Friday, 20 jan
FROM THE CHAIRMAN
Next week, your MEC will be meeting in IAH for two days to receive briefings from the Negotiating Committee on the status of negotiations and movement made by management in their latest Scheduling turn. We will also be briefed by the Alliance Committee on Scope issues and by Don Wycoff (ALPA FTDT Chairman) and Mike Hynes on the new flight time, duty time regulations. These are areas we believe to be especially timely for the strategic planning session we intend to hold during the meeting. Preparing for these meetings is a bit of a task, so I want to thank our dedicated staff here in the office for putting everything together so that the MEC’s time can be productive. We will conclude business on Wednesday, Jan. 25, in time for the MEC to participate in the Family Awareness event in The Woodlands. I hope you can make it to The Main Event with your family to spend time with fellow pilots and talk to your elected reps and officers.
This week, as last, I worked with UAL MEC Chairman Capt. Jay Heppner in our efforts to extend the Transition and Process Agreement, for the benefit of both CAL and UAL pilots. If you recall, this is a continuation of discussions with management that hit a roadblock at the end of last year. Much of the obstruction has been cleared and we are making some progress, although there is still work to do. Dealing with base and domicile contraction and expansion is not easy in the simplest of times. Dealing with those issues and considering the interests of two separate pilot groups (operations remain separate until the JCBA is done) adds even more complexity. I cannot yet forecast how this is going to turn out, but I can say that all parties are working diligently to find a way to perform the flying the Company desires in a way that works for all of our pilots. Until this project is resolved, successfully or otherwise, management has indicated that the anticipated system bid will not be published. Of course, there is only so much delay that Manpower Planning can tolerate, so I expect an outcome soon.
Finally this week, our Scope experts continue to work with their counterparts from the UAL MEC on issues related to compliance with both of our CBA Scope sections as we approach the point where both UAL and CAL use a single IATA code. As intricate as some of the past Scope disputes have been, they pale in comparison to the complexity of this project. Working jointly with our UAL counterparts is important to success for both pilot groups.
JNC
The JNC received the package proposal on the Scheduling sections (5, 20 and 22) from management this week as part of the process previously recommended by the mediator. Our assessment of management’s proposal has begun, but the proposal is complex, made more so by the intervening passage of Part 117 of the FARs, some portions of which the parties understand differently. Next week, when we are not in meetings with our respective MECs, we will continue our evaluation of the proposal and work toward a response. Our initial assessment is that management’s proposal made significant progress over prior proposals, but also that important obstacles remain before an agreement in principle on these sections can be reached.
The JNC and our Scheduling SMEs will continue negotiations with management in Denver on Monday Jan. 30, 2012.
FROM THE CHAIRMAN
Next week, your MEC will be meeting in IAH for two days to receive briefings from the Negotiating Committee on the status of negotiations and movement made by management in their latest Scheduling turn. We will also be briefed by the Alliance Committee on Scope issues and by Don Wycoff (ALPA FTDT Chairman) and Mike Hynes on the new flight time, duty time regulations. These are areas we believe to be especially timely for the strategic planning session we intend to hold during the meeting. Preparing for these meetings is a bit of a task, so I want to thank our dedicated staff here in the office for putting everything together so that the MEC’s time can be productive. We will conclude business on Wednesday, Jan. 25, in time for the MEC to participate in the Family Awareness event in The Woodlands. I hope you can make it to The Main Event with your family to spend time with fellow pilots and talk to your elected reps and officers.
This week, as last, I worked with UAL MEC Chairman Capt. Jay Heppner in our efforts to extend the Transition and Process Agreement, for the benefit of both CAL and UAL pilots. If you recall, this is a continuation of discussions with management that hit a roadblock at the end of last year. Much of the obstruction has been cleared and we are making some progress, although there is still work to do. Dealing with base and domicile contraction and expansion is not easy in the simplest of times. Dealing with those issues and considering the interests of two separate pilot groups (operations remain separate until the JCBA is done) adds even more complexity. I cannot yet forecast how this is going to turn out, but I can say that all parties are working diligently to find a way to perform the flying the Company desires in a way that works for all of our pilots. Until this project is resolved, successfully or otherwise, management has indicated that the anticipated system bid will not be published. Of course, there is only so much delay that Manpower Planning can tolerate, so I expect an outcome soon.
Finally this week, our Scope experts continue to work with their counterparts from the UAL MEC on issues related to compliance with both of our CBA Scope sections as we approach the point where both UAL and CAL use a single IATA code. As intricate as some of the past Scope disputes have been, they pale in comparison to the complexity of this project. Working jointly with our UAL counterparts is important to success for both pilot groups.
JNC
The JNC received the package proposal on the Scheduling sections (5, 20 and 22) from management this week as part of the process previously recommended by the mediator. Our assessment of management’s proposal has begun, but the proposal is complex, made more so by the intervening passage of Part 117 of the FARs, some portions of which the parties understand differently. Next week, when we are not in meetings with our respective MECs, we will continue our evaluation of the proposal and work toward a response. Our initial assessment is that management’s proposal made significant progress over prior proposals, but also that important obstacles remain before an agreement in principle on these sections can be reached.
The JNC and our Scheduling SMEs will continue negotiations with management in Denver on Monday Jan. 30, 2012.
