JoeMerchant
ASA pilot
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2005
- Posts
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USAPA Letter from former ALPA EVP
10Apr2008)
Fellow pilots,
We received just this morning the following letter which we thought you might find interesting. We present it here unedited.
April 10, 2008
Fellow US Airways Pilots,
As the election for union representation draws to a close, I thought I would share some of my experiences on ALPA and thoughts on an election that will affect you and your families for years to come. I spent much of my career volunteering on behalf of my fellow pilots. Having served 7 ½ years as Captain Representative and LEC Chair and a term as an EVP on the ALPA executive council in the 1980's gave me much insight on the workings of ALPA.
It was my own feeling that Pilot unity was on the down swing in the 70's as airlines were starting to compete on more routes and of course this greatly accelerated in 1978 at the turn of deregulation. It was a great disappointment when ALPA did not seize the opportunity to institute a National Seniority list and some method of National contract provisions to counter the effects of deregulation. For all intents and purposes, true brotherhood was dead in this profession. All though many claims to the contrary are made and you see it every monthly ALPA magazine, any system where one man's gain comes at another's expense will evolve into a battle of competing interests. It has been evidenced many times over the last 30 years, whether it be the demise of Braniff or PAN Am, or the failure of Eastern or debacle at Continental. None of these pilots were protected and in the example of the latter two, fellow ALPA pilots marched to work through their picket lines. In the end, despite claims of National Affiliation, each pilot group in ALPA is in competition with each other due to the nature of our industry. None of the devices like national seniority are in place that prevent it.
Nor did ALPA fundamentally change its style of negotiations in the face of the whole scale industry change that came with deregulation and kept utilizing pilot negotiators, while the airlines all moved toward high paid, hired guns to negotiate for them. Several times during my tenure as one of your MEC members, I advocated to no avail of hiring outside law firms to negotiate on behalf of the pilots but was unable to achieve this end. A problem that would not exist in an independent union with a Constitution that mandated it. ALPA's scheme of pattern bargaining has been a dismal failure. It's attempt to create similar contracts amongst its largest members has worked in creating conditions when considering inflation where pilots work today in terms of pay, benefits, work rules and retirement for less than 50% than they did 20 years ago. Pattern bargaining has no counter to the competitive effects of airline competition, poor management, or the economic down cycle. It is not surprising that independent unions like American, Southwest, UPS, or even AirTran have contracts that exceed those of ALPA legacy carriers. The pilots of these carriers have direct ownership of their union all the way to the top and receive representation and service that is geared 100% to their members.
In my early career, I experienced several disappointments in the representation received by ALPA. In 1967, with just a couple years on the property, I witnessed the formation of the first Allegheny code share, utilizing another companies aircraft and pilots not on our seniority list. The structure of ALPA is supposed to be both local and National with the national structure looking out for the best interest of the profession. It was hard to fathom, that the president of a union would knowingly sign a contract that allowed pilot work to be outsourced creating a whipsaw environment. Where was ALPA? In the decades that followed, they spent much of their time organizing these carriers to expand their dues base and little of their effort to reverse course or even negotiate contracts that were worthy of professional airline pilots at the regionals where outsourced work went. Again in the early seventies more work was outsourced as the airline parked CV-580's to combat high fuel prices. Some of this flying was outsourced and rather than ensure the flying was covered by pilots on our list covered and by our contract the Nord program was created. A so called soft landing giving opportunity for our fellow furloughed pilots to fly these aircraft, carrying the same passengers as before but for inferior pay and benefits. It must sound eerily reminiscent of recent years. Where was ALPA?
When I took office in Pittsburgh in 1983, many of these feelings were expressed in local LEC meetings. At that time, many meetings had several hundred pilots attending. Our pilots had witnessed the failure of ALPA to change with deregulation, the failure to support the Air Traffic Controllers strike, the downfall of Braniff, and the turmoil beginning at Continental. Many pilots were very vocal in questioning ALPA's ineffectiveness to deal with these major crises and wondered what was the purpose of supporting and being tied to a multi-company union when there was no unity and no collective will to tackle the changing environment. I agreed and was always very candid. Even as a ALPA Captain Representative and then the second largest LEC in ALPA, I told the pilot group there was better to be had independently but someone would have to take charge an do something. While I served I would do the best that I could for change in ALPA but my primary goal was to preserve, enhance, and protect the contract. In 1985, the B-Scale was instituted, yet another divisive failure pitting pilots against each other. I fought hard against it and looked to ALPA for support but could find none, either local or national. Where was ALPA?
