I took the Holly Hegeman part out because I think it is copyrighted material.
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USAPA Members for an Industry Leading Contract "UMILC"
E-Newletter Volume I, Issue 2
October 26, 2010
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SWA Pilots get unexpected raise due to profit.
According to a recent SWAPA news release, the pilots of Southwest Airlines are due to receive a 2010 pay raise that was unexpected due to the position that the economy was unlikely to improve at the time the last SWAPA contract was negotiated:
"Originally valued during contract negotiations as a likely zero percent raise due to the economy and Company performance at the time, this wage increase arrives as a minor surprise and a sign of a changing economic climate." According to Capt. Carl Kuwitzky, SWAPA President: "This raise is good news for both our pilot group and Southwest Airlines. The pilots have been willing to tie our pay increases to the success of Southwest Airlines. Our pilots showed great leadership and confidence in our Company and we are excited about a future with an improving economy which allows our Company to maintain its profitability. The pilots, like all Southwest employees, hope that positive announcements such as the one from the Company today signals an end to difficult times and portends a bright, growth-filled future ahead."
With this recent 3% increase, another projected 2% increase for 2011, and another possible 3% increase in 2012, the SWA pilots (and thus the industry average wage) gets even further and further ahead over our LOA 93 wages.
Meanwhile, USAPA President Mike Cleary and the USAPA BPR have a formed a special committee designed to look for loopholes to screw the west pilots out of their share of profit sharing. While some of us might agree that the 2005 Transition Agreement unfairly "grants the pilots of US Airways and America West Airlines profit sharing", we think it is very short sighted of the BPR to even attempt such a folly.
Of course the BPR neglects the small fact that the company writes the checks and it is unlikely that the company, after having paid the pilots using the method agreed to by both ALPA MECs, would be stupid enough to agree to a new USAPA approved method that transfers all of the payments to the east pilots at the expense of the west pilots. To say the least, any pilot group would be incensed at such a ploy, and the resulting work action and bad press for the company and USAPA would be horrendous. The divide between the two groups would deepen and perhaps spark a jumpseat war or worse putting pilots at risk on both sides of the river.
In UMILC's opinion, such a move by the BPR would put the ability of USAPA to get a joint contract that compensates us fairly even further out of reach than it is today and thus would be a short-sighted move.
ALPA Elections; CAPA Elections; Goodbye Prater!
Well John Prater is a one term ALPA President.
Captain Prater, elected by the partial support of some of the US Airways and AWA MECs, was not even a close front runner in the recent ALPA elections. Instead, by an overwhelming margin, the reps elected Delta MEC Chairman Lee Moak as ALPA President. Moak's crowning achievement was of course to engineer a leading contract for the pilots of DAL and NWA (including a rich equity stake) BEFORE a seniority list was published.
In an interesting and perhaps familiar turn of events, the Continental MEC Chairman was up for First VP and was washed out by some political maneuvering by the United MEC and some of the CAL MEC's own members in favor of an Alaska pilot.
CAPA - the Coalition of Airline Pilot Associations had their own elections recently, and despite being a relative newcomer to CAPA, USAPA thought they could get a key position but Mr. Cleary and USAPA suffered their own defeat. Of course USAPA President Mike Cleary wasted no time in gathering up his marbles and declared in a recent hotline that USAPA might have to 'reconsider' its' membership in CAPA.
In UMILC's opinion, whether at ALPA, USAPA, CAPA or even at our local council level, cheap theatrical politics amongst pilot factions have little to do with getting a contract for our members. Get the job done for your members or go home and let someone else do the work.
Results of UMILC Pilot Poll
Below is a link to click on to see the results of the first UMILC poll. Two things arise from this poll of over 600 USAPA members (approximately 51% west and 49% east):
1) By an overwhelming majority, close to 90% of the pilots responding think USAPA is at least 2 years away from a contract, and
2) By an almost equal majority, over 80% of the pilots think USAPA President Mike Cleary has NOT been an effective leader. Put another way, President Cleary's approval rating is only 14%!
Keep in mind that although we had a large turnout, the poll is not scientific because it did not involve a random call center. That said, an average poll conducted by the Wilson Center under ALPA polled as little as 100 pilots at a time.
What do we take away from this?
Most pilots get that USAPA is nowhere close to a new contract and we will continue to fall further and further behind the rest of the pilots in the industry.
USAPA and Mike Cleary Survey
The Road Ahead
Recently, the USAPA Negotiating Committee ("NAC") produced a colorful, but rather lacking brochure on the obvious portrayal of management making hay while our pay sucks. Welcome to the airline industry. Clearly we are at the bottom of the industry and this fact is not lost on anyone.
Hey NAC - we all get it. We are getting screwed! We got it already! We see it live and in person everytime we look at our checking accounts on payday.
