Good evening, this is Herb Holland with
the MEC Hotline for Thursday, August 1st.
Tonight’s Topics:
1. Local Council Meeting
2. MEC Meeting
3. Agua Caliente Probable Cause
4. Crew Scheduling Blooper of the Week
5. A Chronically Flawed Hotline
6. Friends
7. Special Thanks
8. Professionalism
Local Council Meeting
The next Local Council meeting will be held Wednesday, August 14th
at 6 p.m. at the Doubletree Suites. Local Council Chairman Bill Goin has
a special meeting scheduled for September 3rd to fill the vacant First
Officer Representative position.
MEC Meeting
The regularly scheduled MEC quarterly meeting will be held Tuesday
and Wednesday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the Doubletree Suites. This
is a “heavy agenda” meeting and all members in good standing
are encouraged to attend. In keeping with the May meeting’s successful
trial of opening up the floor to membership participation, all members
in good standing will be encouraged to participate as time and work load
permit.
Agua Caliente Probable Cause
Quoting from the NTSB report regarding the Agua Caliente accident,
September 20, 1999: “The National Transportation Safety Board determines
the probable cause(s) of this accident/incident as follows:
[T]he systemic failure of the airline’s maintenance department to identify
and correct the long standing history of intermittent faults, nuisance
warnings, and erratic behavior in this airplane’s GPWS system. Also causal
is the airline’s failure to perform the service bulletins and service
letter upgrades to the system, which would have eliminated or greatly
reduced the likelihood of this particular nuisance warning, a condition
that was identified and corrected by the manufacturers 11 years prior
to the accident, and was the subject of one or more of the SB/SL upgrades.”
“The systematic failure of the airline’s
maintenance department…” That really says it all.
On behalf of the MEC and the pilots of
America West Airlines, I want to express my profound appreciation to Mark
Solper, Randy Sullivan, Misty Warren and all the other hardworking AIC
and Safety Committee volunteers whose thorough and impartial investigation
has finally cleared the name of Captain Frank Etter. We know this accident
and the suspicion concerning his professionalism haunted Captain Etter
until his death last year. Now the truth is known. Now the innuendos concerning
Frank’s professionalism are at an end. And now Frank can rest easier knowing
that his judgment, his reputation and his legacy are no longer under a
cloud.
Crew Scheduling Blooper of the Week
I know America West has had some recent problems misplacing UMs,
but last week they misplaced a First Officer. And that human error by
an overworked, underpaid and often underappreciated crew scheduler did
have harmful and damaging effects on the pilot and his family.
The pilot was rerouted on a DH back to
PHX and then DHed once again to TUS. He was listed as a deadheading crewmember
on flight 437, he checked in for that flight and he deadheaded on that
flight. After he arrived in TUS, he checked into the hotel in accordance
with the rebuilt pairing and rested until the following morning’s report
time. Long story short, he got lost in our imperfect system and ended
up on the No Show list the following morning. But the real damage was
the stress the company put his family through. CS called his wife looking
for him. That phone call led to a frantic police, hospital and hotel nationwide
search. All the while, he was sitting in his hotel room resting for his
next flight. His wife was in a panic mode. Before he was located, one
manager outside of crew scheduling even questioned whether he had some
kind of a “commuting issue.”
A “Chronically Flawed” Hotline
Have you listened to First Officer and Vice President of Flight Operations
Joe Chronic’s latest hotline? If not, dial 480-693-5317. Pure bovine fertilizer.
It is not only an insult to this pilot group but the closest thing I have
ever heard to throwing down the gauntlet and challenging this pilot group,
no, goading this pilot group into the type of illegal work action he claims
we engaged in. DON’T fall for it. The company wants nothing more right
now than to hold hostages and to use this slanderous and provocative hotline
to hide the truth, the truth that once again, any momentary spike in sick
calls overtaxes their “Chronic” understaffing. DON’T fall for
it. His hotline is twisted with false accusations, shrouded in hostility
and intended to elicit an illegal job action. DON’T fall for it.
