American Pilots Replace Union Leaders

[Big Slick]

American pilots replace union leaders


[SIZE=+1]New slate of officers vows to stand tougher against airline's management[/SIZE]


[SIZE=-1]12:20 AM CDT on Thursday, June 21, 2007[/SIZE]


[SIZE=-1]By TERRY MAXON / The Dallas Morning News [/SIZE]


American Airlines Inc. pilots overwhelmingly voted out their union's officers Wednesday and replaced them with a slate that promised to be tougher in dealing with American's management.

The Allied Pilots Association will be headed by Miami pilot Lloyd Hill, who beat president Ralph Hunter, 4,573 to 2,180votes.

The Allied Pilots Association’s new officers will have a mandate to negotiate hard for a new contract and to stand firmer in dealing with airline executives.

Tom Westbrook beat vice president Sam Bertling, 4,665 to 2,068, and Bill Haug defeated secretary-treasurer Jim Eaton, 3,986 votes to 2,723.

The new officers will take office July 1 with a mandate to negotiate hard for a new contract and to stand firmer in their dealings with top airline executives.

At the airline's request, American and the union began negotiating terms of a new contract last September, nearly two years before the contract's official "amendable" date of April 30, 2008.

However, the two sides have not worked out a new deal yet, nor has either side touted much progress.

Mr. Hunter and his team, who took office in 2004, had to deal with anger over the concessions pilots and other employees made in 2003 to keep American out of bankruptcy.

When the airline appeared to be slipping into financial problems in 2005, Mr. Hunter urged the union to work with management to increase productivity and make American more competitive with other carriers, which had used bankruptcy to lower their labor costs.

That willingness to participate in the so-called Performance Leadership Initiative hurt Mr. Hunter when the airline regained its financial health. Parent AMR Corp. posted a $231 million profit in 2006 following losses of more than $8 billion between 2001 and 2005, including an $816 million loss in 2005.
The rising price of AMR shares compared with those of other airlines triggered stock bonuses for top executives and other key employees in April 2006, approaching $100 million in value, and in April 2007, worth more than $160 million.

"I don't think he [Mr. Hunter] could recover from the fact that he went along with the PLI and then had the big stock distribution," Dallas/Fort Worth-based pilot Billy Parker said.

After the first stock distribution, Mr. Hunter began talking a harder line against management, and the union demanded a 30.5 percent pay increase. Even so, his opponents promised to represent the interests of employees rather than those of management, and they criticized Mr. Hunter for cooperating with management to the detriment of pilots.

Mr. Hunter and his slate tried to counter the criticism by describing Mr. Hill as a radical who helped start the illegal 1999 sickout that prompted a $45.5 million fine from a federal judge. They also predicted Mr. Hill would be unable to get along with a majority of the union's board.

But Mr. Hill and the other challengers picked up the endorsements of other candidates defeated in an earlier round of voting, and Mr. Hill was able to more than double Mr. Hunter's vote totals.

Neither Mr. Hunter or Mr. Hill could be reached for comment Wednesday night.

 

[Big Slick]

