1. Negotiations and Jerry Glass
2. Crew Scheduling 12-2-99 Agreement
3. HIMS and LTD
4. On-Time Operations, Single-Engine Taxi
5. Picketing – Over 200
6. LAS Crew Base
7. May COBRA Assessment, Not!
8. COBRA Reimbursement Checks
9. Recallees, Ziggy’s
10. Picnic
11. SBS
12. So you want to be a Security Screener?
13. Local Council Meeting 4-16, ALPA’s Financial Presentation
Negotiations and Jerry Glass
Your negotiating team has been working extremely hard this week getting
ready for our resumption of negotiations. Last week’s meet the negotiators
session at T-4 was well attended, with more than 200 pilots filtering
through during the day. The question of the week: will the departure of
Jerry Glass as outside negotiator slow down the process? Although it may
be too early to tell, I have been assured by the Company that they will
not be using his departure as a stalling tactic.
Crew Scheduling Agreement
Last weekend the Company took a new look at a two-and-a-half-year-old
agreement between our Scheduling Committee and their scheduling department
and discarded it. Essentially what happened was that a relatively new
crew scheduler made the determination that if a reserve is good to start,
he/she is good to finish. He mixed up Reserve Rest Requirements under
FAR 121.471 with normal scheduling for line holder trip assignments.
The agreement reached in December 1999
states in part:
“Standby A, B, and C reserves that
commence reserve duty later than 0400, 0830, and 1530 and are given a
flight assignment, must have a scheduled release time(s) of no later than
2200, 0030, and 0530 (PHX time) respectively, or 15 hours from the beginning
of their adjusted reserve period, whichever is more restrictive.”
To further clarify the issue, the following
Q and A was added to the agreement:
“Can a pilot on B Reserve be assigned
a trip that has a scheduled release time after 2330 the same day? No,
unless the pilot has commenced his/her standby period later than 0830.”
Ever since that agreement was reached,
CS has used it as a guideline. Until now. The pilot in question protested
to the CP who called the FAA, which said that the assignment was legal.
We can argue the FAR legality of the assignment another time. But the
shedding of this two-and-a-half-year-old agreement will be addressed at
the highest levels.
HIMS and LTD
After a 19-year history doing the right thing regarding helping pilots
overcome alcohol-related problems, the Company has done an about face.
Their disability insurer, AIG, has unilaterally denied pilots access to
long-term disability while they are in recovery. This is not only against
long-standing past practice but a deliberate violation of not only the
intent but of the specific language of Section 27.A.2 (Insurance), which
reads in part:
“The medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance plan
benefits for pilots shall not be reduced during the term of this Agreement
without the agreement of the Association.”
In short, we have been harpooned. This one is particularly heinous in
that it takes away that one necessary lifeline a pilot needs to augment
his recovery: freedom from financial stress. For those of you at the top
of the America West food chain, on behalf of your fellow employees, the
pilots at America West ask you do the right thing: Tear down that wall.
Repair the damage.
On-Time Operations
Kudos and Bravo Zulu for all of you who have contributed to making America
West – our airline – number-one in on time performance for the third month
in a row. This is indeed exciting stuff and we as pilots have contributed
to this turnaround while remaining the envy of the industry when it comes
to safety. I would ask, however, that when it is safe and practical, that
we follow the request of the chief pilot and use appropriate single-engine
taxi procedures. You may not see the results in the fuel log but overall
we will see the results at the negotiating table. This is our airline.
Don’t forget that.
Picketing
It was a great turnout last Friday on the picket line, with more than
200 pilots showing solidarity and support for our negotiators. Next time
we will have more water bottles
LAS Crew Base
Yes we now have a LAS crew base. Well, at least that is what a few of
our pilots and crew schedulers think. How can one be on C reserve, be
called for a trip, and meet the plane in LAS without already being there?
We are investigating.
May COBRA Assessment
As of today, we are planning to suspend the COBRA assessment for May.
We believe we have enough resources to cover the future costs. But don’t
forget to pay your April assessment on time.
