APA proposes real scope language

SlumTodd_Millionaire

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From that "other" message board:

December 7, 2007

American pilots drop a little bombshell

At the negotiating table Thursday, the union representing American Airlines pilots made a proposal that gets to the heart of more than 20 years of hard feelings between its pilots and American -- and for that matter, for many pilots at big carriers.

The Allied Pilots Association proposal:

All flying performed by or on behalf of the Company or an Affiliate shall be performed by pilots on the American Airlines Seniority List in accordance with the terms and conditions of this agreement.


American Airlines quickly put out a response, in the tsk-tsk style that it uses on its public negotiations website, www.aanegotiations.com:

AA negotiators raised serious concerns about the impact of such a proposal and believe our efforts should be focused on helping American be competitive in all areas of its business.
What that means is that only American Airlines pilots will do its flying, whether it's 37-seat regional jets or 500-seat jumbo jets.

Very reluctantly, the APA back in the 1980s agreed to let American contract with regional carriers to provide the short-haul flights into its hubs. But that has grown over the years to long-distance flights and not just into hubs, and the American union has never liked it, even as it had to back down because all of American's major competitors were benefitting from out-sourced flying.

Complicating this question now is American's Nov. 28 proposal to spin off its separate American Eagle unit that does most commuter feed for American.

The union in the past has proposed that its members do all flying, with the proviso that the commuter pilots would be paid lower rates than those who fly bigger airplanes. But the average American pilot gets benefits and such that also raise the employee costs in addition to the hourly pay rate, so American hasn't shown any interest.
 
Genie is out of the bottle I'm afraid ....


In a few years when the pilot migration is in full swing, maybe. But right now it's kinda like showing up to a fully-developed forest fire with nothing but a wicked urge to pee.
 
Yeah. If the unions had tried this in the late 90s -- and had been willing to give up all their negotiating capital to get it -- it might have been successful.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda
 
What's to say the APA can't get this in their contract and get the ball rolling? Even if nobody followed suit isn't it better than nothing?
 
I love the language, but there is no way that - when it gets to it - an arbitrator would allow for something like this.

The company will obviously have a fit, and cry and whine, and then negotiations will be stalled for 5 years, and an arbitrator will come in and decide it all. And, what the arbitrator decides will be market selected.

So there's my reasoning why it won't stick. As much as I'd love to be dreaming that it would.
 
Arbitrators don't get to make decisions about contracts unless the pilots agree to go to arbitration (which they never do). The NMB could certainly stall on their release for years, but I have a feeling that the pilots at AMR might just start a massive slow-down anyway if that happens.
 
That new union leader is gonna find himself buried in the touchdown zone fo his favorite football team methinks.

More power to him for pushing the extreme but wow.
 
That new union leader is gonna find himself buried in the touchdown zone fo his favorite football team methinks.

More power to him for pushing the extreme but wow.

I doubt that. Even if they don't get this (and I really hope they do) you NEVER open up negotiations with what you want, you ask for something completely unrealistic. If you don't there's nowhere to go but backwards.

I.E. If you want your third year captains making $100 an hour, you NEVER ask for $100 an hour. You ask for $200 and eventually it comes down to $100 in the process of trying to find a compromise.
 
I doubt that. Even if they don't get this (and I really hope they do) you NEVER open up negotiations with what you want, you ask for something completely unrealistic. If you don't there's nowhere to go but backwards.

I.E. If you want your third year captains making $100 an hour, you NEVER ask for $100 an hour. You ask for $200 and eventually it comes down to $100 in the process of trying to find a compromise.

They already did that... last month, I think.

They came out and said "Let's take us back to the pay scale before concessions" or something or other. Basically, the American rates are still above most everybody else's, and they said they wanted a steep hike to get back to the way they used to be.

A reasonable request in terms of dealing with the company, sure, but considering AMR has a big fleet of mortgaged airplanes and American pilots are already above industry average, it's unlikely.
 
its was a 33% pay increase. management laughed almost the same as when they laughed at this one. Eagle and mainline are never going to be on the same seniority list. it would be way to expensive. Especially if you were to keep people's seniority at eagle. Some of those folks have been bouncing around for eagle for over a decade.... much cheaper just to say "hire more and lower first year pay to something ridiculous".

Its about time a mainline carrier saw the error of their ways. A lot of senior airline negotiatiors saw regional flying as beneath them back in the 80's and 90's. That was a huge mistake. Now you have people making 25 grand flying right seat in a 70-90 seat jet.... tell that to the negotiators in the 80's
 
Arbitrators don't get to make decisions about contracts unless the pilots agree to go to arbitration (which they never do). The NMB could certainly stall on their release for years, but I have a feeling that the pilots at AMR might just start a massive slow-down anyway if that happens.

Okay, right, not the arbitrators, but the NMB wouldn't allow the union to stall negotiations because of this type of reversion of scope language. I just don't see it turning out in the positive favor for the pilots. What makes them think that now they can be strong about scope when for the past decade ('ish) they haven't said a peep about it. Just cause it's contract negotiations time?

I really do wish them luck, and if this does happen, it'll be a great step forward for the American aviation industry . . . especially for pilots. But, I just don't see it ever getting through mediation because the company isn't just going to flop over and say "Hey, sure why not."
 
Okay, right, not the arbitrators, but the NMB wouldn't allow the union to stall negotiations because of this type of reversion of scope language.

The mediator and the NMB don't really have a choice. The only power they have is to require the parties to show up to the meetings. Beyond that, the only thing the NMB can do is refuse to release the parties into self-help. They have no power to force the parties to give up on any given position or to modify a position. They could sit around in mediation for a long time, just like ASA, but with a new NMB coming in with a new Presidential administration, things could get a lot more pro-labor within the next couple of years.
 
Very true, so we'd just be looking at another stalled negotiation.

Vote for who will protect your profession. . .must I really say that? Also, vote for who is electable out of those who "say" they will protect your profession, and actually vote for the individual who has stood with unions since day one. . .:)
 
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