What to Know About the Early Out Offer
Sisters and Brothers,
The Company has informed the Association that they are planning to offer an Early Out to Association Members at some point and time under terms and conditions established by the Company.
Why is this not part of the Agreement in Principle:
- As part of the negotiation process over the past several years, the Company has discussed offering an Early Out to Association Members. The Association informed the Company that if we were to agree to an Early Out as part of the contract it would have to be offered by Seniority to any Member in the system who applied. The Company stated they could not agree to such application.
- In the last session, prior to reaching an Agreement in Principle on the terms and conditions of open items that the Association had proposed, the Company indicated that the cost of offering an Early Out during the JCBA was going to cost millions of dollars. The Association did not agree to any cost for an Early Out since it is a program the Company will unilaterally offer and is not part of the collective bargaining agreement. In fact, the carrier could have made the offer at any time, since it was never a part of our negotiations.
- So, an Early Out could be offered by the Company, but since the Company does not agree to offer such Early Out by Seniority as the Association discussed, the terms and conditions of the Early Out will be solely established by the Company.
Many of you have sacrificed much over the years and may have the opportunity to participate in an Early Out, but the Association could not agree to allow the Company to circumvent a Member’s Seniority or allow millions of dollars to be held over our heads in negotiations.
