jetflier
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2003
- Posts
- 718
I am posting this letter from one of our ALPA reps running for election in ANC. The major points of his letter focus on the ALPA negotiated BOD seat at NWA, is it worth it, are the pilots better off by knowing the company fed "cofidentially" stuff....IMO we are better off not knowing and acting as labor, and not trying to be "company men"...
Where Do We Go From Here-Part Four
Can any NWA pilot honestly say, ?My career has been improved because there is a pilot on the NWA Board of Directors.? Can any NWA pilot honestly say, ?My pay rates are higher, my work rules better and my retirement more secure because my elected representatives are cognizant of NWA secrets that they cannot divulge to me.? I acknowledge that our situation might be worse absent a seat on the NWA BOD or the establishment of ?secrets.? After all, just as things can always be better, they can always be worse. I suggest we step back from the issue of ?better or worse? contract-wise and focus on whether or not a seat on the BOD or ?secrets? have made us stronger as a union.
NWA pilots hired prior to 1969 ?knew their place.? They realized that they were ?labor? not ?management.? They were not interested in ?leading? or ?owning? NWA. They focused on high pay rates, good benefits, a decent retirement and good work rules. Like so many NWA pilots I ?drank the kool-aid? that Gary Wilson and Al Cheechi offered after they orchestrated the leveraged buyout that resulted in the permanent financial crippling of NWA. In fact, those first years of give-backs at NWA were the happiest in my NWA career as I was a new A320 captain, proud to be a NWA pilot, delighted to be an enthusiastic partner in ?saving? NWA and building a ?secure? future for all of us. My euphoria abruptly ended with the 3% debacle and since then I?ve lived in the real world of ?us? versus ?them.?
So who or what is NWA management? Are they our enemy? I would argue that enemy is too harsh a word because we share the common need that NWA survive. NWA management is, and will forever be, our adversary. We compete with them for as large a slice of the corporate ?pie? as each side can get. If NWA management forces or convinces us to work for less, this automatically results in their slice of the pie being larger. Over the course of the last decade we have established unprecedented liaisons between NWA management and NWA ALPA. Two former NWA ALPA MEC Chairmen have been or are presently management pilots for NWA. If you agree that our relationship with NWA management is necessarily adversarial, I hope you will agree that former union leaders ?switching hats? and accepting management positions is detrimental to our cause.
What about the typical line pilot, the guy or gal who doesn?t ordinarily attend meetings or go to dinner with NWA management? I believe many NWA pilots consider themselves more closely aligned with NWA management than NWA labor. Consider the AMFA strike. At the outset, I acknowledge two important points. First, there was extreme animosity between AMFA and NWA management. Secondly, the rank and file AMFA member was poorly served by their union leadership. What did we NWA ALPA pilots do during this fight and did our actions serve us well?
The pay cuts we volunteered via Bridge 1 (which I voted for) more than paid for the mechanic scab academy that NWA created. When ALPA failed to demonstrate even token support for the AMFA strike we communicated to NWA management that we were ?on their side.? I?m not arguing that we should have unquestioningly honored the AMFA strike, but had we even threatened to honor the AMFA line for a day, even an hour, it might have forced both sides to return to the bargaining table. After ALPA assisted NWA management in crushing AMFA, Mark McClain did something he rarely did. He put on his NWA pilot uniform and attended a union ?solidarity? meeting with other NWA union groups (AMFA was not included). I believe this single event was the most hypocritical act any ALPA official has taken in the entire history of ALPA.
Why should any of us care that AMFA has been crushed? Ignore the ?moral? or union solidarity issue and think in terms of money. Crushing AMFA was not a ?good deal? for NWA management (although I?m sure they savored it) for the simple fact that NWA now spends far more money for far worse maintenance compared to the past. Additionally, NWA is the pariah of the industry. When NWA attempts to obtain a ?pool part? from another carrier, that part is mysteriously defective or ?missing? even though it was shown as ?available.? Regardless of whether or not the mechanic tasked with supplying NWA with the ?pool part? is AMFA or not, all union mechanics despise NWA. If AMFA agrees to end the strike (they are voting on it now) this will provide some relief to NWA, but we will always be remembered as the airline that crushed their mechanics.
Let?s say we?re lucky and AMFA does vote the end the strike. Will NWA realize the money savings that destroying AMFA promised? I doubt it, for two reasons. First, NWA basically operates a fleet of ?beaters.? I don?t say this to disparage NWA management; in fact, I admire them for having the oldest fleet in the industry. Thanks to Al and Gary, we?ll never have the money to operate a relatively ?new? fleet. Thus, we?ve got to keep our aged fleet and to successfully do that you need experienced mechanics. I?ll share two ?horror stories? dealing with scab mechanics and I?m sure you?ve got plenty of your own. One scab mechanic came into my cockpit with a sticker for the B autopilot. He could not find the autopilot engage switches! Another scab mechanic had a sticker for a bad CSD. He could not locate the Second Officer?s panel. NWA management?s destruction of AMFA is a perfect example of a pyrrhic victory.
