Dec.
30, 1999
1999 Recap
For most of the last four years, we have fought a largely defensive struggle in an attempt
to enforce a loosely worded contract and make ALPA an effective bargaining agent for you.
In 1999, new things started to happen. In March, we added a separate local council
structure. Captains Jack Ryan and David Chambless, and First Officers Eric Durnal and Gary
Bakewell stepped into the elected roles and broadened our ability to make face-to-face
political contact with you and better ensure our accountability.
In September, First Officer Bill
Archer, Captain Mike Calabrese, and I assumed the responsibility of MEC office, replacing
Captain Don Steinman and First Officer Darcy Pierce. This established an orderly and
consistent transition of elected officials which you can expect to work well from now on.
The seven of us have been working on a fast track to prepare for our first real
opportunity to renegotiate our contract on a balanced playing field. We have put in place
a thoroughly prepared negotiating committee which is well versed in what other contracts
say and what our options are. We have forged a strong relationship with national ALPA. We
have put in place strong fiscal discipline and planned realistic budgets. We have begun to
rationalize our committee structure so that we are all pointing in the same direction. We
have begun systematic professional opinion surveys. We have developed a blueprint for the
unity we must have in order to negotiate successfully. Most importantly, we have
begun to send the message that the mental, physical and emotional commitment of each and
every one of you to this union is imperative. For the first time, you are optimistic about
our ability to make needed changes.
Cooperation
Cooperation is not a one way street. This month our company has directly and indirectly
asked our pilots to go above and beyond what the contract calls for during a period of
high demand. Most of you have said, “no thanks,” and your MEC has said “no
way.” Why? Let me count some of the reasons.
In September 1998, we signed a PBS side
letter. Paragraph B.1. stated that parallel bidding would begin January 1999. It’s almost
a year later, and there has been one delay after another. Last week the company’s latest
crew management team informed us that they were going to ignore a seniority provision in
the software which we negotiated so long ago. It is awfully late to discover this problem,
but there was a simple fix: pledge to us to fix it promptly. Instead they took the
position that they didn’t have to and were going to go ahead with parallel bidding. Wrong.
On October 4, 1999 an arbitrator
decided in favor of ALPA in the Ed Sherman case. Rather than commit promptly to begin
payments to the grievants, the company entered a “cone of silence.” On November
24 I was told by a company official that they hadn’t received the final decision. I faxed
it to him with a request for immediate action. More silence. On December 17, two hours
before we were to file a complaint in federal court, the company called and said they
would pay. No checks are yet forthcoming, although I am told they will go out the
first week of
January. Wrong again.
Two years ago we began discussing FOQA
(flight operations quality assurance). We committed many dollars and man hours to being
ready, and the program could have begun a year ago. Recently NWA and SWA joined UAL, AAA,
DL, CO and ALA with programs and UPS and TWA are close. The hang-up has been unnecessary
legal swordsmanship on the part of labor relations, who were apparently incapable of
signing an industry standard letter of agreement with us. The company is under an order
from FAA to develop FOQA. They blame us for the delays. Very wrong.
Last week, we were notified that the
company intends to cancel vacations for the next three bid periods. In their letters to
the Airbus pilots affected, they offer “another vacation slot later in 2000,
including weeks that are currently closed.” Of course this a blatant contract
violation. There is reason to believe that the company has not budgeted for pilot
vacations at all for 2000, so how are they going to give you a “desirable week
later.” People who fall for this are my nominees for the
biggest suckers of the year. And it’s wrong to do this.
Some companies build up a reservoir of
good will with their employees – and with their customers. When they get in a bind, they
get cooperation. SWA, CO and Fedex come to mind. Other companies take the Saddam Hussein
route – cheat and retreat.
If you want to know why we’re still not
parallel bidding; if you want to know why we say don’t take the vacation cancellation –
we’re tired of cheat and retreat. Now you know.
Growth
America West has lots of new airplanes coming, and that means growth. The culture,
however, is still one of fear. Growth companies are optimistic, they are confident, they
take risks. Growth employees don’t worry about being punished or second guessed. In the
fast moving airline business companies have to be able conclude agreements promptly or
they get left in the dust.
We, the Air Line Pilots of America
West, are ready to get on with growth in 2000. Is America West ready?
Holiday Office Hours
The office will also be closed on Friday, December 31, for the New Year’s Holiday.
That’s it for tonight. The next hotline
update will be on Thursday, January 6. We appreciate your listening, and we’ll talk to you
next week.
- 1999 Recap
- Cooperation
- Growth
- Holiday Office Hours
| MEC Hotline | ||
| This is MEC Chairman Roger Cox with the MEC Hotline update for Thursday, December 30, 1999. Tonight’s topics are: |