This is John Prater with the BOD Update on March 12, 2010.
On Tuesday, I addressed Wall Street investors at the J.P. Morgan Chase 2010 Aviation, Transportation, and Defense Conference in New York City. During my remarks, I explained our union’s strategic plan for promoting sound government policies that will make our industry healthy and stable in the future. From modernizing the National Airspace System and establishing one level of safety and security for all airlines, to creating rational energy and transportation policies and protecting our pilots’ flying during international joint ventures, I laid out the vision we created for the future of this union and for the recovery that our pilots have earned.
The conference drew more than 1,000 institutional and credit investors from around the globe, and I’m proud to say that for the fourth year in a row ALPA was the only pilots’ union that was invited to address this important annual event alongside the CEOs and managements of our industry. (my emphasis)
On the Hill, ALPA hailed Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.), Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine), and Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) for introducing H.R.4788 this week, a bill that directs the Department of Transportation to make sure that new revenue-sharing agreements between U.S. and foreign airlines benefit U.S. airline workers as well as their airlines.
With international revenue-sharing agreements threatening to make a bad situation worse, our union lobbied hard for this legislation, which protects the U.S. workers whose dedication and professionalism have helped to build the airlines that participate in international alliances. On Wednesday, I sent a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives, urging them to co-sponsor the legislation. Captain Wendy Morse, UAL MEC Chairman, and I met with Senator Dorgan to brief the Chairman of the Senate Aviation Subcommittee on the threat of outsourcing our members’ jobs and the intent of the ALPA proposed legislation.
This legislation will establish basic requirements to ensure that U.S. airlines entering into international revenue-sharing agreements conduct a proportionate amount of the flying. A U.S. airline can share revenue with a foreign airline, but it would be based on the amount of flying each airline performs. Following our meeting with Senator Dorgan, I met with the Secretary of Labor and the Deputy Secretary of Transportation to review this immediate outsourcing threat to our United pilots and requested their support for our efforts to stop this job-destroying tactic.
Last week I told you about our meetings with Vice President Biden and that I spoke with him about the threats of international outsourcing to our members. I was gratified when I watched President Obama, in a speech
Let’s be clear here. This is not a United pilots fight. It is an ALPA fight. Should United succeed with their attempt to outsource our jobs to foreign carriers, how soon do you think it will be before some other management is trying the same maneuver or complaining they can’t compete unless they have cost concessions? I would ask that each MEC recruit volunteers to assist us in the days ahead. On March 17 in Chicago, there will be a demonstration by United pilots. On March 25 and [email protected].
On Wednesday, the long-awaited FAA Reauthorization bill, S.1451, was brought to the Senate floor for consideration. In addition to funding day-to-day operations of the FAA and our nation’s airspace system, it provides a critical down payment toward modernization. Long-term, stable funding of the nation’s airspace and air traffic control infrastructure is essential for safety, capacity, and efficiency gains that are needed to modernize the aviation system. We expect the Senate to be on this bill for at least a week, since there are over 80 amendments pending, some of which are totally irrelevant to the legislation.
Call to Action we put out last week on this onerous legislation. Over 6,700 pilots from all ALPA carriers and from all 50 states e-mailed and/or wrote their senators about the DeMint bill, which would allow using cockpit voice recorders for discipline purposes.
On Friday afternoon, the Government Affairs Department and I conducted a conference call with our pilot volunteers who serve as legislative coordinators, as well as the members of the ALPA-PAC Steering Committee. We briefed them on what is going on right now in Congress and what we expect to see in the coming months, and we gathered their input on our legislative and political programs. Over 20 of our Legislative and ALPA-PAC coordinators participated in this call, and as this busy legislative session continues, they will play an integral role in keeping our members informed and involved.
Now, let’s move on to some good news from the pilot group front. The Atlantic Southeast pilots overwhelmingly ratified a letter of agreement for an industry-leading preferential bidding system. The LOA also provides the pilots with contract improvements that include a pay rate increase of 1 percent, an increase in minimum-day pay, and a vacation credit increase. The new deal extends the ASA pilot contract amendable date by one year, yet Section 6 negotiations are still scheduled to begin this coming May.
The Spirit pilots attended informational road shows this week, where they heard from their Negotiating Committee, the SPC chair, and their contract administrator. Over the course of the meetings, the pilots learned that on April 6 and 7, NMB member Linda Puchala will mediate two final days of negotiations between the pilot group and Spirit management. After these final talks, the NMB can declare an impasse and offer binding arbitration before releasing the pilot group and the company to self-help. Should the process go as expected, we are preparing for the 30-day cooling off period to begin sometime in early April.
