Good evening this is Herb Holland with
the MEC hotline for Thursday, October 10. Tonight’s hot topics:
1. MEC News
2. Cactus Bob
3. Picketing
4. Jumpseats
5. Professionalism
6. The Letter
MEC News
Don’t forget the importance of contributing to the United Way. The
campaign is still under way, so stop by the Chief Pilot’s office and fill
out a donation form this week. Together we can all make a difference.
The gate and ticket agents will begin voting
tomorrow on whether to recognize the Teamsters as their bargaining agent.
I just received a call from Teamster organizer Bernadette McCullough to
thank us for our encouragement and support. But the best is yet to come.
Tomorrow we will begin distributing 3 by 5 cards to gate and ticket agents
expressing our solidarity with them in their organizing drive. I went
to the President of ALPA and the President of the Airline Division of
the Teamsters to get permission to have both logos on these cards. Both
enthusiastically endorsed our efforts. More on this later in the hotline.
The MEC office will be closed on Monday,
October 14 in observance of Columbus Day. And don’t forget, the week of
October 21 through 25, the entire MEC and most of the office staff will
be in Florida for the ALPA Board of Directors Meeting. We will remain
in touch with you all via e-mail and cell phone. So if you have a problem,
want to check out a rumor or want to spread a rumor, call the office;
we’ll get right back to ya.’ It will be business as usual.
We had our enjoyable Monday Night Football
get-together this week. As long as there is the continued interest we
had last Monday, we will continue to host this weekly event. We had about
35 pilots and their families show up for a good game, good pizza and some
great conversation. We are getting a 61″ wide screen in this week
and a better antenna. Chief Brewmeister Dave Hagan served up two new potent
potables for our tasting delight.
As we have said before, the Strike Center
is not just a union “Rec. Center.” It will be the command and
information center as we conclude our successful crusade for C-2000. It
is now open for business on Mondays and Wednesdays. Strike Center Coordinator
(House Mother) Vance Osmon is planning a series of educational and strike
prep events over the next two months. He’ll have blast e-mails describing
upcoming events as developments warrant.
Don’t forget the next Local Council meeting
scheduled for Wednesday, October 30 at the Doubletree Suites. We will
be conducting informational picketing at the Tempe Tombstone that afternoon,
so the meeting will start a half-hour later at 6:30 p.m. It should be
an exciting one.
Check out this evening’s SPC hotline for
new personnel changes and the latest activities.
FPL donations are approaching 1,100 for
the year. Once again, I cannot overestimate the importance of this program
in funding our valuable committee work. It also sends a valuable message
to the company in the form of an FDR (financial display of resolve). If
you have donated, wear your FPL pin with pride. If you are flying with
a pilot who doesn’t have a pin, point him in the direction of the ALPA
forms over by the glass case in the pilot lounge.
We just learned that there are problems
with accessing the members-only sections of the ALPA Website and the WebBoard
when using CompuServe. If you are having access problems and use CompuServe
as your Internet Service Provider, contact the ALPA Help Desk to resolve
the problem at (800) 871-0899 ext. 4357.
Cactus Bob
Cactus Bob is back from his vacation in St. Louis and was seen prowling
the local watering holes in Ahwatukee last night. According to his latest
“intel,” which the MEC checked out and found to be accurate,
Crew Scheduling has some new tricks up its sleeve. In fact, CS has upgraded
over 600 FOs with one super blooper of the week. CS called out a junior
reserve First Officer to do left seat (as in the captain’s seat) support
for another first officer in training. CS also called out a Captain to
do seat support for an FO training event. Unfortunately, the Captain didn’t
know the call outs for CAT II/III. Why? Because he hasn’t had the training
yet! The folks in flight standards were all over both of the above occurrences
and they shouldn’t happen again.
Picketing
Last Monday’s picketing was a great success. Simultaneous picketing
in PHX, LAS and SNA: outstanding effort by the SPC. And this just in from
a vacationing pilot in London: Our picketing got coverage on CNN International,
streaming news. Our message is going all over the world.
