Old 08-03-2007, 03:31 PM
  #29  
CAL EWR
Gets Weekends Off
 
CAL EWR's Avatar
 
Joined APC: Nov 2006
Posts: 258
Default

This was my attempt to wake up the pilot group as to who was leading us a year and a half before the TA of POS 02.


June 30, 2004


Jayson Baron
Newark B737 CA
[email protected]



Air Line Pilot’s Association
Continental Airlines Master Executive Council
Houston, TX 77032


Members of the Continental Airlines Master Executive Council, my name is Jayson Baron. I’m a B737 captain based in Newark.

I am writing to ask all of you to please listen to a recording of the last P2P conference call that is available on the P2P section of the CALALPA web site. I participated in this conference call and expressed significant frustration with our MEC, Negotiating Committee and Negotiating Counsel. A noteworthy point made by SPC Chairman Andy Cameron was that my frustrations and concerns were out of the purview of P2P and that I needed to make my feelings known to my elected representatives. I have spoken to both of my Newark representatives and expressed my feelings and now I am sharing them with you, CALALPA’s highest governing body. Simply put, you are losing or have already lost many of your staunchunion supporters/activists like me.

Since the above-mentioned conference call, I have received countless phone calls, e-mails, etc., from other pilots telling me that they listened to the call and wanted me to know that they agreed with my sentiments. One comment relayed by many who heard the conference call is that the message I was trying to deliver went completely over the heads of the participants on the conference call at CALALPA headquarters. What I would like to do in this message is clarify my position so hopefully when you listen to the conference call you can better understand my frustrations and appreciate my concern. I believe many who work for our union have lost sight of the line pilot’s perspective and needs.

I want to make perfectly clear that my frustrations do not stem from the fact that we are negotiating a contract in probably the worst economic environment ever in the history of airline union negotiations. I fully understand that the landscape has changed significantly and I in no way expect contract ‘02 to look anything like the pre-concessionary contracts at Delta or Northwest. However, that doesn’t mean we should just roll over and let management have their way with us.





My biggest concern is that our MEC is not representing our pilots in the same manner as our peer pilots’ unions. Our communications internally and externally are terrible and, quite frankly, embarrassing. I believe this is in large part due to our negotiating counsel, Ken Cooper, and, to a lesser extent, our negotiating committee.

One needs to look closely at last year’s America West contract negotiations that resulted in two tentative agreements being turned down by the membership, before the third tentative agreement was ratified to gain some insight into Ken Cooper’s mindset. Ken was directly involved in negotiating their first tentative agreement (rejected by nearly a three-to-one margin) before moving on to represent our MEC.

After talking with many America West pilots, I have learned that there was a significant difference in overall quality in the second and third tentative agreements as opposed to the first proposal. It is also my understanding that Ken believed America West pilots would not do any better by rejecting the agreement he helped negotiate. The America West pilots I have talked with tell me there were major improvements in the subsequent tentative agreements, and the swing in the voting margin supports this point.

I have heard some argue the America West pilots didn’t do any better in the second and third tentative agreements. “The cost of the agreements were the same and they essentially just moved around the deck chairs because ATSB restrictions made it difficult to extract more dollars,” according to some.

However, I think it’s important to point out that dollars were allocated more in line with what the membership wanted for improvements, not with what the then leadership or negotiating counsel told them they wanted. It’s also important to note that after the first tentative agreement was rejected, both the MEC officers and negotiating committee were recalled.

Since Ken Cooper became our negotiating counsel, I have noticed a distinct and growing change in our MEC officers’ and negotiating committee’s views on external communications. I see a significant change in how we deal with Continental management. While I commend you, our leadership, in establishing a dialog with our president and future CEO, I believe we must continue to pressure management via the media and other ways just as our peers at Delta, Northwest, American, United and US Airways have all done in the past and present to extract leverage and have our views heard.

Apparently Ken Cooper believes in an interest-based, non-abrasive, don’t ruffle any feathers approach to bargaining. This type of approach will fail when dealing with the likes of Mike Campbell and his negotiating team.





CAL EWR is offline