Dear Brothers and Sisters:
I am writing to you in response to Bob Tyler’s email message of June 20, 2008. Let me say at the outset that your Union has been and remains ready to enter into a partnership with a management group ready to restore Flight Options to its industry leading status as a provider of the highest quality customer service with loyal pilots dedicated to its success at the core of the operation. We remain ready to enter into such a partnership even though management now desperately resorts to the kind of threats put forth in Tyler’s email. However, there is no such thing as a partnership of one. Despite your Union’s best efforts, the current management has drug its feet in negotiations and obstructed our attempts to move forward toward a more cooperative, productive and profitable future.
Don’t let management’s threats affect your commitment and resolve to obtain the contract you deserve. Management’s latest email is nothing more than a “cookie-cutter” style letter written by management lawyers who use the same tactics over and over again wherever they go. These sorts of letters get recycled every time a management group wants to trick pilots into pressuring the Union’s negotiators into careless bargaining. The only thing different here is that such letters are usually accompanied by management’s negotiating committee moving quickly toward a contract. Although management sent the letter, they aren’t bargaining like they want a contract. Let’s look past their threats and deal with facts.
The foundation for a more cooperative, productive and profitable future at Flight Options is a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) ratified by the Union’s membership. However, a ratified CBA presupposes a successful resolution to the May 23, 2008 reduction in force (RIF). With 70 of our Brother and Sister pilots on the street out-of-seniority, we must all rally around them. We need to do it not only because they deserve our support, we need to do it to save our own jobs. If their seniority is of no value, what value is yours? If management can do it to them, management will believe they can do it to any of us. Besides, honorable men and women don’t leave their wounded behind on the battlefield! We are professional pilots! We are Union members! We remain ready to settle the RIF on the basis of reasonable terms that are consistent with the principles of seniority. Management’s last RIF proposal did not sufficiently address seniority considerations and, therefore, it was rejected. Your Union has worked diligently on the CBA and the RIF simultaneously. We remain committed to resolving both.
Management would like you to believe that their May 29th “Comprehensive Economic Proposal” is a “take it or leave it” proposition. It’s not. It’s management’s first proposal on a number of important issues. If the truth be told, it’s actually a partial outline and not a proposal that can be “accepted” or “rejected.” Much of their proposal is in “bullet point” form with critical details to be worked out through bargaining. Their proposal says as much. But, we didn’t wait for management to fill in the blanks; we made our own proposals in response. We have been waiting for management to respond to our written positions for weeks.
After your Union received management’s May 29th proposal our negotiators told them that, while the document is incomplete by its own terms, your Union recognized it as a good first move; one that provided a framework for reaching a CBA in an expedited fashion, so long as management was prepared to move beyond the “bullet point” stage to the hard work of bargaining over the details. To the extent management has set June 30 as an “acceptance deadline,” your Union committed to working as fast as possible on ironing out the details of an agreement. We have provided management with substantive feedback and actual proposals. Despite management’s failure to provide necessary information or respond to Union proposals before and since the May 29th management proposal, your Union’s negotiating committee has repeatedly told management’s negotiators the following:
I am writing to you in response to Bob Tyler’s email message of June 20, 2008. Let me say at the outset that your Union has been and remains ready to enter into a partnership with a management group ready to restore Flight Options to its industry leading status as a provider of the highest quality customer service with loyal pilots dedicated to its success at the core of the operation. We remain ready to enter into such a partnership even though management now desperately resorts to the kind of threats put forth in Tyler’s email. However, there is no such thing as a partnership of one. Despite your Union’s best efforts, the current management has drug its feet in negotiations and obstructed our attempts to move forward toward a more cooperative, productive and profitable future.
Don’t let management’s threats affect your commitment and resolve to obtain the contract you deserve. Management’s latest email is nothing more than a “cookie-cutter” style letter written by management lawyers who use the same tactics over and over again wherever they go. These sorts of letters get recycled every time a management group wants to trick pilots into pressuring the Union’s negotiators into careless bargaining. The only thing different here is that such letters are usually accompanied by management’s negotiating committee moving quickly toward a contract. Although management sent the letter, they aren’t bargaining like they want a contract. Let’s look past their threats and deal with facts.
The foundation for a more cooperative, productive and profitable future at Flight Options is a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) ratified by the Union’s membership. However, a ratified CBA presupposes a successful resolution to the May 23, 2008 reduction in force (RIF). With 70 of our Brother and Sister pilots on the street out-of-seniority, we must all rally around them. We need to do it not only because they deserve our support, we need to do it to save our own jobs. If their seniority is of no value, what value is yours? If management can do it to them, management will believe they can do it to any of us. Besides, honorable men and women don’t leave their wounded behind on the battlefield! We are professional pilots! We are Union members! We remain ready to settle the RIF on the basis of reasonable terms that are consistent with the principles of seniority. Management’s last RIF proposal did not sufficiently address seniority considerations and, therefore, it was rejected. Your Union has worked diligently on the CBA and the RIF simultaneously. We remain committed to resolving both.
Management would like you to believe that their May 29th “Comprehensive Economic Proposal” is a “take it or leave it” proposition. It’s not. It’s management’s first proposal on a number of important issues. If the truth be told, it’s actually a partial outline and not a proposal that can be “accepted” or “rejected.” Much of their proposal is in “bullet point” form with critical details to be worked out through bargaining. Their proposal says as much. But, we didn’t wait for management to fill in the blanks; we made our own proposals in response. We have been waiting for management to respond to our written positions for weeks.
After your Union received management’s May 29th proposal our negotiators told them that, while the document is incomplete by its own terms, your Union recognized it as a good first move; one that provided a framework for reaching a CBA in an expedited fashion, so long as management was prepared to move beyond the “bullet point” stage to the hard work of bargaining over the details. To the extent management has set June 30 as an “acceptance deadline,” your Union committed to working as fast as possible on ironing out the details of an agreement. We have provided management with substantive feedback and actual proposals. Despite management’s failure to provide necessary information or respond to Union proposals before and since the May 29th management proposal, your Union’s negotiating committee has repeatedly told management’s negotiators the following:
