Polar742
All the responsibility none of the authority
The NMB ruled today that Atlas (petitioning for the status and switch to IBT from ALPA) and Polar are a single carrier.
Below is the letter from ALPA:
Adding AOPA legal to my AOPA membership as we speak....
Below is the letter from ALPA:
Dear Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo Crewmembers:
The National Mediation Board (NMB) has just issued its determination that Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo are a single carrier for representation purposes. That means the NMB will soon set dates for an election to decide whether the Air Line Pilots Association or the Teamsters will represent their crewmembers. ALPA will provide more information about the voting procedures and process in the next few weeks.
Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo crewmembers now have to make an important decision about their future. As I’ve said in my two previous letters, ALPA isn’t going to “sell” itself. I believe firmly that crewmembers should make the decision to belong to this union—or not—based upon facts and information.
In this letter I want to share facts and information about insurance benefits, worldwide safety and security, and progress in negotiations. Teamster supporters continue to argue that your group will be independent and more agile as a small local union under IBT authority. While they find facts that don’t support that view inconvenient, it’s important for you to have them in order to make your decision. You’ll decide whether you’re independent and agile—or simply working and flying naked.
ALPA Insurance Benefits
There are over 150 Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo crewmembers and dependents who participate in various ALPA insurance policies including Accidental Death and Dismemberment, Long-Term Disability, Loss of License, and Life. Atlas and Polar crewmembers and dependents will lose these policies if crewmembers elect the Teamsters as your collective bargaining representative. Depending on your age, medical condition, and the additional medical testing that will be required by other insurers, it will be very difficult or impossible for many crewmembers to obtain comparable insurance coverage. The loss of this coverage, like the loss of ALPA’s aeromedical staff in Denver that my last letter addressed, forces the question: Will you be independent and agile, or will you and your dependents be unnecessarily exposed?
Safety and Security
Teamster supporters recently complained about “excluding” representatives of IBT Local 1224 and others from ALPA’s annual Air Safety and Security Forum that took place a few weeks ago. They argued that the safety information provided at this ALPA meeting is important for everyone to have and should not be “politicized.”
Here are the facts. Local 1224 representatives were never scheduled or registered to attend the ALPA Air Safety and Security Forum. Some independent union representatives were invited by ALPA and registered to attend. These independent union representatives took it upon themselves to extend invitations to 1224 representatives to this ALPA function. Not surprisingly, they were informed that only ALPA could extend invitations to its own functions. Some of the independent union representatives decided that they would not attend the forum as a result.
This dust-up illustrates two important facts: (1) ALPA’s safety and security work and resources are recognized by everyone as critically important; and (2) Atlas and Polar crewmembers will lose this valuable resource. The Orange Card now in your wallet won’t be there if you are represented by the Teamsters nor will the valuable resources that back up the card.
Just one call—any time of the day or night, every day of the year, from anywhere in the world—connects you with a live ALPA safety representative who will offer advice and immediately engage—and if required, dispatch—a team of pilots and staff professionals to help. They’re the same people who provide the valuable information at the Air Safety and Security Forum.
This protection is even more critical for international carriers like Atlas and Polar. You risk imprisonment and criminal prosecution for accidents and incidents outside the United States or Canada. The International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) recognizes only ALPA as its member association in the United States and Canada, and only ALPA can reach out through IFALPA to provide protection, support, and guidance to crews who find themselves in a bad situation.
ALPA members support this important but expensive resource through payment of dues, and the Association spends nearly $7 million per year on safety and security activities. You can easily understand that ALPA members won’t agree to spend their dues dollars on crewmembers who have chosen not to be ALPA members or contribute to its activities. Like with ALPA’s aeromedical resources and insurance programs, will you feel independent and agile, or resource poor and exposed when ALPA’s safety net is no longer there?
Negotiating Progress and Resources
ALPA understands that the resources you’ll lose are not the only issue to consider when you cast a vote for ALPA or the Teamsters. Crewmembers want to know that they’re an important part of the union, that problems are being resolved, and that negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement are moving forward.
As you heard from your MEC leaders recently, the Atlas and Polar Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) continues to work cooperatively and productively with each other. The JNC met with management negotiators September 16-18. Jim Cato, formerly VP of Operations and Labor, has been replaced by an outside attorney, Claude Sullivan, with whom ALPA has extensive experience and successfully completed new contracts. ALPA resources in the Representation, Retirement and Insurance, Economic and Financial Analysis, and Communications departments have been dedicated to this negotiation. Senior professional negotiating staff and attorneys help the JNC lead every bargaining session.
Will you feel independent and agile when a Teamster “business representative”—not a lawyer or professional negotiator like ALPA has—is at the bargaining table with the Negotiating Committee? Or will you just feel under-resourced and exposed to an experienced and savvy management lawyer?
I have called Atlas and Polar representatives to Washington for an internal meeting the week of October 6 to finalize a common position on a protocol and structure for continuing and completing negotiations. This issue has divided the two crewmember groups in the past. ALPA’s Executive Council believes firmly that negotiations can’t progress successfully or be concluded over a reasonable time period without understanding the timeline and structure for the rest of bargaining.
Quite simply, differences on how we’ll complete negotiations have to be put behind us. Both Atlas and Polar crewmembers deserve a contract that improves pay, working conditions, and job security. It’s time to resolve this issue and discuss our unified position with the company at our next negotiating session at the end of October.
Naked and Exposed, or Protected and Well-Resourced
Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo crewmembers are a valuable part of ALPA. It’s time to extend the favorable pattern of contract settlements established at FedEx and ASTAR to your company’s ACMI and scheduled service. The JNC is working constructively and putting past divisions in the rearview mirror. ALPA resources are being applied and available to crewmembers.
Important decisions about your future are close at hand. I urge you to think carefully about the facts—not Teamster supporter rhetoric and emotion—and make decisions analytically based upon the stark alternatives for representation. You can work and fly naked or use the power and leverage of working with your fellow crewmembers and ALPA resources to protect yourself and your family during turbulent times.
In solidarity,
/s/
Capt. John H. Prater, President
Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l
Adding AOPA legal to my AOPA membership as we speak....