THE MAIN EVENT
Mechanics at UAL are in a position along with their CAL brothers in getting the very best contract of all legacy airlines. The way to achieve this goal is to get to the Main Event in the shortest way possible right after a YES vote on this UAL TA. The Main Event I am talking about would be our final negotiation in which both UAL and CAL would be joined under a single carrier contract. By getting to the Main Event, we would have been the only labor group at UAL to be in position to move into amalgamation with 75% of our contract already resolved.
In the past couple of weeks, the UAL negotiating team traveled across the system to explain our Tentative Agreement. We faced very emotional crowds and listened to their complaints of what this TA lacked. The list in order of priority was all the same, Medical, Wages, Retirement and Retro. These items are also very important to your negotiators and we will continue to fight for all of this in the Main Event.
The fact of the matter is that we cannot work under Continental’s agreement as well as they cannot work under our United TA. We need to have one contract that would combine both mechanic groups into single carrier status.
VERY IMPORTANT! When this UAL TA passes, CAL would team up with us and go IMMEDIATELY to the MAIN EVENT.
This is where the big fight begins; Medical, Wages, Retirement and Retro. These are the items that we need to focus on without being distracted by the other 200 pages of articles and letters of agreement. Those other non main issue items have already been settled in this TA. The reason for a YES vote on this TA is to move forward with a big portion of our contract in our pocket. Never in my 40yrs with UAL have we ever been able to reap benefits while still continuing to negotiate. This is an opportunity that should not be squandered.
We understand there is a lot of negative talk coming from a person who once headed AMFA and now is pushing the IAM. The IAM with its weak scope left us with just under 5000 mechanics from 15000. They allowed the use of our pension surplus to buy Pan Am yet never increased the pension plan while the Pacific route was so lucrative. They pushed for and gave us the failed ESOP. Finally they assigned someone from US Air to a seat on the board of UAL who later was the swing vote in favor of a failed merger which probably helped UAL go into bankruptcy. These new IAM people have never sat in our negotiations but declare themselves the authority on this contract. I have sat in these negotiations from the start and the #1 proposal was job security. We got the strongest job security and scope in the industry. Also we had to start from scratch because the previous contract out of bankruptcy had no snapback clause. The company was not going to give any of it back but we got most of it, plus more.
This a critical time in our careers where we must all take the initiative in gathering factual information. If you look at Northwest and Delta or US Air and America West, you will see the mediation process can really drag on. Also here at UAL our Flight Attendants, Pilots and Ramp are all under mediation and not moving. I really do believe that our position to vote YES and take advantage of 75% of our completed contract now would strengthen our position to move forward.
TIME is on the company’s side and is the reason why the other groups that chose mediation are not talking. The longer they make them wait the longer UAL gets to use their money. Our contract is worth millions and you can believe me they will make us wait if this contract fails.
I cannot emphasize more; it is easier to move forward and focus on Medical, Wages, and Retirement alone than it is with 200 plus pages of articles and LOAs. Please vote YES
Mahalo, Roger Apana