I served time as an ALPA executive vice president on the executive council from 1986-1988. I tried to advocate on many issues such as National seniority, reversing outsourcing and bringing express pilots on our lists, and a coherent merger policy. The lack of any political will to tackle anything that would be politically charged was disheartening and to witness it in the environment of the spending largess off the backs of rank and file pilots left a bitter taste. It was an elephant and ant problem, rife with conflicts of interest that surely still exists today and the people in office were doing quite fine for themselves and liked the atmosphere of three piece suits and briefcases. The majority of my time serving as LEC chair and EVP, I flew my time on the line. It was very apparent to me that in order for a rep to retain advocacy for his fellow pilots, he had to be walking in their shoes and make himself available as possible for face to face interaction. From first hand experiences at working within ALPA it was clear that the upside down pyramid, was anything but and would as such have a corrupting influence. The National structure created a environment where mistaken allegiances, career seeking, and forgetting your roots thrive.
While serving as an EVP, a group of our local US Airways pilots made a presentation to the ALPA executive council to make a priority of recapturing code share flying by having the pilots placed on our seniority list. The idea was taken “under advisement” and met with no success. Yet when questions were proffered on how a national union representing mainline and code share pilots with clear competing interests could do so with any integrity, no answers were ever offered.
With regards to merger policy, while serving on the national merger committee in 1986 an effort was mad to have DOH inserted. It took a broad coalition of many of the represented carriers to effect that change. It was a change that was opposed by several of the larger ALPA carriers. The hope was as mergers were quickly becoming a part of the airline industry a non-arbitrary method of integration could be supported so ultimately our efforts could remain on enhancing our careers instead of yet more divisive infighting and competing interests. Sadly DOH was under assault from the beginning and change was attempted at the next BOD in 88. After I left office it was changed in 1991 to what exists today and created the unholy Nicolau award. An award by its very nature that attacks longevity which is the very foundation of seniority in a union environment. This surely drives home the point that in a union of multiple carriers without true national seniority provisions, that nothing is sacred or bedrock and everything is subject to change at the whim of the elephants of the day.
I have two sons today that are airline pilots, both for ALPA carriers and I still care about the profession very much. I have counseled them both on the ill affects of ALPA representation and the benefits to be gained by independent representation. Following this election, many thing have already been illustrated that portend a better future with USAPA. A group of pilot volunteers flying full schedules have been able to effectively replace all ALPA insurances and services, draft a constitution that limits abuses of power by leadership and utilize professional negotiators. They did on your behalf what it takes hundreds of six digit or near six digit salaried personnel at ALPA national do. Doing this under the assault of the ALPA political machine speaks volumes to what you can achieve collectively.
10Apr2008)
Fellow pilots,
We received just this morning the following letter which we thought you might find interesting. We present it here unedited.
April 10, 2008
Fellow US Airways Pilots,
As the election for union representation draws to a close, I thought I would share some of my experiences on ALPA and thoughts on an election that will affect you and your families for years to come. I spent much of my career volunteering on behalf of my fellow pilots. Having served 7 ½ years as Captain Representative and LEC Chair and a term as an EVP on the ALPA executive council in the 1980's gave me much insight on the workings of ALPA.
It was my own feeling that Pilot unity was on the down swing in the 70's as airlines were starting to compete on more routes and of course this greatly accelerated in 1978 at the turn of deregulation. It was a great disappointment when ALPA did not seize the opportunity to institute a National Seniority list and some method of National contract provisions to counter the effects of deregulation. For all intents and purposes, true brotherhood was dead in this profession. All though many claims to the contrary are made and you see it every monthly ALPA magazine, any system where one man's gain comes at another's expense will evolve into a battle of competing interests. It has been evidenced many times over the last 30 years, whether it be the demise of Braniff or PAN Am, or the failure of Eastern or debacle at Continental. None of these pilots were protected and in the example of the latter two, fellow ALPA pilots marched to work through their picket lines. In the end, despite claims of National Affiliation, each pilot group in ALPA is in competition with each other due to the nature of our industry. None of the devices like national seniority are in place that prevent it.
Nor did ALPA fundamentally change its style of negotiations in the face of the whole scale industry change that came with deregulation and kept utilizing pilot negotiators, while the airlines all moved toward high paid, hired guns to negotiate for them. Several times during my tenure as one of your MEC members, I advocated to no avail of hiring outside law firms to negotiate on behalf of the pilots but was unable to achieve this end. A problem that would not exist in an independent union with a Constitution that mandated it. ALPA's scheme of pattern bargaining has been a dismal failure. It's attempt to create similar contracts amongst its largest members has worked in creating conditions when considering inflation where pilots work today in terms of pay, benefits, work rules and retirement for less than 50% than they did 20 years ago. Pattern bargaining has no counter to the competitive effects of airline competition, poor management, or the economic down cycle. It is not surprising that independent unions like American, Southwest, UPS, or even AirTran have contracts that exceed those of ALPA legacy carriers. The pilots of these carriers have direct ownership of their union all the way to the top and receive representation and service that is geared 100% to their members.
