Originally Posted by
Captain Heide Oberndorf
Vice Chairman Tom Murphy voiced an interesting perspective, that when he was a P2P Coordinator for the JCBA (UPA), a lot of pilots had various complaints about the UPA and his number one talking point was that all of the things that are wrong with the UPA would be fixed during the next Section 6 negotiations, at a time when we were one unified pilot group.
Wow. All problems with the UPA would be fixed in the next negotiations?
ALL? A few for sure. Some probably. Most? Unlikely. All? Not a chance.
Originally Posted by
Captain Heide Oberndorf
I raised my hand and asked a question regarding our current UPA, which was how much did our work rules cost out relative to our payroll costs? In other words, do work rules tend to add up to at least equal or more in dollar value vs. pay rates. Everhard danced around the answer and finally said he would have to get back to me on that.
Of course there's specific dollar values associated with work rules. Both the company and ALPA have those numbers. I don't want ALPA's valuation of work rules revealed in a public forum and no one else should want them openly discussed, as the company may have (probably has) a completely different value associated with each work rule.
Originally Posted by
Captain Heide Oberndorf
Everhard danced around the answer and finally said he would have to get back to me on that. I find this pretty amazing coming from one of the very people whom we have collectively tasked with fully understanding the costing and valuations of our UPA so that he can negotiate for us, and I’ll point out that this fellow is one of the Negotiating Committee members whom your previous Council 34 Reps. Fired from that same job.
Was he fired for political reasons or incompetence? Are you sure you want to open
that can of worms?
Heide, weren't you fired from an ALPA position? Politics or incompetence?
Originally Posted by
Captain Heide Oberndorf
When a Q & A time came for Heppner, the first question asked was how did we arrive at a 13% pay raise? He responded that the company only wanted to give 10%. When pressed further by the questioning pilot Jay said he started off really high by asking for…wait for it…17%! Wow! What a high shooter! That really makes a lot of how things have gone for us over the last five years snap right into view with that revelation!
So it's really about the money. How's that joke go? We've already established what you (generic pilots) are, now we're just dickering over the price.
Originally Posted by
Captain Heide Oberndorf
The next question fielded was why did he bring us no relief on our terrible reserve system? He responded by saying that the company actually wanted concessions there, and since they wanted concessions he told them to just take that item off the table. This was not the direction he was given by our MEC.
The company wanted reserves available at 0600 on the first day of reserve. The NC wasn't willing to give that concession for improvements in other areas of reserve. I understand why they took reserve negotiations off the table for the TA.
Originally Posted by
Captain Heide Oberndorf
I then followed up my question by saying, "Jay, you always told me to make decisions based on fact." He nodded yes, and I went on to point out that we have very likely lost the ME3 and NAI battle in Washington DC. An opinion that I have come to after working in DC for many years. And while we have yet to feel the ramifications of those massive assaults on our profession, it’s very possible that the major U.S. airlines have less than a decade left of widespread international flying. With the upper end of our profession under a multi-pronged assault that we are very likely to feel strongly, how does kicking the can down the road 3 years into the possibly short life span of our wide body flying put us in a good position. The room got dead silent, and I kid you not that you could hear a pin drop as the weight of what I had just proposed dropped in on everyone in attendance. Heppner shrugged his shoulders and said nothing.
I find this paragraph extremely troubling. If, as she suggests, our international flying will probably be lost to foreign carriers, then the only solution for us to keep that flying is to give massive concessions to the company so that we can remain competitive. And yet she's busy arguing that the TA isn't good enough; completely opposite of what this paragraph implies.