October 1, 2015
Meetings were held through the weekend (12 hour sessions) and into this week in an effort to conclude the bargaining and reach an equitable deal for the membership. United passed a comprehensive proposal to the union on Saturday. The committee at-large and various sub-committees spent Sundayin discussions to develop a comprehensive counter proposal.
We presented the counter on Monday and spent the next day’s waiting on response from the company. While waiting, sub-committees continued working out the final remaining open issues.
Both parties’ proposals included the “four corners” needed to achieve an agreement: wages, healthcare, scope, and pension, but the final vision of the two sides remains drastically different. We had hoped that the change in leadership at United would create a more realistic direction in finally fulfilling their long standing promise to technicians. We had also hoped that the new regime would recognize our sacrifices and hard work in helping to create the most profitable quarters ever enjoyed by this company. Unfortunately, the new direction that has been advertised to the public has not yet made its way down to the company negotiators and we are stuck with more of the same.
Although both parties worked long hours throughout the two weeks, it became clear that we would not conclude bargaining and come to an agreement in principal during this session. The direction of the company made it evident to us that they would need to expand their economic platform if they intend to come close to our member’s expectations.
With that realization, we suspended talks for this session. Our desire is that the company representatives go back to their leadership and discuss the current situation. We are prepared to continue towards reaching an agreement that will satisfy the membership or the union will move to the next step of bargaining process. Hopefully the company will recognize the opportunity that is now available to them and make some real efforts to create a fix.
Additional sessions have been scheduled in mid-October to continue towards our goal of an industry leading agreement.
