In June 2012, the pre-merger United MEC filed a grievance protesting the calculation of the 2011 profit sharing payments made to the pmUA Flight Attendants.
In June 2012, the pre-merger United MEC filed a grievance protesting the calculation of the 2011 profit sharing payments made to the pmUA Flight Attendants. You will remember, in 2012, pmUA AFA MEC and the pmCO AFA MEC were two separate units administering their respective Collective Bargaining Agreements. The calculation of pmUA profit sharing payments was the result of bankruptcy negotiations dating back to 2002. As part of that bankruptcy process, profit sharing was to replace, in part, the wage, benefit and pension concessions made by the pmUA Flight Attendants. The filing of MEC 9-12 by the United MEC did not challenge nor was it an attempt to change pmCO profit sharing payments.
The contractual calculation of profit sharing payments was not renegotiated until the JCBA in 2016.
The case was appealed to the System Board of Adjustment. Hearings were held in 2017 and 2018. Since that time we have been waiting for the final ruling. Unfortunately, we did not prevail in the case as the arbitrator did not comment on the merits of the case. Instead, he cited an untimely filing which is, in our view, wrong since the profit sharing grievance was filed as a Section 26.D. MEC Grievance, which has no time filing limitations under the pmUA Collective Bargaining Agreement. It was concurrently filed as a Section 26.C. grievance to protect retrospective relief for the 2011 profit sharing payments.
It should be noted that ALPA, in a similar manner, filed a grievance in 2012 protesting the calculation of 2011 profit sharing payments made to pmUA pilots. Their grievance was sustained on the merits by a different arbitrator, even though the Company had protested its timeliness as well. We wholeheartedly disagree with the outcome, and our dissent will be in the official record, but the decision of the arbitrator is binding.
