November 19, 1998
ALPA, Intl
Committees
America West cancels 1999 vacations
First of all, this 30-day/28-day cycle problem isn’t
new to the AWA pilots. We never wanted to go there in the first place, and have offered,
on several occasions, to negotiate contract language in order to return to a 30-day bid
period. Management was not interested. Secondly, why wasn’t this a problem last year?
Bid Period 135 began on December 21, and Bid Period 136 began on January 11. Looks like an
overlap to me.
The real problem here is no surprise to any of us. Our
management team, once again, failed to “manage,” and they failed to
“plan” properly. And we’re the ones who end up paying the price. Thirty of
our captains will not be able to take their much needed vacations during the week of
January 3. Incidentally, a simple apology, or even a promise to do better in the future,
is not included in the correspondence to the union, nor to the affected pilots. Oh well,
business as usual, I guess.
In the meantime, pilots whose vacations are cancelled have
been given three options:
- to mutually agree with the company on an available
substitute vacation block during 1999; - bid the cancelled vacation period in the vacation bid for
the year 2000; (ha! ha!) or - choose to receive compensation in lieu of vacation time.
MEC Chairman Don Steinman sent a letter this past Tuesday, November 17, to Greg Garger,
vice president of Labor Relations, addressing three contentious issues. They are as
follows:
- pilot mailboxes off limits to the Association
- management reneging on ratified “captain no-fly”
letter of agreement; and - pilot health insurance premium contributions arbitrarily
increased without a contractually-required meeting with the Association
The MEC had to cancel the long-established, quarterly AWA/ALPA air safety meeting this
week. The cancellation was due to Crew Resources refusing to drop Central Air Safety
Committee Chairman Roger Cox’s WR day on November 18, due to staffing. This meeting
is normally attended by Lee Steele, David Huntzinger, director of Corporate Safety; and
occasionally, maintenance department representatives. Discussions normally revolve around
the day-to-day safety concerns, and naturally, specific concerns of both the company and
the Central Air Safety team.
The MEC strongly encourages all pilots to take their much
needed, and contractually-mandated, vacations in 1999. Selling back a vacation is simply
NOT AN OPTION! It allows management to continue to ignore the real
problem…”staffing!” Selling back your vacation is also selling out your
fellow pilots. Don’t do it!
MEC cancels FOQA and PBS meetings
A copy of this letter will be posted on the ALPA bulletin
boards, and on the MEC web site. In the meantime, I would like to quote from Captain
Steinman’s closing paragraph: “These actions lead us to seriously question
management’s willingness to bargain in good faith….” Also, “until we
can be assured that management is willing and able to live up to its commitments, we will
participate in no further discussions concerning FOQA or PBS.”
This letter was copied to Richard Goodmanson, Ron Aramini,
Lee Steele, Kim Hopkins, and Ardell Affsten with the intent to establish a paper trail,
and to pursue a resolution to this apprent “change in the wind” relationship.
MEC cancels quarterly safety meeting
It is interesting to note that November 19 and 20 were
golden days for Captain Cox, thereby affording Crew Resources with little effective usage
of Captain Cox on the 18th. Be that as it may, the MEC chose to cancel the
meeting rather than going once again on bended knee, to “higher ups” requesting
that Captain Cox’s WR be dropped. This is not a new problem, and it is not solely
focused on the Central Air Safety Committee. Every past and present vice president of
Flight Operations has insisted that full participation in these meetings is vital and
necessary; and they have repeatedly stated their commitment to making sure the necessary
personnel are in attendance. But usually, as the meeting date draws nearer, selective
memory loss of these commitments tends to permeate the air. This leaves one to wonder, is
there any substance to AWA’s commitment to safety?
Negotiating Committee goes to Herndon
Election Ballot Return Deadline
Folks, and I’m speaking to the 14% of you that did
vote, if 86% of our members won’t even take five minutes to complete an election
ballot, then we are wasting our time. If every member of this pilot group is not doing
whatever he or she can to help strengthen our efforts for Contract 2000 negotiations, just
16 months away, we are wasting our time. I beg you, GET INVOLVED! GET OUT AND VOTE!
The deadline to return election ballots is November 30. If
you have not received a ballot, please call the MEC office immediately.
Fenix Flight
EasyBid
ALPA “Keep-in-Touch” System
Randy Babbitt’s LAHSO Update
Jannice Zambo
Chairman Bill Franke invited to attend Local Council
Meeting
The Council 62 Local Council meeting will be held at the
Doubletree Hotel, located at North 44th Street at Van Buren, on December 17
from 1-5 p.m. Chairman Bill Franke will be the guest speaker.
The business of Council 62 will be conducted prior to our
guest speaker addressing the membership. The MEC would like everyone to know that a
“professional atmosphere” will be maintained throughout the meeting, and that
anything less, will not be tolerated. Let’s have a good turnout!
Thanksgiving Office Schedule
That concludes this week’s Hotline update. Due to the
Thanksgiving holiday, the next hotline update will be on Wednesday, November 25. Fly safe;
fly your contract; and remember to wear your ALPA pin proudly EVERY time you
fly. Thanks for listening.
- AWA cancels 1999 vacations
- MEC cancels FOQA and PBS meetings
- MEC cancels quarterly safety meeting
- Negotiating team goes to Herndon
- Election ballots
- Fenix Flight
- ALPA “Keep-in-Touch” system
- Easy Bid
- Randy Babbitt message
- Jannice Zambo
- Chairman Bill Franke invited to Local Council meeting
- Thanksgiving holiday office schedule
| MEC Hotline | ||
| This is MEC Secretary/Treasurer Mike Calabrese with the MEC Hotline update for Thursday, November 19. Tonight’s topics are: Lee Steele, vice president of Flight Operations, notified the MEC on November 13, that due to “a logistics problem,” America West had to cancel some vacations during Bid Period 148. The problem apparently has to do with the overlaying of the calendar year – a 30-day cycle – with the bid period – a 28-day cycle.
Please mark your calendar with the following information:
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