American Airlines Pilots Oust Union Prez


DALLAS (AP) - Pilots at American Airlines, unhappy over pay and angry at company management, ousted their union's top officers and elected a slate of newcomers who promised to take a harder line against the nation's largest carrier.
Miami-based pilot Lloyd Hill defeated incumbent President Ralph Hunter by more than a 2-to-1 margin in a runoff, and challengers also unseated the Allied Pilots Association's next two ranking officials.
Hill said immediately that the union's proposal for a 30.5 percent pay increase next year "is not nearly enough."
Hill charged that Hunter and other union leaders were too cozy with company management. Hunter's job was clearly in jeopardy after he got only 25 percent of the vote during an election in May and barely made the runoff.
The first test for the new officers will come quickly -- the union is in the early stages of negotiations for a new contract in which it expects large raises.
Under Hunter, the union proposed pay raises and big signing bonuses. Hunter also organized protests against $160 million in stock awards given in April to more than 800 management employees.
Privately, airline officials viewed the protests and pay demands as part of the union leaders' campaign to stay in office by appearing tough. If so, the plan came up short against challengers who took a harder anti-company stance.
Pilots voted by mail, with ballots due Wednesday. The votes were counted at union headquarters in Fort Worth, with federal officials overseeing the process.
Hill got 4,573 votes, or 68 percent, to Hunter's 2,180. Dallas-based pilot Tom Westbrook defeated Vice President Sam Bertling by an even larger margin, and San Francisco-based pilot Bill Haug defeated incumbent Secretary-Treasurer Jim Eaton.
The union represents more than 9,000 current pilots at American.
In an interview Wednesday night, Hill said he wants the company to succeed but current union leaders had tried too hard to find a middle ground with management instead of representing pilots.
"I probably worry a little less about the company because I'm sure they can take care of themselves," he said.
Hill said the union's pay raise proposal made last month isn't enough to offset 23 percent pay cuts off "already substandard" wages in 2003.
Hill didn't offer another figure but said managers had "set the bar at a high level when they reward themselves about a quarter of a billion dollars in the space of one year" -- referring to the stock executives got as a reward for the rising share price of American's parent, AMR Corp.
The new president served on the union board from 1998 to 2000 and met Chairman and Chief Executive Gerard Arpey a couple of times but doesn't know him well.
"On a personal note, I think he's a nice man," Hill said. "I think his business philosophy is not much different" from earlier AMR CEOs.
Mike Boyd, an airline industry consultant who has worked for the union, said executive bonuses created the union anger that elected Hill, and airline officials will regret it because they'll have more trouble working with Hill.
"Management really has screwed this up. Two years ago they had collaboration" with the union, Boyd said. "Today, I don't even think they're going to have cooperation."
American Airlines has a long history of troubled labor-management relations, including mass sickouts and a brief strike in the 1990s.
But the two sides came closer together in 2003, when American and AMR teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. American's three unions accepted wage and benefit cuts. Pilots were the strongest supporters of concessions, which they viewed as a necessary sacrifice to save their pensions from being wiped out in bankruptcy.
The labor peace lasted until early 2006, when workers still dealing with wage cuts were outraged to learn the size of stock awards for about 800 management employees, which grew to about $160 million this year.
Wednesday's election "is a clear signal that the pilots' union doesn't have a problem going back to the bad old days of labor-management relations," said airline consultant Stuart Klaskin.
"They feel like back then, they at least had some clout," he said. "In the last couple years, they feel they've been marginalized."

 

[snuba]

We need to do the same at Airtran!!

 

[luckytohaveajob]

And ALPA National. Oh but wait ALPA national is run by Darth Prater who agenda doesn't include the average line pilot, ie age 60 the majority.

 

[ultrarunner]

Good for APA. Time will tell if it makes a difference, but the incumbents were out-voted 2 to 1 or better.

 

[Tejas-Jet]

And ALPA National. Oh but wait ALPA national is run by Darth Prater who agenda doesn't include the average line pilot, ie age 60 the majority.

I think your issue is more with ALPA members than with ALPA elected representatives. If people don't get involved, and they leave it to their elected representatives....then you get....what you have today.

Guys talk a big game on F.I. But so far, how many recall resolutions have been introduced at LEC meetings? How many have passed?

The ALPA guys complained about Duane Woerth for along time, but waited until an election took him out of office. Now guys complain about Prater, and are gonna wait until.....?

ALPA members got a problem with ALPA? I think change starts with the guy you see looking back at you from the mirror.

 

[Captain X]

I think your issue is more with ALPA members than with ALPA elected representatives. If people don't get involved, and they leave it to their elected representatives....then you get....what you have today.

Guys talk a big game on F.I. But so far, how many recall resolutions have been introduced at LEC meetings? How many have passed?

The ALPA guys complained about Duane Woerth for along time, but waited until an election took him out of office. Now guys complain about Prater, and are gonna wait until.....?

ALPA members got a problem with ALPA? I think change starts with the guy you see looking back at you from the mirror.

Well said.

 

[pkober]

I think your issue is more with ALPA members than with ALPA elected representatives. If people don't get involved, and they leave it to their elected representatives....then you get....what you have today.

Guys talk a big game on F.I. But so far, how many recall resolutions have been introduced at LEC meetings? How many have passed?

The ALPA guys complained about Duane Woerth for along time, but waited until an election took him out of office. Now guys complain about Prater, and are gonna wait until.....?

ALPA members got a problem with ALPA? I think change starts with the guy you see looking back at you from the mirror.

Wasn't that a Michael Jackson song from the 1980's?

 

[AAflyer]

Good for APA. Time will tell if it makes a difference, but the incumbents were out-voted 2 to 1 or better.

What is even better is 80+/-% of the pilots got involved and voted. While that number may sound low to some, for this pilot group that is great!

AA

 

[ultrarunner]

What is even better is 80+/-% of the pilots got involved and voted. While that number may sound low to some, for this pilot group that is great!

AA

That is impressive. I did look at the totals and thought it quite high vs. the total on your list.

That kind of percentage is impressive, since as a population we generally don't give a $hit when it comes to voting for anything.