CAL EWR

IAH AND EWR ALPA REPS BLAST MAIL


CAL LC 171 and LC 170 Joint Blast Mail
LC171 & LEC170 JOINT BLASTMAIL



TOPICS:
URGENT: ACARS TIMES BEING CHANGED
COUNTERMEASURES: VACATION FLY-THROUGH/VOLUNTARY JUNIOR MANNING
COMPANY REFUSAL TO PROVIDE HOTEL ROOMS FOR LAYOVER CREWS
EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
EDITORIAL INPUT FROM PILOTS

URGENT: ACARS TIMES BEING CHANGED

CALALPA addressed the issue of unilateral changes of ACARS times with company on more than one occasion and had received assurances that ACARS times would not be tampered with. The simple fact is CAL management has not followed through on that promise and ACARS times are being tampered with. The manipulation of ACARS times has the potential to place you in a position of flying illegally. Pilots are not being notified of ACARS changes and on more than one occasion, a pilot has been made just legal enough “on paper” to continue a trip as a result of the change.

It is absolutely imperative that you closely monitor times. Because of the past practices we highly recommend that you keep accurate records and only trust your own books. Their primary mission is to staff the airline and complete flights.

If your times have been changed, we strongly encourage you to file an ASAP report, notify the CPO, file a pay claim, and most importantly, notify the union, and if no resolution is achieved to report it to the FAA.
Management must honor their commitments to the pilots. We intend to ask the reps from the other bases to stand with us on this issue and direct the MEC officers to notify the company that we will not tolerate ACARS time’s changes. Our only alternative if this issue is not resolved would be take it directly to the FAA and the public since it is clearly a safety issue.

COUNTERMEASURES: VACATION FLY-THROUGH/VOLUNTARY JUNIOR MANNING

Given the current pilot shortage at Continental, it was inevitable that the company would once again call upon our pilot group to save the airline from management short-sightedness and the industry-wide pandemic of delayed and cancelled flights for lack of crews.

As we move towards Section 6, it is imperative that we DO NOT undermine our ability to negotiate effectively. Clearly, each of you has the contractual right to en-richen yourselves by participating in these offers, but you must ask yourself if there is a price to be paid for those short term gains?

While Delta was in Section 6 in their last contract cycle, the amount of open time that was being picked up dropped as contract talks bogged down. Delta management relied heavily on those open time pick-ups to complete their schedules and the pilots were rewarded for doing so per their existing contract. As the open time pick up dropped off, Delta management sought injunctive relief from the courts to force the pilots to pick up open time. The Federal Appeals Court ruled the pilots were violating Section 6 by not picking up open time because prior to Section 6, the pilots had established a “status quo” of picking up a certain percentage of open time as a regular course of action prior to entering into Section 6. The court actually sought to punish pilots individually for not picking up open time and ordered the union leadership to instruct the pilots to comply. The union leadership argued that pilots had a contractual right to NOT pick up open time and had no ability to force pilots to go to work. The court told the union leadership that they would be held individually accountable if the pilots didn’t start picking up the open time. In essence, the court ruled that the Section 6 “Status Quo” overrode the pilot’s contractual rights.

Over the last few days the company has made offers to the pilots seeking pilot "volunteers" to fly through their summer vacations and to pick up open time for premium pay. Though many of us could use the extra money, before we take the company up on their "generous" offer, let us consider that by doing so we allow management to continue short staffing the airline on a long-term basis. The consequences of continuing down this road are many for both pilots and the company, and include increased stress, fatigue, sick leave, decreased morale, and further erosion of quality of life.

Clearly, what you or I stand to gain in the short term by flying through a vacation may only serve to deepen the negative impact that short-staffing has on our entire pilot group. The company may not increase staffing to adequate levels if they can count on ALPA members to bail them out of one short-staffed month after another. The only legitimate solution to the company's pilot shortage is to hire more pilots, not to ask an already overworked and thinly stretched pilot group for another pound of flesh.

Our Negotiating Committee recognizes the necessity for strong contractual language to ensure adequate pilot staffing in the future, and to that end the company now has, if it chooses, an opportunity to meaningfully address staffing issues with CAL ALPA during the early opener session.

In the meantime, it is important for us all to remember that to gain the full benefits of unionism, we are often required to act for the good of the entire group rather than for our personal gain. As Benjamin Franklin once cautioned, "Either we all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately."

Your LC leadership will not tell you that you can’t exercise your contractual right to pick up open time or sell your vacation back to the company. What we will tell you, is each time you do, you may chip away at our ability to effectively negotiate for you.

The Delta Open Time ruling was a significant loss for labor. The company may ask for relief under the Delta ruling to cover its staffing short falls while in negotiations. Clearly, each of you has the contractual right to en-richen yourselves by participating in these offers, but you must ask yourself if there is a price to be paid for those short term gains? You must ask yourself, how would my actions be interpreted by a circuit court Judge? Would they help in establishing the “Status Quo” under the Railway Labor Act if I chose to take advantage of the company’s “generous offer?”

COMPANY REFUSAL TO PROVIDE HOTEL ROOMS FOR LAYOVER CREWS

It has come to our attention that Continental has started telling flight crews to sleep on airplanes. We recently had an incident where a diverted flight crew was told to sleep on an airplane because the company couldn’t find hotel rooms. The UDO went to ORBITZ, found rooms at a Holiday Inn, and the company refused to pay for the rooms. Scheduling then had the audacity to assign the crew additional flying after their scheduled rest, which was going to take place on the aircraft.

We find this to be absolutely unacceptable. The company has a contractual obligation to provide hotels for flight crews. Period. Should you be faced with this situation, we encourage you to take the following actions:

• Contact the UDO
• Immediately notify crew scheduling that your rest period WILL NOT commence until you have your hotel room
• Ask to have the duty Chief Pilot paged

To add insult to injury, when Captains have paid for rooms for their crews and expensed the cost, management has delayed the payment for months. One pilot who paid for rooms during the March meltdown in EWR was just compensated within the last few days.

This type of conduct is beyond outrageous.

Have you had enough? Does this make your blood boil? We encourage you to use your union and all of its tools to protect you and your crews.


EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

The Houston Chronicle recently published an article detailing the highest paid executives in Houston. Five of our executives made that list with tens of millions of dollars in compensation last year. At the same time our management team claims they are” Sharing the Pain” with us. They have had our crews sleep in their aircraft.
Does this sound like sharing the pain?

We find their compensation figures offensive. Do you?

EDITORIAL INPUT FROM PILOTS

We encourage pilots to contribute articles on any issue that is important to them. We will start to include those letters as components of our blast mails and your contributions will be de-indentified unless you request them not to be.

We look forward to your contributions.

Jointly and Unity,




CA Wayde Beckman – Chairman CAL 171
FO Mark Bolleter – Vice Chairman CAL 171
CA Chris Urquieta – S/T CAL 171
CA Al Brandano – Chairman CAL 170
CA Larry Beck – Vice Chairman CAL 170
FO Kate Malone- S/T CAL 170