Today is Sunday, September 6, 2009 and this is a Special Edition of The Magenta Line. There is 1 item for discussion.
Item 1: Note to Management: If You Lie Down With Dogs…
In a devastating article appearing in today’s Buffalo News, the management of Colgan Air, the operator of Continental Connection 3407 which crashed in Buffalo on February 12th of this year, has been unmasked as a strong proponent of the “beatings will continue until morale improves” philosophy of airline operation.
While many of us are well aware of just what our fellow ALPA pilots at Colgan have been dealing with the past few years, it is because of our relationship with them as a Continental Connection carrier that what is done to them is done to us as well—and to our customers.
The article in The Buffalo News reads like a recounting of third-world sweatshop working conditions: the professional pilots of Colgan Air are harangued for their use of sick leave, threatened with termination for too many sick calls within a year, forced to provide doctors notes for routine illnesses—and browbeaten into flying tired; and sick and tired are exactly what Captain Marvin Renslow and First Officer Rebecca Shaw were before they left Newark for Buffalo last February 12th.
The Buffalo accident put Continental Airlines management at a crossroads—the warning sign said “Cliff Ahead! Turn Now!”, but our management has continued to drive straight ahead anyway. As management has shown us over and over, their sole concern is the bottom line—but, as is often the case, the bottom line has sharp teeth—and it can bite.
We, the professional pilots of Continental Airlines, have watched the former quality of our Continental Airlines brand disappear—just as our own mainline flying has disappeared to a multitude of Continental Connection “partners” like Gulfstream International. With each new downgrade, the managements we dealt with became seedier and seedier. We ate breakfast at Tiffany’s, lunch at Burger King, and dinner at the rescue mission. The only constant in this uncontrolled descent was the professionalism of the pilots of our Connection partners. Regardless of the ruthlessness of their respective management teams, the pilots, no matter the airline, were the one bright constant. We all, from Continental to Colgan, meet the same high standards; it’s management who feeds at ever-lower bottoms of the trough.
The Buffalo News article can be found here:
Colgan pilots say many felt pressure to work while ill : Home: The Buffalo News
Colgan pilots say many felt pressure to work while ill
While you read it, think about what is happening in our own Newark pilot base: we have been cut to about 1800 pilots—but management is adding 2 additional assistant chief pilots. Anyone want to guess why management needs more assistant disciplinarians for fewer pilots? Looks to us like they plan on continuing the beatings.
As we close this week, please remember our 147 hostages and their families.
Captain Jayson Baron, EWR Council 170 Chairman
jayson.baron@alpa.org
610 442-3817
First Officer Tara Cook, EWR Council 170 Vice Chairman
tara.cook@alpa.org
610 220-8904
Captain Kaye Riggs, EWR Council 170 Secretary-Treasurer
kaye.riggs@alpa.org
830 431-0450
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