Good evening, this is Herb Holland with
the MEC hotline for Thursday August 15th. Tonight’s topics are:
MEC Notes
Mesa Jumpseats
Crew Scheduling Blooper of the Week
Teamster Organizing Drive
A Save by Flight Standards
Phone Tag
FPL
Communications
Professionalism
MEC Notes
Ted Phipps and I will be at the “Begging Table” next week
in Washington for presentation of our final MCF budget. This is merely
a formality. The $3 million was approved over a year ago. All that remains
is the obligatory rubber stamp of our first five months’ authorization.
At the same time, we expect ALPA President Duane Woerth to officially
sign the lease on our strike center.
The next Local Council meeting will be
held on September 3rd. At that time we will be nominating and electing
a permanent FO rep, who will serve until February 28, 2003.
Speaking of the strike center, we are tentatively
planning an open house and luncheon at the strike center on Labor Day,
September 2nd. Our plans include joining our fellow AFL-CIO union brothers
and sisters for the morning Labor Day Parade. We will have more details
next week. Now, the obvious question: where is this strike center located?
We are in final negotiations with the building’s owner. As soon as we
have the contract in hand, we will reveal the site.
The MEC, in coordination with the Chief
Pilot’s Office, will be actively participating in this year’s United Way
Drive. This is not an America West Corporate campaign. This is a campaign
organized and coordinated by America West employee volunteers. And if
you are an Arizona taxpayer, you can donate to help working families in
need and get a 100 percent state tax CREDIT! In addition to the satisfaction
of donating to a worthy cause, you will get your name in a drawing for
prizes which this year will include trip drops and FREE one year T-4 parking.
It doesn’t get any better, does it? Seriously, the campaign kicks off
in mid-September and your MEC is lending its full support to help those
in need.
Representatives from Perrone Leather will
be in the T4 Pilot Lounge on Aug. 28 and 29 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. both
days to fit pilots who are interested in purchasing a leather jacket as
an optional uniform item. Even if you don’t plan on ordering a jacket
now, go ahead and get fitted so ordering your jacket will be easier later.
Also, many pilots have not yet used their annual uniform allotment this
year. Remember: if you don’t use it, you lose it.
Mesa Jumpseats
It is obvious that there is a jumpseat war heating up between our
crews and Mesa crews. And from recent reports, it is clear that some Mesa
pilots are rejecting jumpseat requests from AWA pilots who openly display
Scope bag tags. In order to document the actual incidents, the MEC needs
dates, flight numbers, gates and badge numbers. We need to know whether
the denials were from a gate agent or from the captain. Anecdotal stories
are not enough. We need facts. Did you openly display your bag tag? Were
you asked to remove it, but refused? Do we plan on retaliating? According
to the Mesa MEC Chairman, we already are.
This MEC has no intention of policing every
AWA pilot who denies a Mesa pilot a jumpseat, but before you participate
in a jumpseat war, remember, this: the Mesa pilot commuting from LAX to
PHX does have other jumpseat choices. The AWA pilot commuting from FRA
to PHX does not. And to our knowledge no AWA pilot who has been discrete
with a Scope bag tag has been denied boarding either as a non-rev or as
a jumpseater. Should such an occurrence happen, let the MEC know immediately.
Unfortunately, Mesa pilots who don’t even
fly on the America West Express system are being turned down. We do have
documented cases of that. Such retaliation serves no purpose. What kind
of reception do you think I will get when I discuss “Struck Work”
with the Mesa MEC?
Personally, I have a Scope badge attached
to my ID. To me the bag tag is a symbol of internal unity, a VDR as it
were, not a badge of external defiance. I am discrete with both my ID
and my scope badge when jumpseating or non-revving on Mesa. While non-revving
on Mesa is a right and the MEC will fight to protect that right, jumpseating
on any carrier is a privilege, and as with any privilege, comes the need
for discretion.
Crew Scheduling Blooper of the Week
Last week one of our captains called our Scheduling Committee about
an illegal reroute, one that not only got back well after the contract
mandated four-hour limit, but one that forced the FO to work into a Golden
Day. Our Scheduling Committee advised him that this was a blatant violation
and that they should insist on deadheading home on the next available
flight, which would have met the four-hour limit and not impinged on the
FO’s GD. The captain, however, refused to follow the contract. And the
FO passively went along for the ride. The crew DHed from EWR to JFK, flew
to PHL, picked up another aircraft and then performed a MX ferry back
to PHX, arriving at 0545!
Questions: Why call for advice and not
take it? If you plan on violating the contract, especially five times
in one duty period, why let everyone know?
