Be predictable - Be gracious - Be the solution - Be the Brand .....Part 2

This two-part post was started a few months ago and before you get into Part 1, I wanted to start out with an update on the negotiations towards a joint contract for United's Flight Attendants.  As you know, tentative agreements were reached three years ago with each of the three working groups - pre-merger United (pmUA), pre-merger Continental (pmCO) and pre-merger Continental Micronesia (pmCMI).  One part of these tentative agreements was that that Flight Attendants (FA's) from one working group could not work on planes (aka metal) that was once part of another subsidiary.   For example, pmCO FA's could not be trained for or scheduled to work on the 747's which were part of the pre-merger United fleet.  On the other side, pmUA FA's were not going to be permitted to train for or work on the new 787's that had been ordered by Continental.  This arrangement has led to a lot of confusion, and resentment for not only the FA's, but for us customers as well. 

By all appearances over the last three years, Mr. Smisek's buddies cannot make up their mind on where to position aircraft and how to staff the domiciles. For example, when you look at a schedule, a 1:00 PM flight from LAX to Denver can have a different flight number and different aircraft every day (I so long for those days when I used to know the flight numbers and knew what equipment was being used).  In their contract, the pmUA FA's have work rule protections so that they have adequate rest periods, minimum layover hours, and a maximum number of duty hours they can work in one day.  These protections were kept after they were asked to take huge pay and benefit cuts when United was in bankruptcy ten+ years ago, and the pmUA FA's fought hard to keep them.  The pmCO and pmCMI FA's do not have some of these same protections and management has more flexibility in stretching out their duty days.  Add these protections in with the restriction on which metal pmUA FA's can work, and then throw in this daily rotation of flight numbers and aircraft, and scheduling for pmUA Flight Attendants becomes significantly more complicated than for their pmCO and pmCMI partners.  It also does not help when fleet scheduling moves pmUA metal into Continental's hubs in Houston and Newark.  That means more pmUA FA's have to "dead head' to those hubs to start their line, and those "dead head" hours are paid hours.  So with the work rule protections, restrictions on "metal," and more "dead-heading" hours, the contract with pmUA FA's makes them more expensive than their partners at pmCO and pmCMI.  At the outset, Mr. Smisek made his goal very clear - to cut costs, and that they are going for a joint contract for the FA's that does away with many of protections that the pmUA group still has.  

Over the last three years, there has clearly been a bent by management to "stack the deck" and pare down the number of pmUA FA's with the hope of being able to shift the outcome of the vote for a joint contract.  Cash buyouts were offered to encourage senior pmUA FA's to retire.  Those who did not accept the buyouts were then forced to cross over to the pmCO side or be furloughed.  FA's who did cross over lost their seniority and became junior to their pmCO partners.  Then, in April of 2014, 111 pmUA FA's were involuntarily furloughed.  At most domiciles, pmUA Flight Attendants with as much as thirty years of service found themselves back on Reserve.  To add salt to the wound, while all of this was happening on the pmUA side, United management was actively recruiting and hiring new FA's for the pmCO group. Now this was all last year, but the summer of 2015 is a little different picture.

As I wrote about in Part 1 of this post, United management has had some new revelation and you can see some of how the old United used to operate. With more mainline domestic flights, things have turned and United is now having to hire new FA's for the pmUA side.  In addition, within the last three weeks management has also had to declare at least three "Limited Critical Coverage" days, not only in the U.S., but at their domiciles in London and Frankfurt, asking pmUA FA's that had not worked their maximum to pick up trips at 1.5 times their rate of pay.  When the schedules came out for July, all of the pmUA FA's had lines that scheduled them out to 100 or more block hours.  When you add in layovers and added duty hours, some FA's might be home six days during the whole month.  It has been nice to see Mr. Smisek and his buddies actually forced into admitting they need the pmUA FA's.  It is nice to have their arrogance from last year coming back and biting them in the a**.    

Negotiations towards a joint contract began in 2012; however, it was not until a year ago after a Federal Mediator was brought in, that these negotiations began a small crawl forward.  When I say a small crawl, in realty, there has been nothing substantive that has been agreed to.  FA's from all three groups have become very frustrated and rumors circulate about what is going on with negotiations.  The AFA has been very quiet and very little public information made available.  On the management side, Sam Risoli, United's Senior Vice President for Inflight Operations has sent out generic memos saying that negotiations are moving forward, but he too has not been able to offer anything substantive.  All he can offer is "Thank You for all you do."

On July 1 the AFA MEC Presidents, as well as members of the negotiations committee, for the United, Continental and Continental Micronesia groups all came out with a joint announcement for a "Systemwide United Flight Attendant Day of Action" to be held on July 16 at all domiciles.  FA's from all three groups will be coming together to publicly declare their frustration at the pace of negotiations and that they will not back down to management.  I cannot tell you how encouraged I feel to see this kind of unity after all these years, and I encourage all of you reading this, to do your part to support this effort. There are so many other inefficiencies and problems that need to be dealt with at this airline.  United's Flight Attendants are hard working and dedicated and they are not the problem.  They are not going to be Mr. Smisek's sacrificial lamb in order to boost the stock price.  

The AFA has also come out with a red "Unity" pin that all AFA members are going to be receiving and wearing this month.  If you are a customer flying United or another airline and you see a Flight Attendant wearing this pin, take the time to thank them and let them know you support them.  I hope to be able to pick up my own pin this month to wear when I fly United, and I hope to have time on the 16th to go out to the airport to lend my support and say thank you.  Mr. Smisek this "Day of Action"' is not about pay and benefits - it is about what this airline has become under your leadership.  These Flight Attendants are gracious, they are the solution and they are the Brand.  These hard-working dedicated professionals are the Friendly Skies and they are United Airlines.