America West MEC
Negotiating Committee Update
August 9, 2007
Last week, members of the America West Negotiating Committee along with our East counterparts and professional staff met with the Company’s negotiators in Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, management presented us with Section 7 (Vacations) and Section 14 (Sick Leave). While most of Section 7 had already been agreed upon, this proposal introduced in writing a new concept for vacation bidding that allows pilots to designate, in a PBS environment, how much credit they want associated with a vacation block. A pilot who is more concerned about days off can accept less credit each day and take more days of vacation (up to 38 days per year). Conversely, a pilot who is more concerned about pay can take more credit each day and less days of vacation. This choice is entirely left to each individual pilot. On Wednesday, we provided management with a counter proposal to Section 7, which accepted most of their procedural language changes and really focused on the economics—the monthly accrual rate for vacation credit. We hope our counter proposal will result in a final TA on Section 7. Still open, however, is a process to phase in the East vacation schedule. Management proposed an implementation Letter of Agreement (LOA) last week that addressed this subject, which is currently under consideration by the East leadership.
Management’s sick leave proposal presented us with an interesting concept whereby pilots could deposit unused sick leave credit into their individual retirement accounts. Clearly, management spent a lot of time developing this system and we appreciate their efforts. We will need to continue discussing various issues with management including the size of the sick bank, accrual rate, and procedures for obtaining notes from health care professionals. We plan to have a counter back to the company at our next session.
On Wednesday, we presented management with counterproposals on Sections 27 and 28. While most of the issues dealing with Dental, Vision, Life, and AD&D are resolved, we still have work to do on retirement and medical insurance. Clearly, these are economic issues that likely will not be fully resolved until the end game.
Also on Wednesday, we entered into a philosophical discussion between the two sets of JNC representatives and management regarding the process for moving this negotiation to completion. Management indicated that this process was not advancing us toward a conclusion and suggested that we jointly apply for mediation as provided for under the Transition Agreement (although the TA does not require a joint request for mediation). We indicated our interest in proceeding to mediation while Captain Stephan spoke on behalf of the East MEC and indicated that his MEC was not interested in anything that would advance the implementation of the Nicolau Award. Management also indicated that the East MEC’s notion that separate and permanent contracts for the two pilot groups, as expressed in a recent East MEC Resolution, was not what management had in mind when they discussed a temporary period of separate operations. In fact, management claimed that the East resolution was in violation of the Transition Agreement.
On Thursday, both JNCs met separately with members of the Rice Committee. While this was only the second meeting with this Committee, at least from the West perspective, we felt that our concerns were heard.
Our schedule for the next few weeks is that the JNC will meet in PHX this week to put together our counters on Sections 5 (Per Diem and Expenses), 14 (Sick), and 26 (General). On August 13, the East JNC will meet separately with the Rice Committee, and on the 14th, we will meet with the Rice Committee. The entire JNC will meet with management August 15-17 and we expect to receive the Company’s counters on Sections 4 (Pay Guarantees), 12 (Hours of Service), and 25 (Scheduling) during that meeting. The entire JNC will meet again with the Rice Committee the week of August 20.
ELECTRICJET98'S COMMENTS: (he-he, I can sound as pompous as him
) It's a shame that Jack can't as least go along with the mediator idea. I mean, if the final decision is to have a common contract but separate ops, Jack's decision just delays the $ for everyone.
Negotiating Committee Update
August 9, 2007
Last week, members of the America West Negotiating Committee along with our East counterparts and professional staff met with the Company’s negotiators in Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, management presented us with Section 7 (Vacations) and Section 14 (Sick Leave). While most of Section 7 had already been agreed upon, this proposal introduced in writing a new concept for vacation bidding that allows pilots to designate, in a PBS environment, how much credit they want associated with a vacation block. A pilot who is more concerned about days off can accept less credit each day and take more days of vacation (up to 38 days per year). Conversely, a pilot who is more concerned about pay can take more credit each day and less days of vacation. This choice is entirely left to each individual pilot. On Wednesday, we provided management with a counter proposal to Section 7, which accepted most of their procedural language changes and really focused on the economics—the monthly accrual rate for vacation credit. We hope our counter proposal will result in a final TA on Section 7. Still open, however, is a process to phase in the East vacation schedule. Management proposed an implementation Letter of Agreement (LOA) last week that addressed this subject, which is currently under consideration by the East leadership.
Management’s sick leave proposal presented us with an interesting concept whereby pilots could deposit unused sick leave credit into their individual retirement accounts. Clearly, management spent a lot of time developing this system and we appreciate their efforts. We will need to continue discussing various issues with management including the size of the sick bank, accrual rate, and procedures for obtaining notes from health care professionals. We plan to have a counter back to the company at our next session.
On Wednesday, we presented management with counterproposals on Sections 27 and 28. While most of the issues dealing with Dental, Vision, Life, and AD&D are resolved, we still have work to do on retirement and medical insurance. Clearly, these are economic issues that likely will not be fully resolved until the end game.
Also on Wednesday, we entered into a philosophical discussion between the two sets of JNC representatives and management regarding the process for moving this negotiation to completion. Management indicated that this process was not advancing us toward a conclusion and suggested that we jointly apply for mediation as provided for under the Transition Agreement (although the TA does not require a joint request for mediation). We indicated our interest in proceeding to mediation while Captain Stephan spoke on behalf of the East MEC and indicated that his MEC was not interested in anything that would advance the implementation of the Nicolau Award. Management also indicated that the East MEC’s notion that separate and permanent contracts for the two pilot groups, as expressed in a recent East MEC Resolution, was not what management had in mind when they discussed a temporary period of separate operations. In fact, management claimed that the East resolution was in violation of the Transition Agreement.
On Thursday, both JNCs met separately with members of the Rice Committee. While this was only the second meeting with this Committee, at least from the West perspective, we felt that our concerns were heard.
Our schedule for the next few weeks is that the JNC will meet in PHX this week to put together our counters on Sections 5 (Per Diem and Expenses), 14 (Sick), and 26 (General). On August 13, the East JNC will meet separately with the Rice Committee, and on the 14th, we will meet with the Rice Committee. The entire JNC will meet with management August 15-17 and we expect to receive the Company’s counters on Sections 4 (Pay Guarantees), 12 (Hours of Service), and 25 (Scheduling) during that meeting. The entire JNC will meet again with the Rice Committee the week of August 20.
ELECTRICJET98'S COMMENTS: (he-he, I can sound as pompous as him
) It's a shame that Jack can't as least go along with the mediator idea. I mean, if the final decision is to have a common contract but separate ops, Jack's decision just delays the $ for everyone.
