December 10, 1998 Hotline

 
December 10, 1998

ALPA, Intl

ALPA News

Aviation Links

Committees

LEC

MEC

1999 MEC Hotlines

MEC Hotline
Archives

News Briefs

News Releases

Newspaper
Articles

Pilot-to-Pilot
Volunteers

Home

LEC election results

Ed Sherman Arbitration postponement

MEC goes to Washington

Meanwhile, several pilots are still delinquent with their
merger fund assessments. If you have not yet paid your assessment, formal collection
proceedings will begin, which may include expulsion from ALPA, and/or termination from
America West Airlines .

MEC meeting with management

Negotiating team returns from Herndon

Look for another issue of MEC Directions concerning
our preparations for the negotiations beginning early next year.

Rumors

Olin further reports that the company expects to hire over
200 pilots in 1999.

AFA negotiations

According to Bill McGlashen, president of AFA Council 66,
the flight attendants hope to reach an agreement at the December 21st meeting. However, if
an agreement is not reached, they expect to be released from mediation, starting a 30-day
cooling off period.

Fenix Flight

Meanwhile, the deadline for submissions for the
November-December issue has been extended to Tuesday, December 15.

Captain Randy Babbit KIT System message

Local Council meeting

That concludes this week’s Hotline update. The next regular
hotline update will be on Thursday, December 17.

Fly safe; fly your contract; and wear your ALPA pin. Thanks
for listening.

  • LEC election results
  • Sherman Arbitration postponement
  • MEC goes to Washington
  • MEC meeting with management
  • Negotiating team returns from Herndon
  • Rumors
  • AFA negotiations
  • Fenix Flight
  • Captain Randy Babbit KIT System message
  • Local Council meeting
MEC Hotline
This is Communications Committee
Chairman David Weeks with the MEC Hotline update for Thursday, December 10. Tonight’s
topics are:

Due to the fact that over 40 other Councils are having officer election ballots
counted today, ALPA National has a large backlog of ballots to count. Our Local Council
elections results were not tabulated in by the time this update was recorded. ALPA
National should have results for us tomorrow, the 11th, and they will be posted on a
special Hotline update tomorrow.
Earlier this week, outside counsel for America West Airlines made a motion to
Arbitrator Sinicroppi seeking a continuance of next week’s arbitration due to witness
unavailability. Counsel for the Association aggressively argued that any delay would be
tantamount to a hardship against the Association. After hearing oral arguments, Arbitrator
Sinicroppi acknowledged the hardship caused by the delay, but ruled in the Company’s
favor. A new date for the arbitration will be selected next week, but we should not expect
this case to begin until at least February.
The MEC is in Washington this week meeting with our outside merger counsel. Although
we are not aware of any specific merger or acquisition plans for America West, the MEC
feels it is important to maintain a close relationship with our merger counsel, given the
prospect of further industry consolidation. The MEC will return to the office on Monday,
December 14.

The MEC met with Vice President of Labor Relations Greg Garger, and various other
America West management representatives on Tuesday, December 8. The main topics of
discussion included resolving the mailbox access issue, and the crew separation side
letter. Both of these issues have been the cause of strained relations between the union
and America West. The MEC feels that the mailbox access issue is important enough that it
should be resolved via side letter. Discussions are ongoing, and we hope to have more news
soon.
The Negotiating Committee, led by Chairman Pete Neff; along with Contract
Administrator Andrew Shostack and Communications Specialist Yvette Freeman, returned from
ALPA national this week with many positive ideas and information for Contract 2000
negotiations. While in Herndon, the group met with representatives of the Economic and
Financial Analysis, Representation, Communications, and Retirement & Insurance
departments for ideas and strategies concerning the upcoming negotiations.

The rumor of new-hire and upgrade class cancellations is becoming one of those rumors
that will not die. I talked today with Chief Pilot Randy Olin about this rumor, and can
report that it is baseless. The Chief Pilot informed me that a December new-hire class was
cancelled, but that the members of that class were re-assigned into either November 98 or
January 99 new hire-classes. No new-hire slots were cancelled. This re-assignment is to
avoid having new-hire training in progress over the holiday period.

The National Mediation Board recessed marathon contract negotiations between America
West’s flight attendants and the company on Friday, December 4, after they rejected the
company’s latest contract offer. Talks are scheduled to resume on December 21 in
Washington, D.C.

Look for your copy of the September-October issue of the Fenix Flight in your home
mailbox. It was mailed from Herndon last Thursday

ALPA President Randy Babbit’s recent special message to the Board of Directors has
been placed on the KIT system. It discusses new developments about Land And Hold Short
operations, and pilot responses to media questions. If you happen to asked about LAHSO
operations by members of the media, refer them to ALPA National. Please take the time to
listen to Captain Babbit’s message after you finish listening to this hotline.
As a reminder, a local council meeting will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. on Thursday,
December 17 at the Doubletree Hotel, at 44th Street and Van Buren. Our guest speaker,
America West Chairman Bill Franke, will speak at 2 p.m. following officer reports and
local business. This meeting will be open only to ALPA members of Council 62. Although we
anticipate some time for a question-and-answer session with Mr. Franke, pilots planning to
attend are encouraged to submit questions in advance via the ALPA box in the Terminal 4
computer room. Questions can also be submitted via email using the [email protected] email
address. Email submissions can also be done from the email link on the home page of our
web site at www.awalpa.org