The UAL Mechanics Negotiating Committee met this week in San Francisco for contract negotiations with UAL’s negotiating team. This was the first negotiation session between the parties since UAL and Continental announced their merger. In anticipation that the merger will eventually be approved, the bargaining parties have agreed to continue their negotiations for a UAL‐IBT Mechanics agreement using (as a template, where appropriate) the IBT‐Continental Mechanics agreement (including the Tentative Agreements achieved during the current negotiations/mediation). In so doing, the parties are striving to “match up” and align the UAL‐IBT and CAL‐IBT agreements as much as possible now, in an effort to facilitate future amalgamation negotiations in the event that the UAL‐CAL merger is completed.
While engaging in this process this week, the bargaining parties reached two (2) tentative agreements. The first one covers grievance procedures (including discipline) (Article 18), and the second one involves a new article dealing with the Board of Arbitration. Both TAs very closely track the grievance and arbitration provisions contained in the Continental Airlines
mechanics agreement, as updated and revised by tentative agreements between CAL and the IBT in the Continental negotiations and mediation.
The parties will return to the bargaining table soon after the Fourth of July
holiday.