Jumpseats
Well, it looks like that long delayed first revenue flight for “Freedumb
Air” may be close to a reality. Our “intel” reports that
they are engaging in proving runs this week. Sooner or later, the “Freedumb”
pilots will no longer be able to hide behind their Mesa Airlines IDs and
will have to expose themselves. But they probably still have their old
Mesa IDs. While they may be “FAR Legal” to ride on a jumpseat,
if they are showing you a Mesa ID and are on the “Freedumb”
list, they are misrepresenting who they really work for. If you run into
this situation, call the AWA duty officer. We have NO reciprocal JS agreement
with “Freedumb” and I trust we never will. Remember, these are
the pilots who told the San Juan Academy students that AWA was going to
go BK, and they were going to take our jobs.
Remember: the real Mesa Airlines pilots
are our brothers and sisters, and they deserve every courtesy we can offer
them.
Professionalism
As we are all aware, the state of the airline industry is abysmal.
But AWA is holding its own. You, the members of Council 62, are the primary
reason. Your professionalism is making a difference. As we near the end
of the Negotiating Season, keep one thing in mind. An individual pilot
acting alone to the detriment of the company only makes himself a target
and becomes a hostage. Don’t let your frustrations and anger get the better
of you. Don’t force the MEC to negotiate for your job and don’t force
the MEC to divert valuable resources away from our crusade.
The Letter
I would like to close this week’s hotline with a letter written to
the CEO of America West Airlines. The letter will identify the author
and is reproduced in its entirety and without further comment. Meanwhile,
continue to obey the FARs, obey the FOM and follow the contract.
Dear Mr. Parker:
I am writing to you regarding the Air Transportation
Safety and System Stability Act and employee unionizing rights. I am a
strong believer in employee’s rights to unionize, and I also believe that
skilled and efficient employees make for a safe and superior airline.
As the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee
on Aviation, I am supportive of America West’s efforts to survive the
devastating economic impact of the September 11th terrorist attacks. The
Air Stability Act, which Congress passed in the aftermath of September
11th, provided $110 million in cash to America West for loss of business
during the grounding of aircraft immediately after 9/11, and more recently
provided a $380 million loan guarantee to the airline through the Air
Transportation Stabilization Board. I am firmly committed to helping America
West and other airlines survive in this difficult economic environment.
Every airline, big and small, is needed to ensure proper market competition
for the benefit of the American flying public.
At the same time, I am concerned that airline
employees are treated fairly as America West and other airlines downsize
and streamline their operations to reach greater efficiency. Layoffs across
the industry have put airline employees in fear of their jobs. In this
state of apprehension and insecurity, it is not unusual for employees
to turn to union representation for greater job protection. Such is the
case at America West, where more than 65 % of all America West customer
service representatives, including reservation agents, gate agents, and
ticket counter personnel, among others, have signed authorization cards
for representation by the Teamsters Union.
As this organizing campaign proceeds, I
encourage you to respect the rights of these workers to organize. More
importantly, cash assistance and loan guarantee funds designated to help
the airline recover financially should not, under any circumstances, be
used by America West to undermine the workers’ rights to organize. The
American taxpayers and the Congress did not intend to have these funds
used that way.
When America West fired its mechanics in
1995 after voting for Teamster representation, the airline’s outsourcing
plan not only hurt workers but also jeopardized passenger safety, ultimately
leading to the largest fine ever issued by the Federal Aviation Administration.
That mistake should not be repeated. The stockholders, the flying public
and America West’s own employees deserve your focus to be on rebuilding
the airline, not obstructing basic worker rights. I and other Congressional
aviation leaders will be watching your actions very carefully in the months
ahead to ensure that federal funds and loan guarantees are used properly
and that workers’ rights are protected.
Thank you for your time and attention to
this matter. Please do not hesitate to contract me regarding this or any
other aviation issue. With best wishes and kind regards, I remain
Sincerely,
William O. Lipinski
Member of Congress
Ranking Member, House Aviation Subcommittee
|
|
|
|
Pilots
Only |
|
|
Public
Links |
|