Brothers and Sisters,
District Lodge 141 and 142, along with Hawaiian Airlines, have agreed to enter into a ‘Limited Issue/Expedited Negotiation’ process in an effort to reach new contract agreements prior to the amendable date of the existing Agreements.
This process will permit the parties to identify a limited number of issues that, if successfully addressed, will allow the parties to reach an agreement. The parties have agreed to meet a minimum of 2 weeks each month, with a target date of April 30, 2020 to resolve the issues.
As part of the process, if the parties reach new contractual agreements under the expedited process, the Company has agreed that, at a minimum, any pay raises that are agreed to in negotiations will be effective on the date of ratification, which will bring raises to our membership much faster and far before the amendable date of the current contracts.
If the parties do not reach agreement by the target date, they can mutually agree to continue the process if sufficient progress is being made. If either party feels the progress looks like a deal cannot be reached, that party can end the expedited process and negotiations will revert back to original Railway Labor Act Section 6 negotiations.
Your Negotiating Committee fully supports this process and they have been hard at work identifying those issues that we will be addressing during the expedited process. Below is a calendar of meeting dates and what is scheduled.
January 20 – 24 Negotiating Committee will be meeting to internally finalize our expedited issues.
January 28 – Meeting with the company to jointly discuss expedited issues for both the Union and Company.
February 3 – 7 Negotiations will begin in Honolulu and expedited issues will be exchanged with full Negotiating Committees.
Thereafter, beginning February 17, negotiations will occur generally every other week until the end of April or earlier, if agreement is reached.
Although this process is different than has been used in the past, it provides the opportunity to address the important issues identified by the membership and gives us the opportunity to gain value for our membership sooner than the traditional negotiating process. And, most importantly, the membership will voice its approval through the ratification process.
