The steering committee reconvened in Chicago on Wednesday July 31^st and Thursday August 1^st in Chicago to discuss options surrounding the negotiations with United Airlines.

On Wednesday the committee received several presentations on the status of bargaining when the parties last met in May.

Clacy Griswold, Airline Division Rep and Chief Negotiator, opened the session and explained to the group all that had transpired since the committee met last August.

Local 210 Business Agent Ralph Salzano went through article by article all of the non-economic items that were agreed to during the facilitated process. This was followed by a presentation by Peter Hardcastle, of Cheiron, on the VDB (Variable Defined Benefit) pension discussions. He was followed by John Colberg and Jim Holland; both from Cheiron, who gave a presentation on the health and welfare discussions. Dan Akins, economist from Akins and Associates then gave a presentation of the overall economic issues that the negotiating committee both has and will be dealing with.

At the end of each presentation there were question and answer periods for the committee so that they could clearly understand what was being discussed. One of the items that generated much discussion during the health and welfare discussions was the VEBA program. This program is a tax free account used to offset different medical costs. This account can be carried with the employee through retirement and then willed to surviving dependents. More information about this program will be available in the coming months.

Close to the end of the session on Wednesday Clacy received word that the company would like to meet with the IBT leadership that evening to discuss negotiations. On Wednesday evening Mike Bonds, Doug McKeen, Jeff Wall and Marcel Delhommeau from the company met with David Bourne, Clacy Griswold, Ed Gleason, Paul Alves and Bob Fisher from the IBT to learn what direction the company was seeking in regards to negotiations.

Thursday morning the steering committee was given a report on the meeting of the prior evening. The committee was informed that the company desired to get back to the table and that they appeared motivated to finishing what was started in January. Based on this report; the steering committee after much through discussion, determined that the best course of action would be to return to the table as soon as possible to finish the deal. There were concerns however that the company may not be serious and to that end there was a discussion on pulling the resource utilization MOU. After the committee learned that it was the opinion of the Division, through direction of counsel, that the letter could be terminated at any time, the committee tabled a motion to withdraw from the letter and will review progress in October to determine which course of action to take at that time.

Ed Gleason from IBT Legal gave a presentation on scope. It was determined that a joint scope committee meeting should be held in the very near future to discuss several issues that were brought forward in the question and answer period following Ed’s presentation.

The day finished with a general question and answer period and the session ended around 2pm.

After the session, the company was notified that the committee desired to return to the table. The parties will discuss scheduling in the next couple of weeks. It is anticipated that we will return to the table in early September. When dates are agreed upon it will be reported through the Dispatch.

 

Furloughed members urged to update their addresses

Members on furlough are advised to keep their addresses current with the company while on layoff. It is predicted that there will be many movements this year and there have been several members that have been removed from the seniority list because old addresses were on file when notices were sent.

If you are in touch with a furloughed member, please forward this information to them. Updates may be emailed to: ESC@united.com . The ESC will provide a fax number and ask members to send the address change accompanied with a signature.

Useful links

If you would like to see a link added to this list please contact Bob Fisher at: rcfisher7@yahoo.com

The following Locals represent these respective cities:

Boston Local 25

New York & Washington Local 210

Charleston & Atlanta Local 528

Miami, Ft. Lauderdale Tampa & Orlando Local 769

Cleveland Local 964

Chicago Local 781

Houston, Dallas & New Orleans Local 19

Phoenix Local 104

Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Hawaii & Guam Local 986

San Francisco Local 856/986

Denver Local 455

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via email