On Tuesday, I addressed Wall Street investors at the J.P. Morgan Chase 2010 Aviation, Transportation, and Defense Conference in New York City. During my remarks, I explained our union’s strategic plan for promoting sound government policies that will make our industry healthy and stable in the future. From modernizing the National Airspace System and establishing one level of safety and security for all airlines, to creating rational energy and transportation policies and protecting our pilots’ flying during international joint ventures, I laid out the vision we created for the future of this union and for the recovery that our pilots have earned.
The conference drew more than 1,000 institutional and credit investors from around the globe, and I’m proud to say that for the fourth year in a row ALPA was the only pilots’ union that was invited to address this important annual event alongside the CEOs and managements of our industry. (my emphasis)
On the Hill, ALPA hailed Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.), Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine), and Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) for introducing H.R.4788 this week, a bill that directs the Department of Transportation to make sure that new revenue-sharing agreements between U.S. and foreign airlines benefit U.S. airline workers as well as their airlines.
With international revenue-sharing agreements threatening to make a bad situation worse, our union lobbied hard for this legislation, which protects the U.S. workers whose dedication and professionalism have helped to build the airlines that participate in international alliances. On Wednesday, I sent a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives, urging them to co-sponsor the legislation. Captain Wendy Morse, UAL MEC Chairman, and I met with Senator Dorgan to brief the Chairman of the Senate Aviation Subcommittee on the threat of outsourcing our members’ jobs and the intent of the ALPA proposed legislation.
This legislation will establish basic requirements to ensure that U.S. airlines entering into international revenue-sharing agreements conduct a proportionate amount of the flying. A U.S. airline can share revenue with a foreign airline, but it would be based on the amount of flying each airline performs. Following our meeting with Senator Dorgan, I met with the Secretary of Labor and the Deputy Secretary of Transportation to review this immediate outsourcing threat to our United pilots and requested their support for our efforts to stop this job-destroying tactic.
Last week I told you about our meetings with Vice President Biden and that I spoke with him about the threats of international outsourcing to our members. I was gratified when I watched President Obama, in a speech
Let’s be clear here. This is not a United pilots fight. It is an ALPA fight. Should United succeed with their attempt to outsource our jobs to foreign carriers, how soon do you think it will be before some other management is trying the same maneuver or complaining they can’t compete unless they have cost concessions? I would ask that each MEC recruit volunteers to assist us in the days ahead. On March 17 in Chicago, there will be a demonstration by United pilots. On March 25 and [email protected].
On Wednesday, the long-awaited FAA Reauthorization bill, S.1451, was brought to the Senate floor for consideration. In addition to funding day-to-day operations of the FAA and our nation’s airspace system, it provides a critical down payment toward modernization. Long-term, stable funding of the nation’s airspace and air traffic control infrastructure is essential for safety, capacity, and efficiency gains that are needed to modernize the aviation system. We expect the Senate to be on this bill for at least a week, since there are over 80 amendments pending, some of which are totally irrelevant to the legislation.
Call to Action we put out last week on this onerous legislation. Over 6,700 pilots from all ALPA carriers and from all 50 states e-mailed and/or wrote their senators about the DeMint bill, which would allow using cockpit voice recorders for discipline purposes.
On Friday afternoon, the Government Affairs Department and I conducted a conference call with our pilot volunteers who serve as legislative coordinators, as well as the members of the ALPA-PAC Steering Committee. We briefed them on what is going on right now in Congress and what we expect to see in the coming months, and we gathered their input on our legislative and political programs. Over 20 of our Legislative and ALPA-PAC coordinators participated in this call, and as this busy legislative session continues, they will play an integral role in keeping our members informed and involved.
Now, let’s move on to some good news from the pilot group front. The Atlantic Southeast pilots overwhelmingly ratified a letter of agreement for an industry-leading preferential bidding system. The LOA also provides the pilots with contract improvements that include a pay rate increase of 1 percent, an increase in minimum-day pay, and a vacation credit increase. The new deal extends the ASA pilot contract amendable date by one year, yet Section 6 negotiations are still scheduled to begin this coming May.
The Spirit pilots attended informational road shows this week, where they heard from their Negotiating Committee, the SPC chair, and their contract administrator. Over the course of the meetings, the pilots learned that on April 6 and 7, NMB member Linda Puchala will mediate two final days of negotiations between the pilot group and Spirit management. After these final talks, the NMB can declare an impasse and offer binding arbitration before releasing the pilot group and the company to self-help. Should the process go as expected, we are preparing for the 30-day cooling off period to begin sometime in early April.
