On Tuesday, November 19, the United Airlines Master Executive Council met in special session with MEC President Ken Diaz, AFA International President Sara Nelson and AFA General Counsel/Director of Bargaining Joe Burns. At this session, the MEC discussed our strategic approach to bargaining.
At the meeting, the MEC voted to replace the current members of the Negotiating Committee, Jack Kande, Denny Wheeling, and Greg Davidowitch to change the strategy and dynamics at the negotiating table, while also adding the expertise of AFA General Counsel and Director of Collective Bargaining Joe Burns who is currently the most experienced negotiator under the Railway Labor Act. We thank them for their service in this difficult negotiations. The MEC appointed three Local Council Presidents since they have been the closest to the negotiations throughout and will take the least amount of time to be prepared to represent AFA members at the table.
Moments ago, the MEC appointed Melinda Beal (CLE Council 63), Chris Bruton (DEN Council 9), and Randy Hatfield (FL Council 22) to serve on the committee along with MEC President Ken Diaz.
Winning an industry-leading Contract for United Flight Attendants will take the involvement of all United Flight Attendants and our entire Union. The negotiations team will be assisted by Suzanne Balzer, AFA Senior Staff Negotiator, and Joe Burns, AFA Director of Collective Bargaining/General Counsel. The committee has the full backing of the MEC and the AFA International Office, including AFA International President Sara Nelson.
At the meeting, we also discussed a plan to drive our negotiations forward, to pressure the company to drop their unrealistic demands for concessions and instead focus on targeted quality of life improvements for United Flight Attendants as well as the industry-leading compensation we have earned.
We’re hitting the ground running on this and need every Flight Attendant to sign this petition to Scott Kirby to direct his management team to get concessions off the table and stop with the delay tactics.
Also, Flight Attendant activists from each base are meeting in Washington, D.C. right now for a CHAOS™? campaign training in order to fully utilize the power of United Flight Attendants standing together for our industry-leading contract. We’re done waiting. Contract Now!