Secondly, the loss of our experienced mechanics and the outsourcing of maintenance will continue to negatively impact NWA profit for years. Outsourcing maintenance may be the airline management ?rage? today (American Airlines being the lone exception to this ?monkey see, monkey do? approach.) but a day will come when ?in-sourcing? will be far more economical. The young mechanic contemplating which airline to work for will think twice before signing-on with NWA because NWA will long be known as the one who ?broke? their mechanics. NWA management was the one who put 25 year veterans, the ?old hands? who kept our fleet of ?beaters? flying, out on the street. For young mechanics starting their careers, NWA will be the airline of last resort. You and I as well as our fellow workers will ?pay? for NWA management?s ?lust? to crush AMFA. The NWA managers who orchestrated this slaughter will be long gone and they?ll be richly rewarded when they help themselves to millions of shares of stock in the ?new? NWA. Pilots will endure poorly maintained aircraft and low wages for years after their departure.
Let?s stop thinking like we?re part of the ?management team? at NWA. Let?s stop ?feeling their pain.? Let?s stop being fooled by management double-speak like ?Success Sharing.? I had a member of the UAL MEC in my jumpseat two months ago. He had just received his first ?Success Sharing? check from UAL. For a three month period it totaled $156. Most of us accrue at least fifty hour of actual flying per month. This comes out to a little over a buck an hour. We would be better off asking our passengers for tips! ?Success Sharing? is a great management tool for getting pilots NOT to write-up aircraft when they are broken, to release the brakes when the aircraft is NOT ready to depart, to fly fast so that the flight does NOT arrive late.
The same NWA management that many NWA pilots considered their ?partner? didn?t put one dime into our pension fund during years of record profits. I?m glad that the Pension Relief Legislation was enacted but let?s not forget who was responsible for our pension fund being on the brink of insolvency. NWA management is not our ?friend? or our ?partner.? At times the NWA pilot group appears to be a victim of the Stockholm Syndrome. We?re satisfied when NWA management beats us less frequently.
If you believe that having a pilot on the NWA Board of Directors has improved your career and ensured your pension, I?m not the representative you are looking for. If you believe that having former union representatives accept positions as NWA management pilots builds trust in our union, I?m not the representative you are looking for. If you?re looking for a representative who ?knows his place? who is comfortable with the fact that he is ?union labor,? who realizes that our ?partnership? with NWA management has resulted in an industry-lagging contract of extreme duration, a ?frozen? pension that remains at great risk and a divided, dispirited pilot group, vote for me. I cannot guarantee that the direction I want to lead our group will regain our lost pride but I know the path we?ve followed for the past decade had resulted in defeat and shame.
.
Where Do We Go From Here-Part Four
Can any NWA pilot honestly say, ?My career has been improved because there is a pilot on the NWA Board of Directors.? Can any NWA pilot honestly say, ?My pay rates are higher, my work rules better and my retirement more secure because my elected representatives are cognizant of NWA secrets that they cannot divulge to me.? I acknowledge that our situation might be worse absent a seat on the NWA BOD or the establishment of ?secrets.? After all, just as things can always be better, they can always be worse. I suggest we step back from the issue of ?better or worse? contract-wise and focus on whether or not a seat on the BOD or ?secrets? have made us stronger as a union.
NWA pilots hired prior to 1969 ?knew their place.? They realized that they were ?labor? not ?management.? They were not interested in ?leading? or ?owning? NWA. They focused on high pay rates, good benefits, a decent retirement and good work rules. Like so many NWA pilots I ?drank the kool-aid? that Gary Wilson and Al Cheechi offered after they orchestrated the leveraged buyout that resulted in the permanent financial crippling of NWA. In fact, those first years of give-backs at NWA were the happiest in my NWA career as I was a new A320 captain, proud to be a NWA pilot, delighted to be an enthusiastic partner in ?saving? NWA and building a ?secure? future for all of us. My euphoria abruptly ended with the 3% debacle and since then I?ve lived in the real world of ?us? versus ?them.?
So who or what is NWA management? Are they our enemy? I would argue that enemy is too harsh a word because we share the common need that NWA survive. NWA management is, and will forever be, our adversary. We compete with them for as large a slice of the corporate ?pie? as each side can get. If NWA management forces or convinces us to work for less, this automatically results in their slice of the pie being larger. Over the course of the last decade we have established unprecedented liaisons between NWA management and NWA ALPA. Two former NWA ALPA MEC Chairmen have been or are presently management pilots for NWA. If you agree that our relationship with NWA management is necessarily adversarial, I hope you will agree that former union leaders ?switching hats? and accepting management positions is detrimental to our cause.
What about the typical line pilot, the guy or gal who doesn?t ordinarily attend meetings or go to dinner with NWA management? I believe many NWA pilots consider themselves more closely aligned with NWA management than NWA labor. Consider the AMFA strike. At the outset, I acknowledge two important points. First, there was extreme animosity between AMFA and NWA management. Secondly, the rank and file AMFA member was poorly served by their union leadership. What did we NWA ALPA pilots do during this fight and did our actions serve us well?