Teamsters Organizing Drive
The Teamsters are involved in a drive to organize all 3,700 gate
agents at America West. Yesterday your MEC met with Teamster organizer
Bernadette McCullough and pledged our support in their upcoming drive.
The company is mounting a full-fledged effort to keep the union off the
property. For those of you old timers, do you remember the $100 room?
Flight Standards Save
Kudos goes to Ron Arfsten for his intervention into and resolution
of a potential FAR operational violation by one of our crews. Our fellow
union members who have taken management positions continue to come through
for this pilot group. A few phone calls and the problem was solved. Thanks
again, Ron, and thanks to all of our pilot managers who continually put
out fires for us.
Phone Tag
This LAS story is one of the more ridiculous accusations made against
our pilots in recent memory. The crew was scheduled for a daytime CMH
turn and was on a MX delay. They notified the gate supervisor that they
would be in the crew lounge. After nearly a three-hour wait, a gate supervisor
came into the crew all upset that the plane was now late because the crew
didn’t answer the phone in the crew lounge. They never heard the phone
ring. They immediately went to the aircraft, which was still boarding.
Ergo: no crew delay. Now the rest of the story. The next day the CP’s
office got a complaint from LAS that the crew had deliberately disconnected
the phone for the sole purpose of delaying the flight! LAS was trying
a CYA. Trust me, if you knew who the pilot was, it wouldn’t even pass
the laugh test. And the complaint went right in the CP’s shredder.
FPL
As of today, we have 943 pilots who have donated a total of $85,714
to the Flight Pay Loss program. FPL is the lifeblood of our committee
work and every cent donated to FPL stays in-house. But beyond helping
to sustain this vital committee work, your donations are a VDR. The company
sees the requests for payroll deductions and they see the FPL pins. Right
now we are at 55% participation. We are going to be starting a FPL drive
this month. So show your solidarity by donating to FPL. Make your voice
known and participate in this VDR. 100% donations would be nice but I
would settle for 99.5%.
Communications
As evidenced by the continued rhetoric we have had to endure from
the VP of Flight Operations’ hotlines, we do have a major communications
gap with upper management, a major disconnect between reality and mythology.
As evidenced by the failure of upper management to admit that one stinking
pairing was unsafe, we do have a communications gap, a major disconnect
between reality and orthodoxy. Direct communications do not seem to be
working very well. So we will be devoting increased resources to VDRs.
We will shine the light on this company’s failure to deal fairly with
its primary asset: the pilots and the certificates we have earned, the
training the company has already paid for and the expertise we bring to
the operation.
And since internal communication avenues
have obviously failed, we will have to share our frustration with the
traveling public and the financial community. This intransigence to solve
even the most basic of problems defies logic and has driven our frustration
level to unprecedented levels.
Regarding the contract: “The Company
must realize the importance of reaching a tentative agreement…There
are (still) a number of legal remedies the pilots have available which
might impact (A)WA’s summer operation. Without a motivated and enthusiastic
pilot group, this airline will not reap the benefits they need from the
summer flying season.” And as with last week’s quote, those are not
my words, but those of an AWA vice president. For if I had spoken them,
surely the company would take them as a veiled threat at an illegal job
action. And that is one road your MEC will not travel. There is too much
at stake to derail our crusade with unnecessary risks. This campaign can
and will be won with hardball, not bean ball.
Professionalism
As I mentioned earlier, the Teamsters
are organizing the gate agents. We plan a unity drive, tying our contract
negotiations together with their organization campaign. But you can help
by being patient with that new gate agent who is being paid $7.35/hour,
not adequately supervised and, like us, worked like a farm animal. In
their case, never forget Aesop’s Fable about the lion and the mouse: No
act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. Our campaign will
unfold in the next month. You never know when that extra kindness will
come back to “haunt” you, with that extra non-rev consideration
or that last minute jumpseat approval.
Don’t be frustrated by what you perceive
as a lack of progress at the table. The process may slow down at times,
but when it does, we will let you know. And we will let the company know.
Don’t be taken in by either the pie-in-the-sky or doom and gloom rumors.
If you have questions, just call the office, the NC or one of your status
reps. Just get the facts. And most of all, continue the outstanding job
you are all doing of obeying the FARs, obeying the FOM and following the
contract.
Good evening.
“The strike is the weapon of the
oppressed, of men capable of appreciating justice and having the courage
to resist wrong and contend for principle. The nation had for its cornerstone
a strike, and while arrogant injustice throws down the gauntlet and challenges
the right to conflict, strikes will come, come by virtue of irrevocable
laws, destined to have a wider sweep and greater power as men advance
in intelligence and independence.”
– Eugene Debs, 1888, speaking during the
strike of engineers and firemen on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
Rail Line
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