This is John Prater with the BOD Update on April 3, 2010.
Last week, I was scheduled to testify at a hearing regarding the Protecting Employees and Retirees in Business Bankruptcies Act of 2010 (H.R. 4677), but unfortunately, it was postponed. As I have mentioned in previous BOD Updates, this legislation will ensure that employee sacrifice is shared, truly necessary, and doesn't overreach. We now have an administration and a Congress that have expressed interest in fixing the injustices workers face during a corporate bankruptcy, and I look forward to testifying in support of H.R. 4677 when the hearing is rescheduled. I did meet with Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers about the importance to union employees of this bankrupcty reform legislation. I will continue to brief you on our bankruptcy reform efforts as they unfold.
This past Sunday, First Vice President Paul Rice and I joined United MEC Chair Captain Wendy Morse, and Captain Evan Cullen, President of Irish ALPA, and nearly 400 United pilots and flight attendants on the picket line at IAD to protest the outsourcing of airline jobs and to send a clear message: We will not stand back and watch as airline managements try to use joint ventures to outsource our members. ALPA will continue to use every resource while we lobby Congress and the Obama Administration to protect our members’ jobs. I encourage you and your pilots again this week to do the same through ALPA’s latest Call to Action.
On Tuesday, at the invitation of the White House, I joined AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler and SEIU President Stern and more than 15 legislators to witness President Obama sign into law the legislation that provides for direct loans to college students and significantly modified the taxation of healthcare benefits that was contained in the original Senate bill. The opportunity to spend an hour with these House and Senate legislators provided a good opportunity to discuss our job protection legislation—R4788.
On March 31, I joined Cabinet member Hilda Solis, AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka, and several union presidents along with senior staff at the Department of Labor for the recognition of UFW founder Chavez. It wasn’t long before the discussions turned to today’s major economic and union issues like creating good paying jobs with pensions, protections from rampant outsourcing of jobs, organizing, bankruptcy reform, and safety regulations—issues that workers from all unions share deep concerns.
On Thursday, I sent a message to the Executive Board and Executive Council members about significant errors that were in an article in the April Air Line Pilot magazine. The National Officers were advised of this situation on March 29, and immediately directed an investigation into the full nature of the errors in the article. At the upcoming April 13 Executive Council meeting, we will brief the Council on the investigation and conduct a review of the nomination, vetting, and approval process.
You may have seen the announcements on Friday by DHS Secretary Napolitano of changes to screening procedures for international passengers travelling to the U.S. I was thrilled to see that some of the security initiatives our National Security Committee called for in the ALPA White Paper, following the Christmas Day terrorist action against NWA 253, were adopted for action by the U.S. government. When we met with DHS and TSA senior officials in early January to discuss the ALPA initiatives, and as I reported then, the ideas were well received. While there are more security improvements we will continue to push, this is a positive change to focus limited resources on individuals with terror intentions versus objects or trusted travelers.
On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that it will consider the special issuance of a medical certificate to pilots who are taking medication for mild to moderate depression. ALPA representatives, including Bob Solik (DAL), Jeff Kilmer (FDX), Jerry McDermott (CAL), along with Dr. Don Hudson and Dr. Quay Snyder from the ALPA Aeromedical office, have worked behind the scenes for years with the FAA on its outdated policy on antidepressants. This change marks a significant positive impact for pilots who can now apply for medical certificates, issued on a case-by-case basis, and get back to flying the line.
ALPA supports the change in FAA policy, as the adverse side effects previously associated with antidepressant medications have been minimized and/or eliminated. The FAA made a Notice of Policy Change (NPC) to implement this practice, and our Aeromedical Office doctors have been in constant contact with FAA staff on this important issue. The NPC will be out for public comment on April 5, and after thorough review, ALPA will make any appropriate comments by the May 5, 2010 deadline. Please see this week’s FastRead article for more, and don’t hesitate to share this with your pilots today.
Speaking of helping pilots, ALPA hosted the annual Critical Incident Response Program conference this week in Phoenix, Arizona. The event brought together 45 CIRP participants from within our union, airline managements, and independent pilot unions to discuss lessons learned from several incidents and accidents this past year, among other sensitive topics. I want to thank ALPA CIRP Committee Chair Louise Cullinan (MAG) for her work in pulling together this week’s conference. Again, you can read more about this event in the FastRead.
Trans States contract mediation continued this week in Washington, D.C., with NMB Chairwoman Liz Dougherty and senior mediator Zack Jones entering these negotiations for the first time. As we have seen in other contract negotiations during the past eight months, the three NMB Board Members have become much more involved as mediation cases enter the end-game stage.
The Spirit negotiating team and MEC officers will be in Washington next week to meet for two final days of mediated negotiations under the direction of NMB Board Member Linda Puchala. If the talks continue to be unproductive, we could expect a proffer of arbitration as early as the end of next week.
Please read your weekly FastRead for more information from your union, and, as always, fly safe!
