June 29, 2000 Hotline

  June 29, 2000

Crew Schedulers

If a scheduler says there is an
agreement, tell him or her you want to see a copy of it before accepting any illegal
assignment. Of course, they’ll come up with some excuse not to provide it because
there is no such agreement. In the meantime, call one of your elected reps or a member of
the Scheduling Committee, and have them take care of the situation for you. According to
section 25B, your entire conversation is supposed to be recorded. Everything the scheduler
told you must be on tape for use during your grievance. If they fail to tape, that’s
another grievance, and a presumptive argument in your favor.

I want to remind our many probationary
pilots that no one has the right to waive the scheduling section of our contract for you.
If somebody tries to coerce you, print the pairing and get us the name, date and time, and
we’ll pursue it.

Negotiations

PBS Satisfaction Survey

Aeromedical Study

This pilot group, along with Alaska and
Northwest, has been asked to participate in a new study that will investigate how all of
those factors weigh in on the occurrence of skin cancer in airline pilots. All you have to
do is complete a health, lifestyle, and flight history profile survey, which will be
mailed to your home within the next few months. It is vital that you complete the survey
as completely and accurately as possible so that the data collected will reflect exactly
what we go through and how we are affected on a daily basis. Your participation will be
key to the success of this study and to long term improvement of the quality of our flight
schedules and our lives.

Local Council Meeting

Committee Hotlines

July 4th Holiday

I hope each of you has a safe and
enjoyable holiday. That’s it for this week. The next hotline update will be on Thursday,
July 6. Thanks for listening.

  • Crew Schedulers
  • Negotiations
  • PBS Satisfaction Survey
  • Aeromedical Study
  • Local Council Meeting
  • Committee Hotlines
  • July 4th Holiday
  MEC Hotline

Good evening, this is MEC Chairman Roger Cox
with the hotline message for Thursday, June 22nd. Tonight’s topics are:


We have been getting reports that some crew schedulers, particularly the newer ones, are
telling pilots they can violate the contract, by accepting illegal assignments, because
“ALPA says you can” or because supposedly have some type of agreement allowing
this. Be wary of such stories.


As expected, the pace of our contract negotiations is beginning to slow down a bit due to
the complex, distributive issues being addressed at the table. Please read the new Table
Talk carefully when it comes, and please listen to the Negotiating Committee hotline
for additional updates. One reason for the slowdown is the fact that the company wants to
have a “one-size-fits-all-employee-groups” contract. We’ve explained to
them and will explain to you why this doesn’t make sense. More details about this
issue are forthcoming in an MEC Contract Awareness publication.

After months of parallel bidding under PBS, it’s getting down to the wire in
determining if this pilot group is indeed, satisfied with PBS. Every pilot will be
formally balloted, in addition to surveyed, during bid 170, to determine the overall
satisfaction with PBS. In order to comply with our contract, we must provide
“subjective and objective” survey responses; we intend to use the Wilson Center
for this. However, the MEC also wants to provide each and every member the opportunity to
vote as well, and we intend to use ALPA’s electronic telephone balloting system for
this. Recognize that the vote does not oblige the company to stop PBS. If the results
indicate that this pilot group is not satisfied with PBS, parallel bidding may continue
until satisfaction is reached. However, your vote will send a strong message to the
company and to our negotiating team the direction you want to go in the future.

We all know that our grueling flight schedules lead to sleep loss, fatigue, and numerous
health problems. Well, now the ALPA Aeromedical Office is trying to prove what we’ve
known all along, and actually get in writing.


The next local council meeting will be held July 11 at 6pm at the Doubletree Guest Suites,
320 North 44th Street. All pilots in good standing are encouraged to attend.

Please check the following committee hotlines for recent updates: SPC, Negotiating, Hotel,
Central Air Safety, Scheduling, and PBS.

As you know, next Tuesday is the Fourth of July, and in observance of the holiday, this
MEC office, as well as all ALPA offices, will be closed on Monday, July 3rd and
Tuesday, July 4th.