previous updates, the AIPs will not become tentative agreements (TAs) until they have been converted to final language that is agreed to by the parties. Furthermore, individual sections will not be closed out until the JCBA has been completed in its entirety.
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