America West MEC Hotline for Aug. 9, 2001

The
next Local Council meeting will be Sept. 18 at the Doubletree Guest
Suites, 320 N. 44th Street in Phoenix. The meeting will begin at
6 p.m. In addition to regular business, the agenda includes the
nomination of candidates to replace First Officer Representative
Eric Edwards, who is stepping down to assume the duties of MEC vice
chairman, and LEC Secretary-Treasurer Mike Calabrese, who is stepping
down effective Sept. 1. You should receive ballots in the mail from
ALPA shortly to nominate members to replace F/O Edwards and Capt.
Calabrese. There will be instructions included where to send completed
ballots and nominees will also be accepted at the Sept. 18 council
meeting. Once the ballots are counted and the nominees determined,
regular ballots will be printed and sent to members for the final
vote. To provide representation during the election process, an
interim F/O representative will be elected at the Sept. 18 council
meeting. Proxies are not accepted when voting for representatives.

As
announced last week, Bill Franke recommended to the company’s board
of directors at its Wednesday meeting that company President Doug
Parker replace him as CEO. What was unclear until then, however,
was if Mr. Franke would remain chairman or if he would leave America
West completely. We are pleased that he recognized the importance
of making a clear transition to a new leadership team and decided
to leave the company entirely effective Sept. 1. We all know that
Mr. Franke joined America West during some of our most troubling
times and helped put the company back on the road to financial recovery.
While he played a key role in this effort, make no mistake – this
recovery would not have been possible if the employees had not made
the sacrifices that we did. Once financial stability was restored
and profits reached record levels, however, Mr. Franke chose not
to offer employees the return on our investment in America West’s
success that we richly deserved. And throughout his tenure here,
Mr. Franke has been unable to offer us any clear vision for where
our airline is going.

We
now have a new CEO who will have to determine where America West
fits in the airline industry, if he will recognize the current realities
of the industry and if his management team in fact truly wants to
run an airline they way it is needs to be run. One way the new leadership
can clearly demonstrate to the pilots its desire to actively manage
our company is to commit to achieving a fair working agreement.
We’ve been negotiating now for 19 months and have yet to discuss
any economic issues. With progress like this, it’s clear that the
commitment from management is not there. In stark contrast to our
negotiations are several new agreements at other carriers in the
industry, including Delta, jetBlue, Frontier and AirTran, that include
significant improvements and took less time to negotiate. Just this
month, Alaska pilots will vote on a new agreement reached outside
of regular Section 6 negotiations that includes significant pay
raises. An agreement like this was possible because Alaska’s management
recognized the realities of the pilot marketplace and sought to
improve upon a contract that no longer fit.

Doug
Parker is taking over at a time when our industry is faced with
tremendous uncertainty and change. And while he’s been at America
West since 1995, it’s impossible to know how he will perform in
his new position without Mr. Franke looking over his shoulder. He
can continue leading America West down and undefined path in a changing
industry that will most assuredly leave us behind, or he can step
up to the plate and chart a clear course for us to take; one that
once again recognizes the employees of America West and makes us
all partners in success. The choice is his.