Perspectives: Archive
July 9, 2009
Updating the National Mediation Board
United’s labor negotiations team provided an update this week to the three members of the National Mediation Board (NMB) and the NMB’s Director of Mediation Services on the background and status of United’s labor negotiations. The NMB is the federal agency responsible for oversight of labor negotiations under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), the law which governs labor relations in the airline industry. The NMB provides professional labor mediators who assist the parties in reaching agreements on new or modified collective bargaining agreements.
Most of our agreements are amendable on January 1, 2010, or shortly thereafter. During the United restructuring process, employees currently represented by the IAM, IBT, AFA, ALPA, IFPTE and PAFCA agreed to begin negotiations well in advance of the amendable dates, and the IAM, IBT, AFA, ALPA and PAFCA agreed to jointly invoke the mediation services of the NMB by August 1, 2009, in the event we had not reached agreements by that date.1 Based on the current status of negotiations, it is likely that we will file joint requests for mediation by that date, but we will have discussions with each union to determine the best timing and approach for each filing.
Typically, the NMB will assign a mediator within a short period of time once the matter is docketed. The NMB’s team of professional mediators has extensive labor relations and airline industry experience. A separate mediator will likely be assigned to negotiations with each union. Once assigned, the mediator will work with the parties to understand the status of negotiations, the depth and breadth of remaining open issues and the most productive means to assist the parties in reaching an agreement. The mediator has the authority to determine where and when the parties will meet, but generally will work with the parties to establish mutually acceptable meeting sites and dates.
There are no time limits for mediation under the RLA, and the NMB has sole discretion to determine how long the parties will remain in mediation. In some cases, the negotiation and mediation takes several years. For example, American Airlines and its pilots have been in negotiations since 2006, and are now in mediation. AirTran Airways and its pilots have been in negotiations since 2005, and are also now in mediation. We are hopeful our negotiations will be concluded more quickly than these examples but the only certainty is that mediation will continue as long as the NMB believes it is necessary for the parties to reach agreement.
Our goal is to reach agreements that provide rewarding jobs for our employees, and allow United Airlines to succeed on a sustainable basis, through the three principal objectives described in our negotiations platform:
- Competitive wages, benefits, and work rules;
- Meaningful incentive compensation tied to measurable and realistic performance metrics; and
- Flexibility to respond to changes in the marketplace, evolving customer expectations and emerging commercial opportunities.
While everyone would prefer that negotiations be completed as quickly as possible, we are committed to working as long and as hard with our unions as is necessary to negotiate agreements that achieve these goals.
We have posted the presentation we gave to the board below. For further information about the NMB, the mediation process and the negotiations process under the RLA, visit www.NMB.gov.
And, please check back here for future updates.
Sincerely,
Doug McKeen
Senior Vice President – Labor Relations
1AFA Date is August 7, 2009