Date: 2/16/2016
We represent Flight Attendants of each pre-merger airline and yet we share one common goal: negotiating a joint contract that works for all Flight Attendants and one which you can ratify. We are making good progress at the table with a single position among our JNC. One person continues to attempt to take us off course and encourage division by spreading complete fabrications or half truths. This undermines our negotiations and the very purpose of the union to collectively bargain through the power of the United membership.
Please consider this one point of reference when reading social media – if it sounds just awful it’s probably untrue. Get the facts from your Union leaders and get involved in helping to share the truth. We need each of you to help us exercise the power of an informed, engaged work force as we fight for the contract you want to ratify.
Now let us address the latest fabrication of disunity. Our union has internal procedures for resolving any issues that cannot reach consensus through our joint negotiating committee. We have reported for months that we have one position at the bargaining table – and that includes one item that we agreed was not possible for us to reach a consensus decision. Through an amicable agreement we collectively decided to ask for the help of a neutral in determining our joint decision for a position on the constitution of bases. We, as the MEC Presidents, together chose a respected neutral to help us determine our collective position at the table.
This internal process is confidential because it undermines our bargaining position to signal to the company that we are in the process of seeking a common position or what that position might be. Once we determine our position, we must still participate in a negotiations with the company. We only present our position at the table at the right time and in the right way to best support our strategic negotiations. That’s why this internal process is intended to take place in a confidential space. And that’s why even now we will not yet report the details of this process publicly.
The point here is that we approached an internal process together, through an amicable agreement that clearly demonstrates we have one position – to speak with one voice. This was not always possible; but it is today. We commit this to each other and we commit it to you. This best positions us to negotiate a contract that allows us to share in the profits we help create. Agreeing to utilize our internal Constitutional procedures does not mean that we are at odds, but rather that are working together as ONE.
Wear your AFA pin, take part in solidarity events such as the one at O’Hare this Thursday and share negotiations updates. We are working hard to make a better future and we can only do it by standing together.
In Solidarity,
Kathleen Domondon, pre-merger CMI MEC President
Randy Hatfield, pre-merger CAL MEC President
Ken Diaz, pre-merger UAL MEC President