In his earning conference call with Wall Street, Mr. Parker was careful to outline the importance of his labor cost advantage. He makes record earnings and record bonuses while we squabble over profit sharing. SWA pilots get a 3% pay raise on top of the best pay in the industry, but we continue to be stuck while this mess plays out in court for years, whilst all the time the company executives are barely able to conceal their glee and love it while we continue to do stupid things to each other and remain divided.
The big question for Mr. Cleary and the NAC is: What are you doing to get us closer and not further away from a contract? From our perspective, we see nothing but harm being done and we are moving further and further apart and thus further from a contract.
[Holly Hegeman part removed here]
Well, we know many won't and don't agree with all of Holly's positions on some things here obviously, but she is dead-on about Lee Moak and ALPA's ability to course correct to make the Delta-NWA merger a success for pilots after watching our failures. The question is, will ALPA be able to do the same for UAL and CAL or will they follow our path to nowhere?
Lee Moak produced actual results for pilots and was promoted.
Conversely, John Prater failed to produce anything but rhetoric and was fired.
Are you paying attention Mike Cleary?
That's it for this edition. Thanks for reading and thanks to all those who participated in our survey.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This e-newsletter is distributed by USAPA Members for an Industry Leading Contract in accordance with Title I of the LMRDA:
TITLE I -- BILL OF RIGHTS OF MEMBERS OF LABOR ORGANIZATIONS
Bill of Rights
(29 U.S.C. 411)
SEC. 101. (a)(1) EQUAL RIGHTS.-- Every member of a labor organization shall have equal rights and privileges within such organization to nominate candidates, to vote in elections or referendums of the labor organization, to attend membership meetings and to participate in the deliberations and voting upon the business of such meetings, subject to reasonable rules and regulations in such organization's constitution and bylaws.
(2) FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ASSEMBLY.-- Every member of any labor organization shall have the right to meet and assemble freely with other members; and to express any views, arguments, or opinions; and to express at meetings of the labor organization his views, upon candidates in an election of the labor organization or upon any business properly before the meeting, subject to the organization's established and reasonable rules pertaining to the conduct of meetings: Provided, That nothing herein shall be construed to impair the right of a labor organization to adopt and enforce reasonable rules as to the responsibility of every member toward the organization as an institution and to his refraining from conduct that would interfere with its performance of its legal or contractual obligations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
USAPA Members for an Industry Leading Contract "UMILC"
E-Newletter Volume I, Issue 2
October 26, 2010
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SWA Pilots get unexpected raise due to profit.
According to a recent SWAPA news release, the pilots of Southwest Airlines are due to receive a 2010 pay raise that was unexpected due to the position that the economy was unlikely to improve at the time the last SWAPA contract was negotiated:
"Originally valued during contract negotiations as a likely zero percent raise due to the economy and Company performance at the time, this wage increase arrives as a minor surprise and a sign of a changing economic climate." According to Capt. Carl Kuwitzky, SWAPA President: "This raise is good news for both our pilot group and Southwest Airlines. The pilots have been willing to tie our pay increases to the success of Southwest Airlines. Our pilots showed great leadership and confidence in our Company and we are excited about a future with an improving economy which allows our Company to maintain its profitability. The pilots, like all Southwest employees, hope that positive announcements such as the one from the Company today signals an end to difficult times and portends a bright, growth-filled future ahead."
With this recent 3% increase, another projected 2% increase for 2011, and another possible 3% increase in 2012, the SWA pilots (and thus the industry average wage) gets even further and further ahead over our LOA 93 wages.
Meanwhile, USAPA President Mike Cleary and the USAPA BPR have a formed a special committee designed to look for loopholes to screw the west pilots out of their share of profit sharing. While some of us might agree that the 2005 Transition Agreement unfairly "grants the pilots of US Airways and America West Airlines profit sharing", we think it is very short sighted of the BPR to even attempt such a folly.
Of course the BPR neglects the small fact that the company writes the checks and it is unlikely that the company, after having paid the pilots using the method agreed to by both ALPA MECs, would be stupid enough to agree to a new USAPA approved method that transfers all of the payments to the east pilots at the expense of the west pilots. To say the least, any pilot group would be incensed at such a ploy, and the resulting work action and bad press for the company and USAPA would be horrendous. The divide between the two groups would deepen and perhaps spark a jumpseat war or worse putting pilots at risk on both sides of the river.
In UMILC's opinion, such a move by the BPR would put the ability of USAPA to get a joint contract that compensates us fairly even further out of reach than it is today and thus would be a short-sighted move.
ALPA Elections; CAPA Elections; Goodbye Prater!
Well John Prater is a one term ALPA President.
