Wednesday United Airlines announced that it and ALPA had come to terms on what it calls a “cost-neutral” contract modification.

The agreement, which still has to be voted upon by the ALPA membership, is an effort to primarily alleviate the pilot staffing shortages the airline currently is experiencing, and would most likely see grow worse as we move into the summer months.

Here is a list of the included modifications, as per the employee hotline message that was sent out to United employees.

Contract Modifications Outline



Trip Construction Items:

* LCO pilots gets the same trip and duty rigs as mainline pilots, however, the look back pay system goes away.

* Duty based rest system instead of flight time based rest system.

Schedule Construction Items:

* All pilots have an 89 hours schedule cap.

* Pilots may voluntarily increase their cap from 89 hours to any value between 89 and 95 hours (in no less than 30 minute increments).

* Minimum Guarantee for line holders is increased from 65 hours to 70 hours to equal the minimum reserve guarantee.

* Trip Trade floor is changed from 50 hours to 65 hours.

* Company may offer Surplus Reduction Lines at 35 hours (1⁄2 of minimum guarantee).

* PBS Construction floor increased from 65 hours to 75 hours.

Actual Operation Items:

* Line Guarantee for each lineholder – the pilot’s Pay Credit at the beginning of the month will be protected from being reduced by reassignments/cancellations, etc.

* The pay credit that is protected will increase and decrease with trip trading.

* If a trip or portion of a trip is cancelled the pilot will be permitted to pickup trips under 20-H or will be assigned other flying or telephone standby on each of the days the original trip was scheduled to operate. The Company must make this assignment only once during the cancellation, however, such assignment may involve all the days of the original assignment.

* The reassignment language in Section 20 is changed from 16 hours and 8 hours into a day off to 14 hours and 10 hours into a day off.

* 16 to 14 example:

If a pilot is scheduled to get home at 16:00 and he is reassigned, the reassignment must have the pilot scheduled to be home no later than 0600 instead of 0800.

* 8 to 10 example:

If a pilot is scheduled to get home at 20:00 and he is reassigned, the reassignment must have the pilot scheduled to be home no later than 1000 instead of 0800.

* If a lineholder falls one day below the minimum days off for operational reasons (not due to a reassignment) his schedule will not be repaired.

Training Freeze Items:

* All freezes for future LCO bids will now equal the freezes for the mainline.

* If a pilot currently has a freeze greater than 48 months, that freeze will be reduced to 48 months.

* The time permitted to get a pilot scheduled for training is increased to nine months from the current six months. The pay trigger associated with a new bid will remain unchanged at 62 days after the advertised effective date.

Miscellaneous Items:

* Pilots vacating their lines for OE training will be paid the line value plus three hours instead of cap plus three hours.

* Pilots will be given the option of doing some TK CBT training at home and paid at 2.8 hours per day (limit of eight hours per day)

* PC/PT required pre-study limited to 25 hours. Currently no contractual limit.

* All credit time above 95 hours will be put in the bank.

* Beginning in December of each vacation year if the company solicits, pilots may be permitted to sell some of their unassigned vacation. The amount subject to be sell back is subject to limits to reduce manpower implications. This will reduce the number of pilots that have vacation involuntarily bought back.

IAD-PEK Driven Temporary Wide Body Items:

* In order to reduce international “W” trips, reduce involuntary TDY, reduce 8-L-6 assignments, and reduce re-assignments, the following scheduling caps are temporarily increased through the October Bid month:

o 777 and 400 increased from 89 to 96 hours.

* In order to permit pilots to be released from flying to attend training for their wide body bids, the following scheduling caps are temporarily increased through the October Bid month:

o 767 increased from 89 to 92 hours.

* No changes to the 737 or 320 scheduling cap of 95 hours until November.

* All credit time in excess of 96 hours through October will put in the bank

* In November, all pilots will go to the voluntary Flexible Cap outlined in Schedule Construction Items above.

Any United pilots out there who would like to comment on these changes and modifications? Are these enough? Is this a good move on the part of the company? Let me know what you think.