ALPA
United and the Air Line Pilots Associations met on Thursday, April 9 to begin the negotiations process to revise the current collective bargaining agreement.
Following introductions of the negotiating teams, ALPA provided opening comments. The ALPA negotiating committee members then summarized the changes they intend to propose. United provided opening comments and distributed copies of the Company opener.
The full text of United’s opener is posted below. The main issues United discussed were the need for agreements that delivered in three key areas:
- Competitive wages, benefits, and work rules
- Meaningful incentive compensation tied to measurable and realistic performance metrics
- Flexibility to respond to changes in the marketplace, evolving customer expectations and emerging commercial opportunities
Most Recent Update: August 6, 2010
The Negotiating Committees halted their Section 6 negotiating schedule when the merger with Continental Airlines was announced on May 3. Both ALPA and the two companies then appointed Joint Negotiating Committees, who met the week of June 7 in New Orleans to begin negotiating a Transition and Process Agreement. The parties continued those negotiations the week of June 21 in Denver, and thereafter on an ad-hoc basis. An Agreement In Principle was initialed on July 20 and both MEC’s approved the agreement on July 30; the agreement will take effect once it is signed by ALPA President John Prater.
The Transition and Process Agreement is the first step toward “establish[ing] terms for a smooth and seamless movement from the present situation of separate pilot groups employed by different airline companies and operating under separate contracts, to a single, unified Pilot group operating under a single contract, employed by a single air carrier within a single transportation system.” Toward that end, the Agreement puts structure around the negotiations that will lead to a Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement, describes how each company’s flight operations will remain separate until the Operational Merger Date, and discusses the achievement, acceptance and usage of an Integrated Seniority List.
The Agreement also includes Job Security Protections. Specifically, it provides to United pilots until at least December 31, 2011 the same merger furlough protection that Continental pilots have via their CBA, and it requires that, if hiring, the carriers offer employment to each others’ furloughed pilots. Other Agreement conditions include limitations on domicile changes, a one-time cancellation of all vacancy bidding freezes, and certain modifications to the Continental CBA.
The Joint Committees are scheduled to begin an eight-week period of negotiations on a Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement the week of August 9.