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Time is a ticking....
US Airways pilots sharply divided as cost-cutting talks falter
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
ARLINGTON, Va. -- The top leaders of US Airways' pilots union yesterday angrily accused four Pennsylvania pilot representatives of "wasting opportunities" and delaying a deal that could help the airline avoid a possible bankruptcy in mid-September.
As critical cost-cutting negotiations continued between US Airways and its pilots, tensions flared into the open yesterday, with union members shouting at each other at a suburban Washington, D.C., hotel and blaming the lack of bargaining progress on the Pennsylvania pilots.
Pilots chairman Bill Pollock, told US Airways' 3,000 pilots, in a telephone message at 1:40 a.m. yesterday, ``You unequivocally deserve better." Pollack added, "We are running out of time and wasting opportunities."
His outburst was aimed at John Brookman, Fred Freshwater, Dan Von Bargen and John Crocker, four of the 12 members of the union's Master Executive Council, who have been the most resistant to making additional concessions to the company. Brookman and Freshwater represent pilots from Pittsburgh; Von Bargen and Crocker are from Philadelphia.
In a harshly worded letter released to their members, the eight other members of the Master Executive Council said the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia representatives will not allow the union's negotiating committee enough leeway to get a deal all pilots can ratify. They need to stop thinking about their own reputations and "start thinking of the familes and pilots they represent," the eight pilots said.
Brookman, Freshwater, Von Bargen and Crocker are central players in a intra-union battle that is threatening to derail further negotiations and make it more difficult for US Airways to avoid bankruptcy in the next few weeks. .....Because the four leaders represent large concentrations of US Airways pilots in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, they wield considerable power and can control any vote taken by the union's 12-member Master Executive Council. All four reflect the demographics of their membership, representing older pilots who have gone through two concessionary rounds in the last two years and want to preserve what is left of their retirement plan, which the company now wants to cut further.
Critics within the pilots union claim the four Pennsylvania representatives are ignoring the company's larger financial problems and are blocking any real bargaining with the company, which is seeking $295 million in new annual concessions. No progress was made over the weekend when negotiations resumed after a week of inaction. The two sides traded proposals that differed little from prior offers.
Eight other pilot leaders from Charlotte, Boston, Washington, D.C. and New York took out their frustration on the four Pennsylvania representatives yesterday, blaming them for the lack of momentum. "The politics of delay, obstruction, hindrance and thwarting of the process can only be viewed as obstructionism," the letter from the eight members of the Master Execucutive Council said.
Don Hollerbach, one of the union's contract negotiators, made the same point in a closed door meeting Friday night. The four Pennsylvania representatives set too many restrictions on the new talks, Hollerbach said in an outburst recalled by several pilots yesterday.
"Sending us in shackled sets us up for failure," Hollerbach said, as quoted by the eight pilots on the Master Executive Council. "Give us the weapons to do our job -- to get an agreement. Don't cut my leg off and ask me to go in to kick somebody's ass."
But the four pilot leaders from Pennsylvania maintain they are doing what is best for all pilots and their motives are being misrepresented. In fact, they pushed for a resumption of the negotiations with the company on Friday.
They told negotiators that they would authorize no further cuts in the retirement plan. They did give negotiators the authority to discuss changes in work rules that they say could close the gap between the two sides and result in savings of $295 million.
But Sunday night, when the union tried to give negotiators more leeway to negotiate the "best [agreement] that is achievable," the four Pennsylvania representatives slowed the process, asking for three recesses and eventually toughened the language. They crafted an amended resolution that passed unanimously yesterday, asking negotiators to resume talks but warning that if the company's proposal deviates much from the union's most recent offer, the chance of it failing "increases exponentially."
The four Pennsylvania representatives argue that the language needed to be stronger for the union to look less desperate, giving it more leverage for an eventual deal.
After almost three months of nearly nonstop negotiations, that delay was, for some, the last straw. Emotions spilled out into the hallway of the Key Bridge Marriott in suburban Washington D.C. yesterday morning, with one pilot confronting Von Bargen, calling his decisions a "travesty" and saying to him sarcastically, "Thanks for serving us."
"You know we're short of time, don't you Dan?" the pilot said to Von Bargen.
Another pilot suggested that Von Bargen wants the company to declare bankruptcy again.
Von Bargen expressed his anger at the suggestion, saying "I don't like people putting words in my mouth."
In a private meeting with union negotiators Sunday afternoon, US Airways CEO Bruce Lakefield acknowledged the rift within the union and said, according to Pollock, that he is "preparing for the worst."
The airline has said it needs $800 million in cuts from all unions, and $295 million from the pilots, to avoid its second bankruptcy in two years this fall.
