MIA email
Christmas and the “Texas Handshake”
Two weeks have passed since the announcement of the “deal” regarding APA’s commitment to man the schedule for AA over the holidays. APA initially reports this as resulting from the “handshake” agreement between APA’s President Dan Carey and AA’s Robert Isom that assures us of an eventual resolution to LOS and some troubling duty rigs. However, there is apparently more to it than that.
Following my vociferous protest at the recent BOD caucus in Dallas, the President shook my hand in front of the camera and personally guaranteed me that we would have a satisfactory resolution to these issues by Christmas. Well, the clock is ticking.
Leverage in our position is fleeting and diminishes exponentially with each day of December that goes by. The company knows this, assessed the situation properly, reacted appropriately and managed to get a gullible APA to agree in solving the company’s problems immediately while APA had leverage and to agree to negotiate APA’s problem once the leverage was gone. Brilliant.
As each day goes by, our leverage diminishes commensurately with the company’s motivation to solve APA’s problems. At least we still have the “Texas handshake”.
It is disconcerting that a board of twenty-two individuals who have been witness to the company’s lack of trustworthiness over the last few years could have permitted the President to make such a colossal mistake over the protests of CLT-CH CA Bob Frear and myself. APA’s position of power in these negotiations WAS the simple fact that the company had been so untrustworthy. Where is the implementation of our contract? Where is the automation of our pay? Where is the responsible administration of our scheduling IAW our contract? Why aren’t our LTD pilots more humanely treated in adherence with industry standards? Why isn’t our abysmal profit-sharing at least in the contract? What evidence did we have that the company could be trusted to deliver on ANY future promises given their abysmal track record?
How did we get here? The CLT-Chairman has provided a great summary of this in his recent Blast titled “Creative-Capitulation”. I would advise all MIA pilots to take the time to read it at the following link: (https://www.alliedpilots.org/News/ID/5706/Creative-Capitulation), or find it reprinted at the bottom of this Blast – it is a truthful and detailed synopsis of the past few weeks.
The situation has gone from bad to worse beginning with APA’s ability (or inability) to effectively negotiate (https://www.alliedpilots.org/News/ID/5532/Groundhog-Day-at-the-APA-BOD-Are-You-Ready-for-2020), and culminating in being outmaneuvered by the company during our “Green December” (https://www.alliedpilots.org/News/ID/5677/The-Settlement-Agreement). The chances of a beneficial end to this controversy diminish with every day that passes. Furthermore, without member intervention, the recourse I have available to me is limited due to my outspoken stance on the issue which has put me at odds with APA’s President, the negotiating committee and many of our domicile representatives on the Board of Directors.
If this debacle portends of things to come in Section VI then we have a serious problem on our hands. We are being led down the same rosy path of trust that yielded the JCBA, its loose language and non-existent implementation schedules.
I plan on taking my scheduled Duty-Free Period Christmas day to relax with my family at home and prepare for the fight we are no doubt in-for come the New Year. What will you do? We will need “all hands-on deck” and each member actively involved in our union and its activities if we are to exit 2018 in better shape than we ended 2017.
Fraternally,
Ed Sicher
MIA Vice