What has ALPA Done for Me Lately? Another one...
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]More examples of how ALPA does absolutely nothing for the profession.....or so I'm told on this forum anyway......[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
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[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]This is John Prater with the BOD Update on March 21, 2010. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
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[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]With the first weekend of Spring upon us, I’ll make this one brief and give you a good overview of what’s happening on the Hill—both this week and next. I want to thank those of you who have encouraged your pilots to participate in this year’s legislative efforts. It’s imperative that we continue to respond with one voice to the legislative and regulatory issues that affect the piloting profession and our members’ careers. ALPA’s strength to successfully advocate for new laws or prevent other ideas from becoming bad laws, stems from our members and leaders joining together to act as one Union. Our past three decades of collective legislative efforts are possible because they are supported by a strong PAC, and subject matter experts on staff and from pilot committees combined with grassroots efforts from ALL ALPA airlines. When we work together, we can win. When we divide along company lines, we will fail. Our Union holds respect from our legislators because we represent the piloting profession—not just our individual pilot groups. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
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[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]This past Tuesday I met with the House leadership and on Wednesday I met with 29 Senators in a meeting of the Senate Democratic Caucus. I discussed ALPA’s concerns on protecting pilot jobs in international joint ventures, bankruptcy reform, and both our profession and the industry’s recovery from the past decade. Our efforts on several legislative fronts are succeeding. The U.S. Senate has agreed to continue the FAA Reauthorization debate on Monday with a bi-partisan commitment to vote on the entire bill. Up to this weekend, with the help of strong ALPA membership participation, we have prevented the CVR monitoring bill from being added to this legislation. But, as I warned our legislative affairs committee last week, no bad idea ever completely disappears, so we will continue our efforts to stop this particular egregious one. [/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]This week ALPA is ramping up another Call to Action. This time, and through this 111th Congress, we need to mobilize our pilots to urge their legislators to support H.R. 4788. This bill will protect our members’ jobs for long-haul flying in international airline alliances. As it stands now, there’s no legal assurance that we’ll have “metal in the market.” Quite simply, we are pushing hard to ensure that the U.S. Government will protect these jobs from being outsourced overseas by managers who are looking to cut pilot labor costs. Without these legal protections from our government, we constantly have to use our negotiating leverage just to protect our jobs instead of being able to concentrate on restoring wages and benefits. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
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[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]I said it last week, and I’ll say it again: this is not just the United pilots’ fight. This is an ALPA fight. While I met again this week with the secretary of labor and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk about this very issue, I was happy to see the groundswell of ALPA support that our United pilots received at Wednesday’s informational picketing at United’s Chicago headquarters. ALPA members from Delta, Continental, Colgan, and Mesa joined the demonstration to protect pilot job outsourcing around the globe. [/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]We’ll need your help again next week. On March 25 and 26, please encourage your pilots to join the UAL pilots on congressional office visits. Then, on Sunday, March 28, we’ll need pilots in uniform at Dulles Airport to picket the UAL/Aer Lingus joint venture’s first flight, from Washington to Madrid. Picketing starts at 2 p.m. and runs until 4:30 p.m. Please contact Marco Salazar ([email protected]) or Glenn Klopfer ([email protected]) for more information about how you and your pilots can support our ALPA brothers and sisters in these efforts. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
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[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]Next Tuesday, March 23, I will testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee on bankruptcy reform. I will urge the subcommittee members to support the Protecting Employees and Retirees in Business Bankruptcies Act of 2010, as it includes several much-needed updates to the bankruptcy code that would restore balance to the bankruptcy process. For starters, it clarifies that bankruptcy courts must only permit labor concessions that are truly necessary, rather than those that are just desired by management. It would provide for us to use collective action to negotiate successor contracts should our CBAs be abrogated by a bankruptcy court. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
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[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]Due to these serious issues being considered this week and next by Congress, I decided to remain in Washington instead of attending the 65th IFALPA annual conference, which is being held in Morocco. I am proud to announce that I have nominated Capt. Don Wykoff (DAL) to stand for election as Deputy President to IFALPA, and have nominated Capt. Dan Adamus (JAZ) to serve as Vice President of the North American Region. Both the U.S. and Canada have a full delegation of ALPA leaders in attendance at the conference, with several of our members standing for election as committee chairs. ALPA International is the only pilots’ union representing the pilots from the U.S. and Canada at IFALPA. IFALPA is comprised of one member association from each of nearly 100 countries and this year has attracted one thousand participants, with pilot leaders and experts on civil aviation and representatives of airlines and manufacturers. We’ll provide a full report after our fellow ALPA pilots return. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
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[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]Lastly, on the security front, ALPA will host the second CrewPASS consortium on Thursday, March 25. Airline management representatives will join ALPA security representatives to hear presentations from several biometric service providers interested in competing for CrewPASS contracts. The group plans to review an ALPA-drafted standards document, which is intended to be approved by the TSA. Several ALPA airline managements have already indicated that they plan to attend this important meeting. ALPA has led the fight to provide all pilots with improved access through airport security with successful legislation and creation of CrewPASS, which has been tested and approved by the TSA. At this point we remain focused on getting our airlines to implement CrewPASS on a nationwide basis. I’ll report on developments following this meeting and let you know which airlines are helping us with this ALPA program. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