(Dan Fitzpatrick can be reached at [email protected] or 412-263-1752.)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04244/370556.stm
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US Airways pilots sharply divided as cost-cutting talks falter
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
ARLINGTON, Va. -- The top leaders of US Airways' pilots union yesterday angrily accused four Pennsylvania pilot representatives of "wasting opportunities" and delaying a deal that could help the airline avoid a possible bankruptcy in mid-September.
As critical cost-cutting negotiations continued between US Airways and its pilots, tensions flared into the open yesterday, with union members shouting at each other at a suburban Washington, D.C., hotel and blaming the lack of bargaining progress on the Pennsylvania pilots.
Pilots chairman Bill Pollock, told US Airways' 3,000 pilots, in a telephone message at 1:40 a.m. yesterday, ``You unequivocally deserve better." Pollack added, "We are running out of time and wasting opportunities."
His outburst was aimed at John Brookman, Fred Freshwater, Dan Von Bargen and John Crocker, four of the 12 members of the union's Master Executive Council, who have been the most resistant to making additional concessions to the company. Brookman and Freshwater represent pilots from Pittsburgh; Von Bargen and Crocker are from Philadelphia.
In a harshly worded letter released to their members, the eight other members of the Master Executive Council said the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia representatives will not allow the union's negotiating committee enough leeway to get a deal all pilots can ratify. They need to stop thinking about their own reputations and "start thinking of the familes and pilots they represent," the eight pilots said.
Brookman, Freshwater, Von Bargen and Crocker are central players in a intra-union battle that is threatening to derail further negotiations and make it more difficult for US Airways to avoid bankruptcy in the next few weeks. .....Because the four leaders represent large concentrations of US Airways pilots in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, they wield considerable power and can control any vote taken by the union's 12-member Master Executive Council. All four reflect the demographics of their membership, representing older pilots who have gone through two concessionary rounds in the last two years and want to preserve what is left of their retirement plan, which the company now wants to cut further.
Critics within the pilots union claim the four Pennsylvania representatives are ignoring the company's larger financial problems and are blocking any real bargaining with the company, which is seeking $295 million in new annual concessions. No progress was made over the weekend when negotiations resumed after a week of inaction. The two sides traded proposals that differed little from prior offers.
Eight other pilot leaders from Charlotte, Boston, Washington, D.C. and New York took out their frustration on the four Pennsylvania representatives yesterday, blaming them for the lack of momentum. "The politics of delay, obstruction, hindrance and thwarting of the process can only be viewed as obstructionism," the letter from the eight members of the Master Execucutive Council said.
Don Hollerbach, one of the union's contract negotiators, made the same point in a closed door meeting Friday night. The four Pennsylvania representatives set too many restrictions on the new talks, Hollerbach said in an outburst recalled by several pilots yesterday.
"Sending us in shackled sets us up for failure," Hollerbach said, as quoted by the eight pilots on the Master Executive Council. "Give us the weapons to do our job -- to get an agreement. Don't cut my leg off and ask me to go in to kick somebody's ass."
But the four pilot leaders from Pennsylvania maintain they are doing what is best for all pilots and their motives are being misrepresented. In fact, they pushed for a resumption of the negotiations with the company on Friday.
They told negotiators that they would authorize no further cuts in the retirement plan. They did give negotiators the authority to discuss changes in work rules that they say could close the gap between the two sides and result in savings of $295 million.
But Sunday night, when the union tried to give negotiators more leeway to negotiate the "best [agreement] that is achievable," the four Pennsylvania representatives slowed the process, asking for three recesses and eventually toughened the language. They crafted an amended resolution that passed unanimously yesterday, asking negotiators to resume talks but warning that if the company's proposal deviates much from the union's most recent offer, the chance of it failing "increases exponentially."
The four Pennsylvania representatives argue that the language needed to be stronger for the union to look less desperate, giving it more leverage for an eventual deal.
After almost three months of nearly nonstop negotiations, that delay was, for some, the last straw. Emotions spilled out into the hallway of the Key Bridge Marriott in suburban Washington D.C. yesterday morning, with one pilot confronting Von Bargen, calling his decisions a "travesty" and saying to him sarcastically, "Thanks for serving us."
"You know we're short of time, don't you Dan?" the pilot said to Von Bargen.
Another pilot suggested that Von Bargen wants the company to declare bankruptcy again.
Von Bargen expressed his anger at the suggestion, saying "I don't like people putting words in my mouth."
In a private meeting with union negotiators Sunday afternoon, US Airways CEO Bruce Lakefield acknowledged the rift within the union and said, according to Pollock, that he is "preparing for the worst."
The airline has said it needs $800 million in cuts from all unions, and $295 million from the pilots, to avoid its second bankruptcy in two years this fall.
(Dan Fitzpatrick can be reached at [email protected] or 412-263-1752.)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04244/370556.stm
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