Source: ourcontract.org

This afternoon AFA and  the Company participated in a teleconference with staff of the National Mediation Board (NMB) to  follow up on Monday’s in person meeting.  Attending for AFA were MEC Presidents Marcus Valentino, Ken Diaz and Suzanne Hendricks, along with AFA International President Sara Nelson and Director of Collective Bargaining Joe Burns. Attending for United were Senior VP of InFlight Sam Risoli, and VP of Labor Relations Jeff Wall.  

Monday’s negotiations update noted that AFA believes we need a stronger oversight in these negotiations by the National Mediation Board.  The discussion today centered on two general topics.  The first was receiving a Company response as to whether we file for NMB mediation jointly with the Company or rather AFA files the request for mediation separately.  There is no difference under the law – either party can file to enter mediation, which is the next step in the process. Filing for mediation provides greater structure from the NMB and leads to deadlines. The second question concerns necessary preparations to enter mediation with revisions to our Protocol Agreement and other work required by the NMB. We have scheduled a follow up meeting in person with the Company on Tuesday and Wednesday. AFA Director of Collective Bargaining Joe Burns and the three MEC Presidents of UAL, CAL and CMI will represent AFA. Wednesday afternoon we will again meet with the National Mediation Board by phone to review our progress. 

As we have indicated previously, AFA believes stronger NMB oversight is necessary to bring the negotiations out of the black hole of merged contract talks into statutory negotiations. For the last year, we have utilized Federal mediators from the National Mediation Board as facilitators in these negotiations. As facilitators, they have been able to suggest solutions to the process and to make recommendations on how we should proceed. Their participation, while valuable, has been completely voluntary and of a limited nature. In contrast, mediation is the process provided by the Railway Labor Act and as such mediators have statutory authority including determining when and where we meet. Mediators direct the subjects of our meetings and the required participation of the parties. By filing for mediation this will allow the mediators to play a stronger role in directing the course of the negotiations. 

The other reason we believe it is desirable to enter the mediation process is this puts these negotiations back on more familiar ground which is where we believe they need to be. One of the problems we face in negotiations for a joint contract is there can be no end in sight because there is not a clearly defined process. When you face a company unwilling to move the negotiations forward as we have seen for the first two years of negotiations (and again in recent months), this poses great difficulties as both parties must agree and work toward agreement to be successful. As we near the final stretch of these negotiations, many of the issues we have in dispute with the company are issues we would have in any of our ‘normal’ negotiations.  

Pending the schedule of the National Mediation Board, we plan on resuming full negotiations in September at an accelerated pace. Our intent at those meetings would be to push to narrow and resolve the list of outstanding sections so we can move onto the final stages of bargaining over economics and the final details of the deal.  Just to be clear, there is no silver bullet here and entering mediation does not automatically force the company agree to union demands. To do that we need the support of 24,000 Flight Attendants unified in demanding United management finish this merger and expeditiously agree to a fair contract recognizing the contributions we make to the success of our airline. Our solidarity and preparation to take action together in support of negotiations will determine our success at the negotiating table.

Wear your red AFA pin (new shipments of pins have arrived at almost all locals around the system and will continue delivery as the pins roll off the production line) to support your Joint Negotiations Committee and stay informed about the negotiations at OurContract.org or by signing up to be a Negotiations Support Activist (NSA). Those signed up to be an NSA made the difference on July 16th and in the coming days all new NSA sign ups will receive a welcome and the latest activist instructions.