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[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]That’s it for this week. For more information on what’s going on with your union, please see the FastRead. [/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]More examples of how ALPA does absolutely nothing for the profession.....or so I'm told on this forum anyway......[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]This is John Prater with the BOD Update on March 21, 2010. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]With the first weekend of Spring upon us, I’ll make this one brief and give you a good overview of what’s happening on the Hill—both this week and next. I want to thank those of you who have encouraged your pilots to participate in this year’s legislative efforts. It’s imperative that we continue to respond with one voice to the legislative and regulatory issues that affect the piloting profession and our members’ careers. ALPA’s strength to successfully advocate for new laws or prevent other ideas from becoming bad laws, stems from our members and leaders joining together to act as one Union. Our past three decades of collective legislative efforts are possible because they are supported by a strong PAC, and subject matter experts on staff and from pilot committees combined with grassroots efforts from ALL ALPA airlines. When we work together, we can win. When we divide along company lines, we will fail. Our Union holds respect from our legislators because we represent the piloting profession—not just our individual pilot groups. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]This past Tuesday I met with the House leadership and on Wednesday I met with 29 Senators in a meeting of the Senate Democratic Caucus. I discussed ALPA’s concerns on protecting pilot jobs in international joint ventures, bankruptcy reform, and both our profession and the industry’s recovery from the past decade. Our efforts on several legislative fronts are succeeding. The U.S. Senate has agreed to continue the FAA Reauthorization debate on Monday with a bi-partisan commitment to vote on the entire bill. Up to this weekend, with the help of strong ALPA membership participation, we have prevented the CVR monitoring bill from being added to this legislation. But, as I warned our legislative affairs committee last week, no bad idea ever completely disappears, so we will continue our efforts to stop this particular egregious one. [/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]This week ALPA is ramping up another Call to Action. This time, and through this 111th Congress, we need to mobilize our pilots to urge their legislators to support H.R. 4788. This bill will protect our members’ jobs for long-haul flying in international airline alliances. As it stands now, there’s no legal assurance that we’ll have “metal in the market.” Quite simply, we are pushing hard to ensure that the U.S. Government will protect these jobs from being outsourced overseas by managers who are looking to cut pilot labor costs. Without these legal protections from our government, we constantly have to use our negotiating leverage just to protect our jobs instead of being able to concentrate on restoring wages and benefits. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]I said it last week, and I’ll say it again: this is not just the United pilots’ fight. This is an ALPA fight. While I met again this week with the secretary of labor and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk about this very issue, I was happy to see the groundswell of ALPA support that our United pilots received at Wednesday’s informational picketing at United’s Chicago headquarters. ALPA members from Delta, Continental, Colgan, and Mesa joined the demonstration to protect pilot job outsourcing around the globe. [/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]We’ll need your help again next week. On March 25 and 26, please encourage your pilots to join the UAL pilots on congressional office visits. Then, on Sunday, March 28, we’ll need pilots in uniform at Dulles Airport to picket the UAL/Aer Lingus joint venture’s first flight, from Washington to Madrid. Picketing starts at 2 p.m. and runs until 4:30 p.m. Please contact Marco Salazar ([email protected]) or Glenn Klopfer ([email protected]) for more information about how you and your pilots can support our ALPA brothers and sisters in these efforts. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]Next Tuesday, March 23, I will testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee on bankruptcy reform. I will urge the subcommittee members to support the Protecting Employees and Retirees in Business Bankruptcies Act of 2010, as it includes several much-needed updates to the bankruptcy code that would restore balance to the bankruptcy process. For starters, it clarifies that bankruptcy courts must only permit labor concessions that are truly necessary, rather than those that are just desired by management. It would provide for us to use collective action to negotiate successor contracts should our CBAs be abrogated by a bankruptcy court. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]Due to these serious issues being considered this week and next by Congress, I decided to remain in Washington instead of attending the 65th IFALPA annual conference, which is being held in Morocco. I am proud to announce that I have nominated Capt. Don Wykoff (DAL) to stand for election as Deputy President to IFALPA, and have nominated Capt. Dan Adamus (JAZ) to serve as Vice President of the North American Region. Both the U.S. and Canada have a full delegation of ALPA leaders in attendance at the conference, with several of our members standing for election as committee chairs. ALPA International is the only pilots’ union representing the pilots from the U.S. and Canada at IFALPA. IFALPA is comprised of one member association from each of nearly 100 countries and this year has attracted one thousand participants, with pilot leaders and experts on civil aviation and representatives of airlines and manufacturers. We’ll provide a full report after our fellow ALPA pilots return. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]Lastly, on the security front, ALPA will host the second CrewPASS consortium on Thursday, March 25. Airline management representatives will join ALPA security representatives to hear presentations from several biometric service providers interested in competing for CrewPASS contracts. The group plans to review an ALPA-drafted standards document, which is intended to be approved by the TSA. Several ALPA airline managements have already indicated that they plan to attend this important meeting. ALPA has led the fight to provide all pilots with improved access through airport security with successful legislation and creation of CrewPASS, which has been tested and approved by the TSA. At this point we remain focused on getting our airlines to implement CrewPASS on a nationwide basis. I’ll report on developments following this meeting and let you know which airlines are helping us with this ALPA program. [/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]That’s it for this week. For more information on what’s going on with your union, please see the FastRead. [/FONT]
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