The pay cuts we volunteered via Bridge 1 (which I voted for) more than paid for the mechanic scab academy that NWA created. When ALPA failed to demonstrate even token support for the AMFA strike we communicated to NWA management that we were ?on their side.? I?m not arguing that we should have unquestioningly honored the AMFA strike, but had we even threatened to honor the AMFA line for a day, even an hour, it might have forced both sides to return to the bargaining table. After ALPA assisted NWA management in crushing AMFA, Mark McClain did something he rarely did. He put on his NWA pilot uniform and attended a union ?solidarity? meeting with other NWA union groups (AMFA was not included). I believe this single event was the most hypocritical act any ALPA official has taken in the entire history of ALPA.
Why should any of us care that AMFA has been crushed? Ignore the ?moral? or union solidarity issue and think in terms of money. Crushing AMFA was not a ?good deal? for NWA management (although I?m sure they savored it) for the simple fact that NWA now spends far more money for far worse maintenance compared to the past. Additionally, NWA is the pariah of the industry. When NWA attempts to obtain a ?pool part? from another carrier, that part is mysteriously defective or ?missing? even though it was shown as ?available.? Regardless of whether or not the mechanic tasked with supplying NWA with the ?pool part? is AMFA or not, all union mechanics despise NWA. If AMFA agrees to end the strike (they are voting on it now) this will provide some relief to NWA, but we will always be remembered as the airline that crushed their mechanics.
Let?s say we?re lucky and AMFA does vote the end the strike. Will NWA realize the money savings that destroying AMFA promised? I doubt it, for two reasons. First, NWA basically operates a fleet of ?beaters.? I don?t say this to disparage NWA management; in fact, I admire them for having the oldest fleet in the industry. Thanks to Al and Gary, we?ll never have the money to operate a relatively ?new? fleet. Thus, we?ve got to keep our aged fleet and to successfully do that you need experienced mechanics. I?ll share two ?horror stories? dealing with scab mechanics and I?m sure you?ve got plenty of your own. One scab mechanic came into my cockpit with a sticker for the B autopilot. He could not find the autopilot engage switches! Another scab mechanic had a sticker for a bad CSD. He could not locate the Second Officer?s panel. NWA management?s destruction of AMFA is a perfect example of a pyrrhic victory.
Secondly, the loss of our experienced mechanics and the outsourcing of maintenance will continue to negatively impact NWA profit for years. Outsourcing maintenance may be the airline management ?rage? today (American Airlines being the lone exception to this ?monkey see, monkey do? approach.) but a day will come when ?in-sourcing? will be far more economical. The young mechanic contemplating which airline to work for will think twice before signing-on with NWA because NWA will long be known as the one who ?broke? their mechanics. NWA management was the one who put 25 year veterans, the ?old hands? who kept our fleet of ?beaters? flying, out on the street. For young mechanics starting their careers, NWA will be the airline of last resort. You and I as well as our fellow workers will ?pay? for NWA management?s ?lust? to crush AMFA. The NWA managers who orchestrated this slaughter will be long gone and they?ll be richly rewarded when they help themselves to millions of shares of stock in the ?new? NWA. Pilots will endure poorly maintained aircraft and low wages for years after their departure.
Let?s stop thinking like we?re part of the ?management team? at NWA. Let?s stop ?feeling their pain.? Let?s stop being fooled by management double-speak like ?Success Sharing.? I had a member of the UAL MEC in my jumpseat two months ago. He had just received his first ?Success Sharing? check from UAL. For a three month period it totaled $156. Most of us accrue at least fifty hour of actual flying per month. This comes out to a little over a buck an hour. We would be better off asking our passengers for tips! ?Success Sharing? is a great management tool for getting pilots NOT to write-up aircraft when they are broken, to release the brakes when the aircraft is NOT ready to depart, to fly fast so that the flight does NOT arrive late.
The same NWA management that many NWA pilots considered their ?partner? didn?t put one dime into our pension fund during years of record profits. I?m glad that the Pension Relief Legislation was enacted but let?s not forget who was responsible for our pension fund being on the brink of insolvency. NWA management is not our ?friend? or our ?partner.? At times the NWA pilot group appears to be a victim of the Stockholm Syndrome. We?re satisfied when NWA management beats us less frequently.
If you believe that having a pilot on the NWA Board of Directors has improved your career and ensured your pension, I?m not the representative you are looking for. If you believe that having former union representatives accept positions as NWA management pilots builds trust in our union, I?m not the representative you are looking for. If you?re looking for a representative who ?knows his place? who is comfortable with the fact that he is ?union labor,? who realizes that our ?partnership? with NWA management has resulted in an industry-lagging contract of extreme duration, a ?frozen? pension that remains at great risk and a divided, dispirited pilot group, vote for me. I cannot guarantee that the direction I want to lead our group will regain our lost pride but I know the path we?ve followed for the past decade had resulted in defeat and shame.
.
