This week the parties met in Chicago to continue Phase 1, non-economic reconciliation talks. The focus was on Articles 3 - (Classifications), Article 17 – (Overtime) and Article 12 – (Field Trips).
The Union committee was missing a very important member due to health issues for this session. Allen Cosides suffered a heart attack last Friday, but is currently home recovering. We would like to ask you all to keep Allen and his family in your thoughts and prayers. We on the negotiating committee are looking forward to his speedy recovery and return.
The bulk of this week's work focused on Article 3 – (Classifications). Because of the difference in the way the San Francisco base has operated in the past, the transition to the new agreement has been difficult. The Union subcommittee presented a detailed report to the Company subcommittee describing what was believed to be a current view of the bid areas. The report also included what the Union committee believed was the best path forward. The Union committee would like to thank all of the stewards and members that helped to provide this useful information. While progress was made on this Article the work will continue next week.
Field Trips (Article 12) talks continued until Wednesday when an agreement in principle was reached on the Phase 1 issues. The same subcommittee then moved on to Article 17 – (Overtime) and was able to reach an agreement in principle.
A major winter storm in the northeast caused the negotiations to wrap up on Thursday evening in order to allow the Union negotiators to get home ahead of the massive flight cancellations that were instituted. The NMB will be with us next week when the parties resume talks on Monday. The Article 3 subcommittee is slated to continue its work and a review of the status of several articles will occur to determine which other sub committees will meet.