In my early career, I experienced several disappointments in the representation received by ALPA. In 1967, with just a couple years on the property, I witnessed the formation of the first Allegheny code share, utilizing another companies aircraft and pilots not on our seniority list. The structure of ALPA is supposed to be both local and National with the national structure looking out for the best interest of the profession. It was hard to fathom, that the president of a union would knowingly sign a contract that allowed pilot work to be outsourced creating a whipsaw environment. Where was ALPA? In the decades that followed, they spent much of their time organizing these carriers to expand their dues base and little of their effort to reverse course or even negotiate contracts that were worthy of professional airline pilots at the regionals where outsourced work went. Again in the early seventies more work was outsourced as the airline parked CV-580's to combat high fuel prices. Some of this flying was outsourced and rather than ensure the flying was covered by pilots on our list covered and by our contract the Nord program was created. A so called soft landing giving opportunity for our fellow furloughed pilots to fly these aircraft, carrying the same passengers as before but for inferior pay and benefits. It must sound eerily reminiscent of recent years. Where was ALPA?
When I took office in Pittsburgh in 1983, many of these feelings were expressed in local LEC meetings. At that time, many meetings had several hundred pilots attending. Our pilots had witnessed the failure of ALPA to change with deregulation, the failure to support the Air Traffic Controllers strike, the downfall of Braniff, and the turmoil beginning at Continental. Many pilots were very vocal in questioning ALPA's ineffectiveness to deal with these major crises and wondered what was the purpose of supporting and being tied to a multi-company union when there was no unity and no collective will to tackle the changing environment. I agreed and was always very candid. Even as a ALPA Captain Representative and then the second largest LEC in ALPA, I told the pilot group there was better to be had independently but someone would have to take charge an do something. While I served I would do the best that I could for change in ALPA but my primary goal was to preserve, enhance, and protect the contract. In 1985, the B-Scale was instituted, yet another divisive failure pitting pilots against each other. I fought hard against it and looked to ALPA for support but could find none, either local or national. Where was ALPA?
I served time as an ALPA executive vice president on the executive council from 1986-1988. I tried to advocate on many issues such as National seniority, reversing outsourcing and bringing express pilots on our lists, and a coherent merger policy. The lack of any political will to tackle anything that would be politically charged was disheartening and to witness it in the environment of the spending largess off the backs of rank and file pilots left a bitter taste. It was an elephant and ant problem, rife with conflicts of interest that surely still exists today and the people in office were doing quite fine for themselves and liked the atmosphere of three piece suits and briefcases. The majority of my time serving as LEC chair and EVP, I flew my time on the line. It was very apparent to me that in order for a rep to retain advocacy for his fellow pilots, he had to be walking in their shoes and make himself available as possible for face to face interaction. From first hand experiences at working within ALPA it was clear that the upside down pyramid, was anything but and would as such have a corrupting influence. The National structure created a environment where mistaken allegiances, career seeking, and forgetting your roots thrive.
While serving as an EVP, a group of our local US Airways pilots made a presentation to the ALPA executive council to make a priority of recapturing code share flying by having the pilots placed on our seniority list. The idea was taken “under advisement” and met with no success. Yet when questions were proffered on how a national union representing mainline and code share pilots with clear competing interests could do so with any integrity, no answers were ever offered.
With regards to merger policy, while serving on the national merger committee in 1986 an effort was mad to have DOH inserted. It took a broad coalition of many of the represented carriers to effect that change. It was a change that was opposed by several of the larger ALPA carriers. The hope was as mergers were quickly becoming a part of the airline industry a non-arbitrary method of integration could be supported so ultimately our efforts could remain on enhancing our careers instead of yet more divisive infighting and competing interests. Sadly DOH was under assault from the beginning and change was attempted at the next BOD in 88. After I left office it was changed in 1991 to what exists today and created the unholy Nicolau award. An award by its very nature that attacks longevity which is the very foundation of seniority in a union environment. This surely drives home the point that in a union of multiple carriers without true national seniority provisions, that nothing is sacred or bedrock and everything is subject to change at the whim of the elephants of the day.
I have two sons today that are airline pilots, both for ALPA carriers and I still care about the profession very much. I have counseled them both on the ill affects of ALPA representation and the benefits to be gained by independent representation. Following this election, many thing have already been illustrated that portend a better future with USAPA. A group of pilot volunteers flying full schedules have been able to effectively replace all ALPA insurances and services, draft a constitution that limits abuses of power by leadership and utilize professional negotiators. They did on your behalf what it takes hundreds of six digit or near six digit salaried personnel at ALPA national do. Doing this under the assault of the ALPA political machine speaks volumes to what you can achieve collectively.
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