IBT
United and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) met on Tuesday, April 28 to begin the negotiations process to revise the current collective bargaining agreement.
Following introductions of the negotiating teams, United gave opening comments, and distributed copies of the Company opener. The IBT then gave opening comments and presented issues that they would like to focus on first. The meeting was professional and the parties agreed to plan a negotiations schedule for the next two months.
The full text of United’s opener is posted below. The main issues United discussed were the need for agreements that cover 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 parties were scheduled to meet May 3-5, but with the announcement of the merger on May 3, it was mutually decided to postpone these sessions until June.
The parties met June 15-17. During these sessions proposals were exchanged on Article 18 - Grievance and a new Article - Board of Arbitration. Tentative agreements were reached on both.
In July there were two weeks of sessions. On July 6-9, the IBT presented the Company with a proposal on Article 4 - Classifications. The proposal was a compilation of language from Continental, UA Article 4 and 5, and some new language. Discussions took place on the proposal, but were somewhat limited as this particular proposal required time for deep analysis on potential costs and implications to other contract provisions.
July 27-30, four tentative agreements were signed on Articles for which neither party had any proposed changes; Article 1 - Purpose, Article 3 - Status of Agreement, Article 19 - Apprentice Mechanics and Article 26 - Savings Clause. In addition, proposals were exchanged on Article 10 - Seniority and Article 12 - Leave of Absence. The IBT passed proposals on Articles: NEW - Field Service, NEW- Training, NEW- Layoff & Recall and Article 6 - Hours of Service. The Company is studying all open IBT proposals.
The parties are scheduled to meet in San Francisco the week of August 16 and in Chicago the week of August 30.