Let me counter his inaccuracies. First,
after enduring the insult of a total lack of preparation by the company,
we walked out of the afternoon session on Tuesday, not Wednesday. The
actual days are important, because if the correct sequence of days is
used, Mr. Chronic’s entire house-of-cards attack falls apart. The Negotiating
Committee’s hotline went out on Tuesday night, not Wednesday night and
Mr. Chronic knows it. He also knows that the company actually admitted
at the table that they were not prepared because of certain “actions”
of the MEC Chairman, mischief that distracted their management resources
to such a degree as to cause the planets to fall out of alignment, a great
pestilence to fall on the Tempe Tombstone, and the Friday morning conference
call to fall apart. “Actions” that could have been handled by
an assistant chief pilot and a savvy crew scheduler. But no, rather than
let that onerous MEX pairing be modified at the CP level where it should
have been handled, it went all the way up the food chain, costing the
company hours of brinkmanship from the Executive VP level on down. It
had to go up the food chain because of the handcuffs placed on the CP’s
office by those same managers. And guess what? The pairing was modified.
The very safety that Mr. Chronic touts as being the company’s most important
mission was preserved, not by management, but by one pilot and the MEC
that would not give in. But even after begrudgingly modifying the pairing,
one Vice President alluded to any pilot who would not fly it as not being
professional and should be seriously looking for another profession. I
am paraphrasing; the actual language was much less complimentary. So when
Mr. Chronic states: “But above all else we cannot afford to be unsafe
anywhere or any time. So keep it focused keep it standard and keep it
safe:” who does he think he is kidding?
Mr. Chronic further stated: “Let me
blunt about this. If anybody out there is harboring a belief that committing
this kind of vandalism…is going to facilitate a new contract, you
are very very wrong.” So the pilot who called in sick last week due
to a broken hip and the pilot who just had a six-way heart by-pass must
either be vandals or have the world’s worst timing. But since Mr. Chronic
has very little history here at AWA, he wasn’t aware that in July and
October 1995 we were accused of the “Great Sick Out, parts 1 and
2.” The company and the MEC came within 10 minutes of arbitration
before the company capitulated and agreed that there was no sickout. And
the company did pay for that accusation. Not only did they end up reimbursing
pilots for company ordered doctor’s excuses, but in the exact words of
then Vice President of Operations Thomas Derig: “The company will
remove from the pilot’s personnel file any written reference to the requirement
stated in the October 17, 1995 letter that the pilot supply a physician’s
statement documenting his absence.”
That October 1995 “spike” in
sick calls was numerically equivalent to last week’s numbers; and in 1995
we had 45 percent fewer pilots! And there were more flights cancelled
that two day weekend than last Thursday and Friday. And in 1995, you guessed
it, we had 45 percent fewer flights! We won that one, we won the sickout
accusations in March and June of this year and we WILL win any allegations
about last week. Again, Mr. Chronic claims our Negotiating Team walked
out on Wednesday and the spikes occurred Thursday and Friday. Not so,
and he knows it. The sick calls were actually lower on Wednesday, the
day after our negotiating team walked out, than they were on Tuesday.
Thirteen flights were cancelled on Thursday and eight on Friday due to
lack of crews? But how many were cancelled because crew scheduling lost
one first officer? Was it six? And how many flights were cancelled because
PBS built lines for 10 pilots of less than 77 hours, with one flying only
a 60 hour line? And how many of those pilots were unable to work the last
week of July due to 100 hour per month limitations?
When crew scheduling runs on the edge of
a razor, even the slightest attack of additional sickness will bring down
the system. That happened in October 1995 and it happened again last week.
And the only common “malady” effecting cancellations still remains
chronic staffing shortages. What Mr. Chronic fails to mention is that
even on our highest sick-call day last week, we were still well below
the industry average for sick calls for all ALPA carriers, whether in
negotiations or not. He also fails to mention that reserve staffing was
already precariously low last week.
So bring it on, Mr. Chronic. If you really,
truly believe there was a wildcat or orchestrated sickout, bring it on.
