 This confirmation is best evidenced in a letter from the NMB to Continental Airlines in which the NMB notified that since the airline had failed to respond to a Section 6 letter from ALPA to open negotiations, that an NMB representative would present himself at the airline’s headquarters to assist in opening contract negotiations between ALPA and the airline.Additionally, the NMB answered several pilot inquiries about their representational status stating that there had not been any action that resulting in a change to the bargaining agent.Traditional union representation by ALPA in terms of contract negotiations (collective bargaining) and prosecution of grievances was virtually nonexistent from the end of the pilot strike in 1985, but ALPA vigorously represented the rights of pilots who return to work after the strike.