MEC President Letter - United MEC Votes to Open Contract Negotiations

Date: July 21, 2021

July 21, 2021

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Moments ago, the United Master Executive Council (MEC) voted unanimously to open Contract negotiations. It’s time for a better future! It’s time for more! It’s time for us!

Your continued feedback and support will be crucial to our collective success. We will need to work together, support each other, listen to each other and speak with one voice. 

We must send the message that we are worthy of an industry leading Contract! We have always demonstrated our commitment to the success of our airline. But, it has never been so obvious than our dedication and sacrifice during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Flight Attendants showed up on the front line, in the cabin, spending more time with passengers than all other groups combined. We were responsible for ensuring the continuity and success of United during those long 15 months. Beginning with the onset of the pandemic, amidst the as-then unknown dangers of what became a global pandemic of unimaginable impact, we risked our health to ensure the continuity, survival, and ultimate success of United Airlines. Additionally, many of us also contributed by taking time off from work and others are leaving this career earlier than they had planned. We deserve to be industry leading and our contributions, both before and during the pandemic, to the success of our airline have earned us those improvements, and we must be willing to stand together to achieve them.

Our analysts and experts agree that now is the time to move forward, contemplating the time it may take to reach an agreement, we plan to conclude our negotiations during a period of economic stability and growth at United.

We had an opportunity to open negotiations 270 days prior to our amendable date on August 28, 2020, but the extraordinary impact of the pandemic on our entire industry necessitated a different timing than we had originally planned for.  As we emerge from the economic crisis caused by the pandemic and return to a period of growth and prosperity, the time is right to begin this process.

Our next step is finalizing our Opening Contract Proposal, which our Negotiating Committee has been hard at work on over the past 15 months. This Opening Proposal will then be reviewed with each of your Local Council Presidents, who make up the United Master Executive Council, for their approval. After approval by the MEC, we will exchange Opening Proposals with United management and negotiations officially begin.

We will share our Opening Proposal information with you; a summary will be mailed to each Flight Attendant’s address. That summary, along with the full text, will be provided on our Contract2021 Negotiations website.  This information will be available after we present our Opener to United.

To continue our commitment to you, our Negotiating Committee will conduct a systemwide Roadshow to visit each base, including satellites, to present information, answer questions and gather feedback. This schedule will be announced the last week of September. Our Negotiations Support InfoReps and Negotiations News will be your first and only reliable source of information about negotiations. We need you to do your part by staying informed and engaged.

For many of you, this will be a new experience.  For those with a Contract or two under your belts, this process will be very different from our previous Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement.  This time we have one starting place not three; we have the feedback from our surveys and Listening Tour to guide us. With all of your support, we will be successful. Now is the time for an Industry Leading Contract for United Flight Attendants.

In Solidarity,

Ken Diaz
United MEC President