COBRA Reimbursement Checks
We mailed out COBRA premium reimbursement checks to 29 furloughed pilots
on Tuesday. If you haven’t received your check by Monday, and you submitted
a reimbursement form, call the MEC office to make sure we received it.
Recall Class
37 recalled pilots will be rejoining us on Monday. We will be sponsoring
our usual recall dinner for them at Ziggy’s in downtown Tempe on Mill
Avenue at 5:30 Monday evening. So stop by and help us welcome them back.
Picnic
Don’t forget the unity picnic tomorrow from 2 to 7 p.m. at Tempe Town
Lake. Meet your negotiators and enjoy us for a dinner of barbeque and
beans. There will be Unity T-shirts for all in your family who attend.
SBS
Last Monday the Company gave the MEC a presentation on a possible replacement
for CompuServe/Maestro. It is called Flightline…the flight crew connection.
Flightline is touted as offering improved Maestro access at a lower price.
Your MEC is neutral on the product and will take a wait and see approach
as the trials begin next month.
Security Screeners
Just this week we received a report of another fine example of your federal
tax dollars at work. We believe the following vignette to be accurate.
A recently hired airport security screener was fired after it came to
the attention of his employer that he had been fired at both AWA and Mesa
for stalking. He also lost his job in the Army National Guard and actually
had been working as a screener under an assumed name. All of which begs
the question: who is screening the screeners?
Local Council Meeting
The next Local Council meeting will be held Tuesday, April 16th, “SAME
BAT TIME, SAME BAT STATION.” For those of you who didn’t grow up
in the 60s, that means 6 p.m. at the DoubleTree Suites. This is an important
meeting, as you will get a chance to view OUR economic state of the airline
presentation. It will be an eye-opener.
As of today, we still have 96 pilots on
furlough, 48 captains sitting in the wrong seat and 564 pilots who have
donated to Flight Pay Loss. Remember, do not make yourself a target, either
for the FAA or for the Company. Let your union officers and committee
members fight the battles. And once again, I close with: Obey the FARs,
obey the FOM and follow the contract. Thanks for listening.
———————————————————————–
The forty-second day of the [Flint Michigan]
strike arrived and nearly passed. It was almost midnight when there was
a knock on the door of the hotel room of [John L. Lewis] There stood the
miserable Governor Murphy…in his hand was an order to the troops of
the National Guard to clear the plants on the following morning.
John L., who had been ill, now gathered
himself for the final effort. He turned all his scorn and eloquence upon
the suffering Governor who had said that he must “uphold the law.”
[Saul] Alinsky describes the scene:
Lewis continued with his voice rising with
each sentence. “Governor Murphy, when you gave ardent support to
the Irish revolutionary movement against the British Empire, you were
not doing that because of your high regard for law and order. You did
not then say ‘Uphold the law!’ When your father, Governor Murphy, was
imprisoned by the British authorities for his activities as an Irish revolutionary,
you did not sing forth with hosannas and say ‘The law cannot be wrong.
The law must be supported. It is right and just that my father be put
in prison. Praised be the law!’
“And when the British government took
your grandfather as an Irish revolutionary and hanged him by the neck
until he was dead, you did not get down on your knees and burst forth
in praise for the sanctity and the glory and the purity of the law, the
law that must be upheld at all costs!
“But here, Governor Murphy, you do.
You want my answer, sir? I give it to you. Tomorrow morning I shall personally
enter General Motors Plant Chevrolet Number 4. I shall order the men to
disregard your order, to stand fast. I shall then walk to the largest
window in the plant, open it, divest myself of my outer rainments, remove
my shirt and bare my bosom. Then when you order your troops to fire, mine
will be the first breast those bullets will strike!”
Then Lewis lowered his voice. “And
as my body falls from the window to the ground, you listen to the voice
of your grandfather as he whispers in your ear, ‘Frank are you sure you
are doing the right thing?'”
— From Saul Alinsky’s book, John L.
Lewis, An Unauthorized Biography, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1949.
Extended excerpt taken from Labor’s Untold Story (Richard Boyer and Herbert
Morais, published by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of
America, NY , 1955)
| Good evening this is Herb Holland with the MEC hotline for April 11th. Tonight’s topics: |
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