Captain Prater, elected by the partial support of some of the US Airways and AWA MECs, was not even a close front runner in the recent ALPA elections. Instead, by an overwhelming margin, the reps elected Delta MEC Chairman Lee Moak as ALPA President. Moak's crowning achievement was of course to engineer a leading contract for the pilots of DAL and NWA (including a rich equity stake) BEFORE a seniority list was published.
In an interesting and perhaps familiar turn of events, the Continental MEC Chairman was up for First VP and was washed out by some political maneuvering by the United MEC and some of the CAL MEC's own members in favor of an Alaska pilot.
CAPA - the Coalition of Airline Pilot Associations had their own elections recently, and despite being a relative newcomer to CAPA, USAPA thought they could get a key position but Mr. Cleary and USAPA suffered their own defeat. Of course USAPA President Mike Cleary wasted no time in gathering up his marbles and declared in a recent hotline that USAPA might have to 'reconsider' its' membership in CAPA.
In UMILC's opinion, whether at ALPA, USAPA, CAPA or even at our local council level, cheap theatrical politics amongst pilot factions have little to do with getting a contract for our members. Get the job done for your members or go home and let someone else do the work.
Results of UMILC Pilot Poll
Below is a link to click on to see the results of the first UMILC poll. Two things arise from this poll of over 600 USAPA members (approximately 51% west and 49% east):
1) By an overwhelming majority, close to 90% of the pilots responding think USAPA is at least 2 years away from a contract, and
2) By an almost equal majority, over 80% of the pilots think USAPA President Mike Cleary has NOT been an effective leader. Put another way, President Cleary's approval rating is only 14%!
Keep in mind that although we had a large turnout, the poll is not scientific because it did not involve a random call center. That said, an average poll conducted by the Wilson Center under ALPA polled as little as 100 pilots at a time.
What do we take away from this?
Most pilots get that USAPA is nowhere close to a new contract and we will continue to fall further and further behind the rest of the pilots in the industry.
USAPA and Mike Cleary Survey
The Road Ahead
Recently, the USAPA Negotiating Committee ("NAC") produced a colorful, but rather lacking brochure on the obvious portrayal of management making hay while our pay sucks. Welcome to the airline industry. Clearly we are at the bottom of the industry and this fact is not lost on anyone.
Hey NAC - we all get it. We are getting screwed! We got it already! We see it live and in person everytime we look at our checking accounts on payday.
In his earning conference call with Wall Street, Mr. Parker was careful to outline the importance of his labor cost advantage. He makes record earnings and record bonuses while we squabble over profit sharing. SWA pilots get a 3% pay raise on top of the best pay in the industry, but we continue to be stuck while this mess plays out in court for years, whilst all the time the company executives are barely able to conceal their glee and love it while we continue to do stupid things to each other and remain divided.
The big question for Mr. Cleary and the NAC is: What are you doing to get us closer and not further away from a contract? From our perspective, we see nothing but harm being done and we are moving further and further apart and thus further from a contract.
[Holly Hegeman part removed here]
Well, we know many won't and don't agree with all of Holly's positions on some things here obviously, but she is dead-on about Lee Moak and ALPA's ability to course correct to make the Delta-NWA merger a success for pilots after watching our failures. The question is, will ALPA be able to do the same for UAL and CAL or will they follow our path to nowhere?
Lee Moak produced actual results for pilots and was promoted.
Conversely, John Prater failed to produce anything but rhetoric and was fired.
Are you paying attention Mike Cleary?
That's it for this edition. Thanks for reading and thanks to all those who participated in our survey.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This e-newsletter is distributed by USAPA Members for an Industry Leading Contract in accordance with Title I of the LMRDA:
TITLE I -- BILL OF RIGHTS OF MEMBERS OF LABOR ORGANIZATIONS
Bill of Rights
(29 U.S.C. 411)
SEC. 101. (a)(1) EQUAL RIGHTS.-- Every member of a labor organization shall have equal rights and privileges within such organization to nominate candidates, to vote in elections or referendums of the labor organization, to attend membership meetings and to participate in the deliberations and voting upon the business of such meetings, subject to reasonable rules and regulations in such organization's constitution and bylaws.
(2) FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ASSEMBLY.-- Every member of any labor organization shall have the right to meet and assemble freely with other members; and to express any views, arguments, or opinions; and to express at meetings of the labor organization his views, upon candidates in an election of the labor organization or upon any business properly before the meeting, subject to the organization's established and reasonable rules pertaining to the conduct of meetings: Provided, That nothing herein shall be construed to impair the right of a labor organization to adopt and enforce reasonable rules as to the responsibility of every member toward the organization as an institution and to his refraining from conduct that would interfere with its performance of its legal or contractual obligations.