United Reaches Deal With Its Pilots

By Author: Steve Robinson
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Labor peace often is just the tonic that is needed for cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages. United parent United Continental Holdings reached “an agreement in principle” Thursday, August 2nd, with its two pilot groups.

The next step is for the deal to be approved by the governing boards of both the United and Continental groups. After this step the deal will be voted on by the airline’s rank and file pilots.

This tentative agreement is viewed as a critical step in moving towards a single workforce at the airline which was formed by a 2010 merger.
United has suffered significantly due to its thus far uneven merger integration. A contract deal with its pilots is expected to restore confidence in the airline’s ability to successfully complete the merger process.

The Air Line Pilots Association noted that while some details of the agreement remain open, the pilots are now confident that a final agreement can be worked out shortly.

This is markedly good news particularly considering the tensions that have been witnessed between pilots and management in recent months. United ...
... warned pilots in June about misusing sick leave, observing that there had been an “abnormally high” rate of sick leave. Union pilots recently protested a decision to remove secondary cockpit barriers from new Boeing 787s.

Just last month United pilots voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing a strike. One of the pilot union’s top grievances was a joint venture with Aer Lingus that resulted in Aer Lingus planes and crews being used for a United flight between Washington and Madrid. United has since announced that it will terminate this venture.
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