Pay Increases:
This is MEC Chairman Jack Stephan with a Chairman’s message to the pilots for Sunday, January 07, 2007.
I want to report to you some of my observations concerning our fight for a fair contract, especially in light of the recent well deserved raises our brother and sister pilots at America West received on January 1st of this year.
I have sat in on several of our JNC negotiations and watched your committee at work. But despite their hard work and relentless preparations, progress at the table remains disgustingly slow.
For it was business as usual when we met with the Company back in December. A substantial amount of time was spent at the last meeting on listening to the Company attempting to articulate once again how they approach these negotiations. We have now gone through three major “re-clarifications” on the company’s negotiating position. Their latest word wiggle of offering the America West contract didn’t apply at the negotiating table. After several attempts to re-clarify what it is they actually meant by offering the West contract, one thing remains the same— business as usual.
And it’s business as usual for many reasons, but the one that seems so painfully obvious to me is that management has come to expect certain behavior from this pilot group. They have taken us—and our willingness to carry this company on our backs, both financially and operationally—for granted. They have come to expect that no matter what, they can always depend on the pilots to bail them out. We must understand that to be successful in these current negotiations, those expectations of management must be changed.
But what will it take for this management to realize the contribution our pilots make to the bottom line by routinely going the extra mile? And what will it take for them to stop taking for granted the 6.8 billion dollars US Airways pilots have committed to ensure our survivability, profitability, ultimately providing for the opportunity to merge with America West and ensuring that the AWA pilots could count on their contractual 3% raise? What will it take for management to stop taking for granted the countless times our crews hold our operation together by making all those calls to catering, for wing walkers, for jetway drivers, for cabin and maintenance discrepancies, for weight and balance numbers, etc., etc., etc? What will it take for them to abandon their bankruptcy mentality at the negotiating table?
Management will continue to treat us this way as long as they think we will settle for this treatment. We have in large part enabled their expectations. We still perform our jobs at a fraction of the wages we once earned and we still continue to do the work of others as well.
And I guess my biggest question is, “How is this working out for us so far?” And as our mobile billboards suggested at our CLT and PHX picketing events, “Had enough yet?”
I realize the tremendous professionalism that exists among our pilots. I respect the pride and dignity that you bring to our profession and into our cockpits everyday. My point is that we are not getting the respect and compensation that we deserve and have earned for saving this airline and for keeping it going daily with our extra effort and sacrifices.
Simply put, do your job. Do it professionally and as always, do it safely. But let management know that your backs are tired and sore from carrying them through mismanaged operations and through mergers and transactions lucrative only to them. Management hopes that you will forget about that pension they took and the sacrifices your families have made. They’ll tell you that we’ll all be much better off if we just all work together. Tell management you’ve “had enough!” Stay informed and join us in our soon to be announced next coast to coast pilot picketing event.
Fly Safe and thanks for listening
Merger Update:
Today’s hearing began with the AWA merger committee playing an audio tape of a question and answer session involving Doug Parker and a group of employees held in Charlotte. During this session Parker gave his personal view that without AWA, US Airways would not exist. After this several minute audio tape was played, AWA attorney Jeff Freund called their first witness of the day.
This witness was a continuation of the AWA “Tale of Two Airlines.” Ed Albert of Milestone Advisors, LLC was called to testify on behalf of the AWA pilots. Milestone Advisors is a boutique investment banking firm. Mr. Albert was proffered as an expert in airline restructurings. He was involved working for US Airways management in both restructurings that the company went through. His testimony began with a timeline of US Airways financial difficulties. His first bullet point was Stephen Wolf testifying before Congress stating that US Airways was not viable as a stand alone carrier. Albert went on to explain how US Airways continued to burn cash even after exiting bankruptcy following the first reorganization. He stated that there was no cash left for operations at the end of US Airways second bankruptcy. Albert stated that many in the investment community believed that US Airways would never exit bankruptcy and would in fact liquidate. He also stated that there was no stand alone plan of reorganization submitted in that case.
After this testimony Mr. Albert moved on to the status of AWA prior to the merger announcement. AWA had an uncollateralized loan from the ATSB that required a principal payment each year of $86 million. Although he didn’t specify that there was actually a plan in place, Albert testified that he believed that AWA would have been able to raise cash in order to avoid a future liquidity crisis. This direct testimony consumed the morning
Merger Continued:
Today US Airways Group Inc. raised its offer for Delta Air Lines to 10.2 billion dollars, up from its 8.5 billion dollar bid of November 15th. Delta's unsecured creditors committee has said that it was reviewing both Delta's standalone plan and US Airways' bid.
As the Coast-to-Coast MECs stated last month in a press release, by failing to integrate two pilot groups under one contract, US Airways management has not yet properly merged US Airways and America West, demonstrating little chance of completing the merger of a third airline. The MECs have also determined that US Airways’ Delta proposal raises serious issues about the job protections contained in the US Airways and America West pilot contracts. Your MEC is closely monitoring all the events surrounding this proposed merger and will take the necessary actions to protect the interests of the US Airways Pilots.
