To my fellow US Airways pilots,
I have been an ALPA member in good standing for over twenty nine years and currently hold seniority number XX on the system seniority list. I’ve had other pilots tell me that since I have been unaffected by the recent arbitration award that I really don’t have a dog in this fight. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While the current catalyst for change is the unfair arbitration award, the reasons for breaking our long standing affiliation with ALPA run far deeper than just that one issue. ALPA’s basic structure is flawed. Our union is made up of many separate pilot groups that have conflicting financial and career goals. We are competing with each other for the same piece of the airline pie. Please remember that both the United and Delta pilots engaged in a letter writing campaign that was directed at putting US Airways out of business. If that is the face of a national union then I want nothing to do with it. Also keep in mind that we have a bloated top heavy national leadership that is EARNING obscene salaries at your expense while doing absolutely nothing for the US Airways pilots.
I say that it is long past time to replace ALPA with an in house union whose sole responsibility is to the US Airways pilots. In the late 80’s I supported the formation of an in house union and regrettably not enough of you supported that effort. I believe that had we succeeded then, that we would never have lost our pension. While it’s too late to change that now, looking forward we can prevent more travesties like that from occurring in the future. We, with ALPA representation, have lost our pensions, vacation time, duty rigs, pay and respect. And now many of you face the loss of seniority as well. I say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
As I said earlier, the decision to leave ALPA should not be decided on one issue alone. However, having said that, the current seniority crisis is certainly one of the biggest problems that this pilot group has ever faced. Unlike the loss of our pension, it is not too late to fix this problem. Do not look to ALPA to fix it for you.
ALPA may not be able to fix this problem even if they wanted to and their indecisive response indicates to me that they do not have the will or courage to stand up and do what is right. I believe that replacing ALPA is the only possible way to rectify this injustice. Right now there are a very dedicated, hard working group of pilots taking steps to replace ALPA with an in house union. They can not, nor should they have to do it alone. This is a fight that all of us share. Don’t sit on the sidelines and hope someone else will preserve your seniority for you.
Get involved and help both with your time and money. This process will not be cheap although I believe it will be much less than you are spending in ALPA dues. The return on your investment could be huge. I and others have already contributed a substantial amount of money to this effort.
Fraternally,
Captain Ed
Preface: I feel it important to inform the USAir pilots that I resigned from ALPA nearly two years ago after years of disappointment and disgust concerning ALPA's leadership failures.
This is a follow up to my note of several days ago. I think the USAir pilots might benefit from learning about the FedEx MEC chairman's appearance before the America West Pilots on April 21, 2004, and how ALPA's short-term decisions affect its long term credibility and strength.
During the early part of 2004, the AWA pilots had been considering decertifying ALPA and replacing it with an in-house union. The situation became serious enough that then-ALPA president, Duane Woerth, asked FedEx MEC chairman, Dave Webb, and CAL MEC chairman, Jay Panarello, to address the AWA pilots on the disadvantages of an in-house union. What the pilots were not told was that Jay Panarello was one of the worst strikebreakers that we had at Continental. Not only did he cross the picket line early on, he proactively attempted to get other employees fired. This is a note that I received from one of our former CAL pilots who was married to a CAL flight attendant:
Bob: If I ever see Panarello I will personally embarrass him in front of as many real pilots as possible...He did his level best to have my wife fired at Continental and made her life hell as she was under close observation for many months...He is the ONLY CAL PILOT that I know of that attacked another pilot's family member during a strike.
Readers might ask, "How did a strikebreaker like Jay Panarello get back into the union, much less get elected chairman of the Master Executive Council?" The answer is this: Some time before his election, ALPA national, in its desire to increase dues income, decided to permit all Continental strikebreakers to join the Association as members in good standing. This was done with no requirement for any act of penance, no period of probation, and no requirement to pay back-dues. It was, by all standards, a free pass for crossing the picket line.
My viewpoint is that of one who spent two years on strike at CAL, started over several times before landing at FedEx, and gave up about one million dollars in compensation because of people like Jay Panarello. To me, it was inconceivable that Duane Woerth would send a strikebreaker to act as a spokesman for ALPA in any venue (can you imagine any true union doing this?), and that my current MEC chairman, Dave Webb, would share the stage and microphone with such an individual. After all, the strike against Continental was probably the most righteous strike ever in the airline industry. It was called against a management team that was both corrupt and incompetent. Stories of Frank Lorenzo's corrupt behavior even during his college days were well-know and public knowledge. Anyone who wanted to know, could and should have known, including Jay Panarello.
But, to me, there is something more important and disturbing about this whole matter: It is the idea that an organization calling itself a "union" could unconditionally welcome into its fold the confirmed enemies of working men and women in this country with, apparently, no comprehension, whatsoever, of the downstream strategic effects of such a move. Not only does the embracing of known strikebreakers physically dilute the strength of an, otherwise, potentially solid membership, but it substantially demoralizes those who have fought, or might ever be willing to fight, the war against corruption. How in the world do you successfully mix together the valiant individuals who were robbed of their jobs, with those who stole them? And, if such tolerance is the end result, how could you possibly expect anyone to ever again take a picket line seriously? It is unfathomable. To some extent, this is why ALPA has been unable to protect pensions, incomes, and working conditions. It has so diluted its strength by catering to the weakest of its membership that it no longer has any credibility or leverage.
If any USAir pilots are under the illusion that ALPA's incompetence and corrupt behavior started with them, they need to think again. This has been going on for decades. In my opinion, ALPA's inability to defend its members against pension loss, pay reductions, executive manipulation, the courts, or internal fragmentation is the direct result of a legacy of leadership incompetence that has left it impotent. ALPA's principle-free policies, employed for short-term gain, have resulted in a membership that so lacks trust in both the organization and in each other that there is, in my opinion, little possibility of ALPA ever again throwing up a meaningful picket line or doing much of anything else to defend its members. Where there is no accountability for crossing a picket line, there is no good reason to not cross a picket line.
And, that is why we are where we are as a profession today: Dog-eat-dog, every-pilot-for-him or herself. Oddly enough, it is not the mighty FedEx pilots who have the incentive to change our world---they are still mind-numbingly apathetic and, essentially, leaderless. Nor is it ALPA national---all it appears to care about is its dues money. For the moment, it is the pilots at USAir who are in the driver's seat.
Sincerely,
Bob