Send out letters per Section 14 (C, 3, a), demanding doctor’s excuses
for those abusers. Bring it on. Make sure you get one from that pilot
in the hospital fighting for his life with the six-way by-pass. Make sure
you get one from that pilot who just went on maternity leave. And make
sure you get it from pilot in traction with the broken hip. Yes, Mr. Chronic,
we all know “We cannot afford to lose a single customer and we cannot
afford to waste a single dollar.” But “The Great Sickout”
# 5, like all the others was caused pure and simple by a lack of adequate
staffing. And yes, we know the company is not Douglas Parker, Joe Chronic
or Greg Garger. It is us and we will be here long after you and the other
interlopers are gone. And the number of crew cancellations on Wednesday
and Thursday, immediately following our walking out of negotiations, was
14, not 23 as Mr. Chronic has claimed.
And to top off his hotline, Mr. Chronic refers to the ATSB documents,
which he claims set a limit on “the limited pool of funds the ATSB
will let us spend on this agreement.” If Mr. Chronic had bothered
to read the ATSB agreement, he would know that there is no limit to increases
in rates of pay, only provisions in the loan agreement that require pre-payments
should all employee expenses exceed certain caps. And if CEO Douglas Parker
is speaking correctly when he says that our airline is in better financial
condition than at any time in the company’s history, early repayment of
a small portion of the loans should not be a problem.
And regarding Mr. Chronic’s lack of time
to prepare because of his burdensome additional responsibilities, let’s
see: he holds his personal commitment to the negotiation sessions in such
high regard that he missed an entire week at the table in June so he could
go over to France to pick up an aircraft. He holds these negotiations
in such high regard he had the time to ferry aircraft 621 to Macon, Georgia
for a heavy check this afternoon. And that phone call he made to the MEC
office regarding the scheduling test runs? He never talked to me. In fact,
he hasn’t spoken to me since early July when he “cautioned”
me about speaking to the news media about the fatigue article in the East
Valley Tribune. But he was only one of a number of vice presidents who
“cautioned” me about speaking to the media. I do, however, want
to thank Mr. Chronic who, with one hotline, has managed to unify our pilot
group more than any of us could have ever asked.
Friends
The intramural events of last week have definitely stretched and
in some cases perhaps ended some short- and long-term friendships I have
made at America West. But I am not always able to put friendships or internal
pressures ahead of my promise and my obligation: to police the contract
we now have to endure and to promote the demands of the members of Council
62. I would hope that the many friends I have made in 12 years at AWA
can understand my need to perform those tasks without accusations of cronyism,
without accusations of favoritism and without pitting one faction against
another. It is my hope that those who feel I have left them out, that
I have abandoned “their” cause, that I have turned my back on
them will address these issues directly to me and in private.
Once again, I will restate, as I have posted
on the Web Board, I did not precipitate, engage in or demand the resignation
or the removal of any volunteer from any position in the MEC. Resignations
are voluntary and removal of committee members is solely at the discretion
of the committee chairmen. In order to empower both committee members
and committee chairmen, that is the way things have to be. The MEC cannot
and will not micromanage those who are doing this thankless volunteer
work.
Special Thanks
The work of the MEC could never be completed without the contributions
of the dedicated ALPA staff members. Nor could this MEC be operating as
smoothly as it has been without the professionalism and dedication of
Vice Chairman Eric Edwards and Secretary-Treasurer Ted Phipps. Without
Eric and Ted’s patience and attention to the detail that I often ignore,
the work just wouldn’t get done.
Professionalism
We are fighting a formidable opponent in this crusade for a fair
and equitable C-2000. As I have often stated, we can win this marathon
by playing hardball, not bean ball. Do not let the company provoke you.
Do not let them get the upper hand in a public relations battle. And do
not let them put the MEC in a position where every hotline, every memo
and every VDR has to be reviewed by a Federal Judge. I don’t know where
the next probing of our lines will be, when it will occur or what it will
entail. But there will be other attempts to goad us into a parking violation
and other attempts to take hostages. If there must be a hostage, let it
be me, but let it be on my terms, not forced on us by some event brought
on by improper pilot conduct. I fully expect that if this union line holds
firm, the company will have no choice but to go after the union leadership.
And you will hold the line. You must hold the line. But I ask, no I demand,
that you stay unified, that you use self-control and that you continue
to obey the FARs, obey the FOM and follow the contract. If we remain unified,
if we hold the line, if we do our jobs, we cannot fail and the victory
will be ours.
Good evening.
|
Private
Links |
|
|
(Login
Required) |
|
|
Public
Links |
|