United Negotiations Continue

The UAL Mechanics Negotiating Committee met this week with the company in San Francisco, holding the first negotiation session between the parties since UAL and Continental announced their merger. Anticipating that the merger will eventually be approved, the bargaining parties have agreed to continue their negotiations for a UAL-IBT Mechanics agreement using the IBT-Continental Mechanics agreement as a template. (including the Tentative Agreements achieved during the current negotiations/mediation) In so doing, they are also including the Tentative Agreements already reached in the current negotiations. This should allow the parties to “match up” and align the UAL-IBT and CAL-IBT agreements as much as possible now, in an effort to facilitate future amalgamation negotiations in the event that the UAL-CAL merger is completed. While engaging in this process this week, the parties reached two Tentative Agreements, involving Grievances and Board of Arbitration. The parties will return to the bargaining table soon after the July 4th holiday.