Dear Sisters and Brothers:
Our contract votes are in, and now we must re-start the contract campaign. We will continue to push forward to secure an equitable agreement, to be recognized for our sacrifices, and most importantly to stop the continuing erosion of the future of all airline professionals.
Our next steps must be initiated immediately. I have asked the ATD to call for an urgent meeting of the entire team to develop a renewed strategic plan.
While the team will help design our campaign, there are four changes I am instituting now until we can fully review the current negotiating structure at AA.
- There will be two equal co-chairs of the team, one from ATD staff and another elected by the team. This hopefully avoids much of the miscommunications we are currently experiencing.
- The co-chairs will BOTH attend their meetings with the company and the NMB with no exceptions.
- We will also make sure that every member of the negotiating team is fully engaged in the process and demonstrates their ability to get real time information to our members at the drop of a hat. As an example: having dedicated team captains in the field to disseminate the information directly from the negotiating committee.
- I have asked the ATD to provide additional electronic communications sent out as the “Contract Connection” after every negotiating session. Regardless of how you voted, the time is now to be more united than ever. The company may be counting on us to fight one another and destroy ourselves from within; I can assure you that will not happen unless you and I allow it to happen.
Again, now that the membership has spoken, we must put the past behind us and come together and speak with ONE VOICE with the ultimate goal to get the best contract we can for our members.
The ride is not going to be easy, but we are in this together for as long as it takes. It is a proven fact that ‘United We Stand, Divided We Fall”.
In solidarity and fraternally,
James C. Little International President