CAL MEC NEWS FRI OCT 30, 2010 ALPA: The Pilots Union
147 Pilots on the Street
Oct. 29, 2010
Contents
Chairman's Brief
Negotiating
Merger
Alliance Oversight - Pacific Antitrust Immunity
SPSC - CommutAir, SPSC Holiday Events, The Front Line
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN
I spent most of the week in ORD working with the Alliance Committee on Scope issues, the R&I Committee on how or if we should respond to some false assumptions being made by a few pilots on what is or is or is not a part of our JCBA proposal and with the JNC as they received management’s counterproposals for all the unresolved sections of the JCBA.
As I mentioned in last week’s brief, the Alliance Oversight Committee, along with other relevant experts and counsel, have been analyzing management’s announced plan that includes 70-seat United Express regional jet flying with the Continental code out of our hubs. We created a step-by-step process to ensure that we methodically review all pertinent aspects of the Company’s plan and determine our best course of action. The first step included a meeting with the Company this week to express our pilot group’s serious concerns and to explain that we believed the flying would be a violation of our Scope provisions. Most importantly, we asked management for an explanation as to how they believed these flights could be operated in compliance with our CBA. Unfortunately, they were not able to provide their justification yet, but promised to do so shortly. We will carefully review management's legal explanation if and when we receive one.
I cannot stress enough how extremely shortsighted it would be for the Company to move forward with these plans in violation of our CBA. I have made our stance on outsourcing well known to management, the public and to Congress. To attempt to circumvent the Scope section as almost the very first action of the merged UAL can only be viewed by our pilots as a direct affront on our interests and an insult to each of us. Not only will it adversely affect our negotiations for a JCBA, we are prepared to use all appropriate legal vehicles to bring resolution to this issue and ultimately prevent outsourcing in violation of our current CBA.
