Colonel Savage
Southern style...
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2008
- Posts
- 1,271
April 17, 2008
Fellow Pilots,
I am, as you would expect, very disappointed and saddened by the NMB election results.
I want to point out that your ALPA MEC kept its promises to you, including protecting you from the harmful effects of the Nicolau Award. That’s something of which I am proud. Since May 3, 2007 when the award was released, our pilots have continued to receive the career advancements they were due. We successfully garnered the support of ALPA National for continued separate operations and our litigation in DC Superior Court was progressing on track. Also, our efforts to reach a consensual solution with the AWA pilots were never abandoned, and I remained optimistic that we would ultimately be successful in that pursuit. I want to thank all of the pilots who voted for ALPA and who believed in the MEC and our plans to deliver permanent solutions to the Nicolau Award and to provide long-overdue improvements in pay, benefits and working conditions.
I’m afraid that the road ahead of us now will be long, difficult and fraught with internal legal disputes. We’ve lost our ability to litigate the Award and to get our day in court. We won’t have the ability to work out consensual solutions with the AWA pilots, and we’ve now given up our right to separate Section 6 negotiations with the Company. By slamming the MECs together, we have lost the ability for a separate ratification process, have galvanized the Nicolau Award unaltered, and have severely jeopardized the protections of separate operations and keeping our own attrition.
Instead, we’ve been thrown into an untenable position that leaves us with little leverage to use against management for contract improvements and seniority protection, not to mention losing access to a multi-million dollar Major Contingency Fund that AAA pilots have fed for years. It will not be long before consolidation overtakes US Airways and we’re merging with yet another pilot group. This time, with larger airlines and pilot groups in play, we are very likely to be in the minority—and we may soon regret the fact that USAPA believes that simply being in the majority should determine seniority.
I do understand your anger both at the seniority hand we were dealt and at your national union. However, I’m afraid that we’ve cut off our nose to spite our face. We are placing our future in the hands of an untested union at a time when on-the-job training will not be enough to address the significant and imminent industry challenges ahead. Better pilot representation isn't carried out by telling people only what they want to hear—it's done by giving pilots the facts and having the resources, both financial and otherwise, to be successful.
Having done union work for nearly 20 years, it will be extremely difficult for me to watch what happens to our pilot group now, knowing it didn’t have to be this way. The next few years will be a difficult time for us. But I do know that our pilots have become resilient—you don’t survive two bankruptcies, a lost pension and several restructurings without that strength and resolve.
I know that whatever life throws at us, we’ll be able to handle. You know the saying, “Whatever doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger.” I look forward to the day when we’re all stronger and marching shoulder to shoulder again, just like at our historic 2006 picketing event in CLT. I welcome the day that our pilot group is once again unified and fighting the real enemy—not each other, but a greedy management. Good luck to us all and continue to look out for each other.
Fraternally,
Capt. Jack Stephan
Fellow Pilots,
I am, as you would expect, very disappointed and saddened by the NMB election results.
I want to point out that your ALPA MEC kept its promises to you, including protecting you from the harmful effects of the Nicolau Award. That’s something of which I am proud. Since May 3, 2007 when the award was released, our pilots have continued to receive the career advancements they were due. We successfully garnered the support of ALPA National for continued separate operations and our litigation in DC Superior Court was progressing on track. Also, our efforts to reach a consensual solution with the AWA pilots were never abandoned, and I remained optimistic that we would ultimately be successful in that pursuit. I want to thank all of the pilots who voted for ALPA and who believed in the MEC and our plans to deliver permanent solutions to the Nicolau Award and to provide long-overdue improvements in pay, benefits and working conditions.
I’m afraid that the road ahead of us now will be long, difficult and fraught with internal legal disputes. We’ve lost our ability to litigate the Award and to get our day in court. We won’t have the ability to work out consensual solutions with the AWA pilots, and we’ve now given up our right to separate Section 6 negotiations with the Company. By slamming the MECs together, we have lost the ability for a separate ratification process, have galvanized the Nicolau Award unaltered, and have severely jeopardized the protections of separate operations and keeping our own attrition.
Instead, we’ve been thrown into an untenable position that leaves us with little leverage to use against management for contract improvements and seniority protection, not to mention losing access to a multi-million dollar Major Contingency Fund that AAA pilots have fed for years. It will not be long before consolidation overtakes US Airways and we’re merging with yet another pilot group. This time, with larger airlines and pilot groups in play, we are very likely to be in the minority—and we may soon regret the fact that USAPA believes that simply being in the majority should determine seniority.
I do understand your anger both at the seniority hand we were dealt and at your national union. However, I’m afraid that we’ve cut off our nose to spite our face. We are placing our future in the hands of an untested union at a time when on-the-job training will not be enough to address the significant and imminent industry challenges ahead. Better pilot representation isn't carried out by telling people only what they want to hear—it's done by giving pilots the facts and having the resources, both financial and otherwise, to be successful.
Having done union work for nearly 20 years, it will be extremely difficult for me to watch what happens to our pilot group now, knowing it didn’t have to be this way. The next few years will be a difficult time for us. But I do know that our pilots have become resilient—you don’t survive two bankruptcies, a lost pension and several restructurings without that strength and resolve.
I know that whatever life throws at us, we’ll be able to handle. You know the saying, “Whatever doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger.” I look forward to the day when we’re all stronger and marching shoulder to shoulder again, just like at our historic 2006 picketing event in CLT. I welcome the day that our pilot group is once again unified and fighting the real enemy—not each other, but a greedy management. Good luck to us all and continue to look out for each other.
Fraternally,
Capt. Jack Stephan
