Joint message from CAL and UAL MECs
 

A Message from Capt. Wendy Morse and Capt. Jay Pierce:

As we approach the one year anniversary of the announcement of our merger, we are unified as 12,000-plus pilots behind one primary goal—to get out from under our current contracts and to begin working under a new Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement. The conversations in our cockpits, crew rooms and operations are consistent among both CAL and UAL pilots and generally start with the same question, “Where is the contract?” It is obvious that the current pace of negotiations has not met our expectations nor relieved the frustrations we all feel.

In mid-January, CEO Jeff Smisek affirmed his commitment to us to devote the resources and personnel necessary for an expedited JCBA negotiations process. In fact, both sides “worked together” and committed to an aggressive negotiating schedule designed to fast-track this project and get it done. We jointly approached the NMB and received their blessing to forge ahead with this schedule instead of a more typical NMB pace. As a result, we reached Agreements in Principle (AIP) on several sections that had been stalled for some time. To date, AIP have been reached in eight sections, among them Seniority, Reduction of Personnel, Moving Expenses, and Physical Exams, plus one LOA. In addition, with the low hanging fruit picked, we began the complicated process of negotiating the key scheduling work rule sections of the JCBA. It was time to get to the meat of the contract. Using small groups of key subject matter experts, the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) entered discussions with management designed to understand and solve complex problems of the scheduling sections prior to passing more proposals. These discussions, while helpful and a step in the right direction, have disappointingly failed to produce quantifiable agreements to date.

Your MECs, MEC Officers and the JNC have been, and will continue to be, willing to use any tactic or process that produces positive results. It is readily apparent that the traditional propose-and-wait methods of bargaining are not conducive to an efficient resolution of our contract. The delays inherent with this antiquated “pass and wait” negotiations process in which one side waits days, weeks or even months to receive counterproposals is frustrating, slow and unnecessary.

As of last week, your JNC is awaiting counterproposals for 16 major sections of the contract, to include Scope, Pay, Retirement and Insurance, and Work Rules. Obviously, we have a long way to go if we continue to follow this same antiquated, bureaucratic and cumbersome negotiating process which has yet to produce the desired results. Put simply, we must execute on our promise to you, the line pilot, for a much more expeditious JCBA process.

On Monday of this week, we met again with Jeff Smisek, as well as Mike Bonds and Doug McKeen from Labor Relations for a progress update on negotiations. We received further commitments from Mr. Smisek to escalate these negotiations. As he has done publically, he stated his desire to get the pilot contract done on a fast track. We believe that these types of progress meetings between union and management leadership are essential to ensuring that everyone remains focused on the contract. Commitments are all well and good, but actions drive success. We intend to make sure that that everyone executes on their promises to you.

We came out of Monday’s meeting with a clear commitment from all players for increased emphasis on a results-oriented negotiation that gets us to the contract we all know we need. We intend to utilize all resources available to our JNC to include the NMB, ALPA (up to and including ALPA President Capt. Lee Moak), the two of us as MEC Chairmen and the MECs to drive results. Complex negotiations don’t automatically mean drawn-out negotiations. We have seen our management put together the world’s largest airline in near record time. We will continue to push, to ensure that actions follow commitment. We will make sure that the JNC has everything they need to successfully negotiate a contract that meets the goals of all of our pilots. As we move forward, we will keep you informed on the progress.

Stay Tuned and Stay Focused!

Capt. Jay Pierce Capt. Wendy Morse
CAL MEC Chairman UAL MEC Chairman

The message dovetails with the status of our contract sections. I find it hard to believe the company could accuse the union of delays in negotiations. Why is it taking so long to get sections back from the company? Personally, I think the company likes the higher oil prices during contract negotiations and wants to string it out as long as possible while they are high. It benefits them from a perceived leverage standpoint and lower pilot costs from current contracts.

From the April 15th MEC Update:

JCBA SECTION CURRENT STATUS
1-Scope Management
2-Definitions Left to be discussed to capture any new definitions
3-Compensation Management
4-Expenses, Lodging and Transportation Management
5-Hours of Service Management
6-Seniority Agreement in Principle
7-Reduction in Personnel Agreement in Principle
8-Filling of Vacancies Management
9-Training Management
10-Moving Expenses Agreement in Principle
11-Vacations Management
12-Leaves of Absence Agreement in Principle
13-Sick Leave Management
14-Physical Exams Agreement in Principle
15-Workmen’s Compensation Benefits Management
16-Missing Benefits Agreement in Principle
17-Grievances Agreement in Principle
18-System Board of Adjustment Agreement in Principle
19-Crew Complement Moved to another Section
20-Allocation, Assignment and Scheduling of Flying Management
21-General Management
22-International Agreement Management
23-Duration Management
24-Pilot Instructors/Evaluators Management
25-Retirement and Insurance Management
26-Letters of Agreement Guam-Agreement in Principle; Remainder with Management

Personally I'd like to see more of this joint communication. Management will certainly take their shots to spin and pit each side against the other. We should be presenting a unified front at every possible turn. Our message needs to be clear, our anger is not with our counterparts in blue or black, but with Willis Tower.

Absolutely. But the word-to-meaning ratio in these blastmails is so high it makes you wonder if they're intentionally using so many words to say so little.

Oh I think it's worse than that! I think they are stringing it out until Dec 31st when parts of our (UAL ALPA) Transition Agreement expire. That way they can realign, furlough, whatever from our side. I also believe they are fully prepared to run this operation like US Airways, and will probably give it a go. Soon after SOC, they can screw with your side (CAL ALPA) as well. Hope I am wrong, but I am preparing for the worst.

Sled

It gets worse?

"6-Seniority Agreement in Principle
7-Reduction in Personnel Agreement in Principle"

Like to know what these agreements are...:confused:

Does it matter? At UAL we had a no furlough clause and surplus protection. It took Paul W and the boys on the MEC less than 1 nano second to shte can that at the first sign of rough waters.

These contracts aren't worth the paper they are written on if nobody is willing to stand up and enforce them.

Not going to see a SOC until all the Pilot Contract/SLI issues are solved.

Supposedly heard from the FAA and my 2 cents.

Why would the FAA, who issues the SOC, care if we have a JCBA and/or a SLI?