Source: Our United

Ever since we began the Facilitated Problem Solving process last year, the JNC has been mindful of our communications regarding Joint Contract negotiations and United management.  For the last two Fridays, Inflight management has sent out email messages to all United Flight Attendants commenting on what they believe is happening at the bargaining table.  In light of these communications the JNC believes it is important to provide you with our view of what is, and what is not, happening in negotiations. 

On June 5^th Sam Risoli said, regarding negotiations, “United and AFA can’t agree until the AFA reaches agreement internally about what the contract should look like.”  

The JNC has reported to you, from the beginning, the work we did to understand each other’s Contracts as well as industry practices in order to begin bargaining back in 2012.  After a year of direct bargaining, which – in our opinion – the company did not take seriously, we, at management’s insistence, involved the National Mediation Board (NMB) and adopted their Facilitated Problem Solving process.  We have been negotiating utilizing this process, or some form of it, for over a year.  In the three years since the JNC first began working together we have not shied away from working with each other, nor the company for that matter, in order to develop options, proposals, solutions and yes, even agreements, that meet Flight Attendants’ interests. 

Do we always agree 100%?  No, we don’t.  However we agree on much much more than what we don’t, and what we don’t agree on is continually being worked on and discussed because the JNC understands that our work is critical to successfully concluding these negotiations.  For management to publish something that implies otherwise is, at best an editorial error or at worst a purposeful attempt to send an untruthful message to Flight Attendants.  In either case it’s not helpful. 

The company’s June 5^th message goes on to say that resolving differences between our current Flight Attendant Contracts, “requires changing traditional practices and considering new approaches.”

The JNC wholeheartedly agrees with this statement, but in Sam Risoli’s message it seems the only ones who have to change are the Flight Attendants.  This merger is all about change.  People, other than us, got together 5 years ago and decided it was a good idea to merge these airlines.  You have to ask did they think about the costs, both financial and otherwise, that would come along with that decision?  You wouldn’t think they did in light of the positions and proposals management is making at the bargaining table.  On almost every subject we discuss we are told that something is going to cost a lot of money.  The JNC and our Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) have not been blind to the company’s interests regarding costs, and we have all worked to develop options and solutions that try to meet these interests.  Unfortunately our work is often met with an attitude that the management practice or policy has “always been that way,” and shouldn’t be changed.  If pre-merger Continental Flight Attendants have a benefit, and it makes sense to provide that to the pre-merger United Flight Attendants as well, that is what the JNC is advocating for.  If the pre-merger United Flight Attendants have a pay factor that would be beneficial for pre-merger Continental Flight Attendants to have, that is what the JNC is advocating for. Management is not happy with the increased cost of doing this, and we have heard loud and clear that they believe these costs should be charged to us.  The increased cost of harmonizing working conditions, pay factors and benefits to the merged population of Flight Attendants at United Airlines is not a cost we should bear.  That is the cost of deciding to merge.  Flight Attendants are not going to pay for this merger.

“Changing traditional practices and considering new approaches” are not actions limited to AFA and the JNC.  These are actions the company should be employing as well or else none of us will succeed.  As Gandhi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

A week later on June 12^th, the company delivered a very happy message about what will happen when we reach an agreement on a joint Contract.  The message is so focused on what will happen during the ratification process and the implementation phase that you could easily believe an agreement is just around the corner.  Yes, both parties are working towards a July 23^rd deadline.  This deadline was written into the Protocol Agreement that the NMB helped the company and AFA reach last year.  The whole point of a deadline is to apply pressure to both sides and focus us on getting everything worked out and agreed to, however keep in mind the adage, “there is always time to make a bad deal.”  The JNC is certainly working to reach an agreement, but we are not going make any old agreement simply to be able to say we met a deadline.

Last month we told you that the company was repeatedly comparing us to American Airlines, and usually when it was to their advantage and rarely when it was to ours.  In our last Houston session we started to see the company walking away from consensus recommendations that the subcommittees had made in the previous months.  In fact just before we concluded in Houston the company presented us with their vision of what all the Hours of Service rules and working conditions would be.  Even though it was described as a “non-proposal,” it completely ignored the 11 months of work the Hours of Service subcommittee had put in.  The walking away from consensus recommendations has continued here in Washington DC, and the Hours of Service “non-proposal” has now turned into the company’s position which they believe AFA must bargain against.  We are clearly no longer in the Facilitated Problem Solving process. We have not reached any tentative agreements in a couple of months, and we did not reach any in this month’s session either. 

There obviously isn’t much time left between now and July 23^rd, but reaching an agreement is not entirely out of the question, but there is serious work that needs to be done.  There are over two-dozen subjects that require completion, and that includes all the Hours or Service rules and working conditions, Reserve, Hotels, Benefits, Retirement, the Commuter Policy and of course Compensation.

So you can see why the JNC was confused at the message and tone of the last company communication.  Are they at the same negotiations we are?  Or are they in a parallel universe where the agreement is just about to signed, sealed and delivered, but someone forgot to tell us?  Yes, that last sentence was a little tongue in cheek, but you just got to wonder.

We can do it if everyone rolls up their sleeves, burns the midnight oil, works the weekends and gets serious about what we need to do.  Unfortunately that just hasn’t been happening.  

Negotiations will resume in Chicago next week on June 22^nd.

In Solidarity,