Atlas strike vote imminent
 

WON ? DHL Express Cargo Pilots Prepare for Strike


DHL Express Cargo Pilots Prepare For Strike

MARCH 30, 2016



DHL-Express-CargoCiting foreign control of airlines and threats to jobs and local communities, pilots at Atlas and Southern Air Holdings have announced a strike vote. As two major cargo holding companies – Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings (AAWW) and Southern Air Holdings, Inc. (SAI) – move forward in an acquisition that would strengthen Deutsche Post DHL’s influence over the two holding companies’ airlines, namely, AAWW’s Atlas Air and Polar Air and SAI’s Southern Air and Florida West, pilots for the airlines are raising many serious concerns.

Citing concerns over numerous developments, pilots at both airlines—members of APA Teamsters Local 1224—will vote to authorize their union to call a strike should it become necessary.

“Pilots are the backbone of the logistics industry, and DHL customers and shareholders should be concerned about the company’s disregard for experienced pilots,” said Robert Kirchner, an Atlas pilot and Executive Council Chairman of APA Teamsters Local 1224. “Pilots have sacrificed to help DHL contracted airlines succeed. We are helping DHL grow its business in the United States and building profits for all companies involved. A strike is a last resort, but our families are not going to stand by while this German company tries to further undermine our profession and American labor standards throughout the industry.”

DHL, a global shipping and logistics company based in Germany, has a substantial influence over these two holding companies and their airlines. Since 2014, SAI’s Southern Air has operated exclusively for DHL – even co-branding its planes. DHL also provides AAWW with critical financial and operational synergies, with a 49 percent equity stake in Polar Air. If AAWW acquires SAI, its expected revenue related to DHL will rise to 27 percent – putting the two American companies further under the control of a foreign entity.

DHL AAWW and SAI have seen profits rise in recent years. DHL reported €59.2 billion (or 66.7 billion US dollars) in increased consolidated revenue this past year, with the express division — which includes the operations of AAWW and SAI — being its strongest and most profitable division. Meanwhile, adjusted net income attributable in 2015 to AAWW’s common stockholders totaled $125.3 million, or $5.01 per diluted share, on revenues of $1.8 billion. After filing for bankruptcy in 2012, Southern Air rebounded within six months and has since expanded its fleet. AAWW is spending $110 million in cash on the acquisition of SAI.

Despite these gains, AAWW and its subsidiary carriers, Atlas Air and Polar Air, are trying to force pilots at both AAWW and SAI into an “amalgamated” contract that will have a devastating impact by suppressing wages and lowering quality of life issues for pilots at the two companies and throughout the industry. AAWW’s Atlas/Polar pilots have been working since the beginning of the year to amend their collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Their current contract is grossly below industry standard. Meanwhile, pilots at SAI’s Southern Air sacrificed pay and workplace standards during the 2012 bankruptcy. They too have entered into contract negotiations to amend their contract.

“DHL plays a significant role in the business of these airlines as a primary customer and even an equity partner, and its impact and influence on the airline’s management is strong,” Kirchner said. “We can’t allow a foreign company like DHL to use its influence to drive down standards for American cargo pilots and undermine their job security. DHL makes billions of dollars a year based on our pilots’ hard work. DHL should respect our pilots’ contributions and it should neither participate in nor encourage or permit its network carriers to engage in a scheme to undermine our pilots’ professions and labor standards.”

Pilots, as well as the communities where they live, are gravely concerned about the influence that DHL has over these two airlines and the possible overreach in its U.S. operations. As major equity partners and the sole customer for Southern Air, DHL’s reach may be against legal regulations that require U.S. cargo airlines to show “U.S. citizenship” of company owners and operations. Additionally, the growing influence of DHL is concerning as the company has a record of closing bases, upending families and communities in the process. In 2008, the company announced its plan to cut 9,500 U.S. jobs. Despite overwhelming opposition from impacted communities, pilots, and members of Congress, the move resulted in 8,000 layoffs in a single town – Wilmington, Ohio – and devestated the community and its local businesses.

“My husband has been working for Atlas for 15 years, and I’m very concerned about the influence that DHL is having over the company,” said Karen Boyd, wife of Atlas pilot Captain Bobby Boyd, who live in Spokane, Washington. “I’m worried about paying our mortgage and about DHL pulling out of our community like it did in Wilmington. It’s hard to understand why companies that rely so heavily on pilots and are doing so well would force this kind of instability on our families and communities or even encourage such bad behavior.”

According to a comparison conducted by the union representing the pilots, AAWW’s Atlas/Polar pilots flying for DHL are paid considerably less and work far more than pilots who fly for American couriers, such as UPS or FedEx.

“AAWW and SAI are thriving with the growing business from DHL, but pilots are working without the job security their families need and deserve,” said another Atlas pilot, Captain Mike Griffith, who has flown for the airline for 18 years. “There is no reason why a U.S. pilot flying over the same routes for a foreign shipping company should be paid less than a pilot working for UPS or FedEx.”

A strike vote will go out. The pilots of Atlas will vote to go on strike if need be. And when the time comes we will do just that.

Game playing is over. Enough is enough !

But but but our COO, and resident ambulance chaser, said that the company were the good guys.

I fully support you guys, but the vote won't accomplish a thing. Management is well aware of the fact a strike vote is nothing more than a symbolic gesture. An actual strike is years away in a best case scenario.

What it can accomplish is unifying each pilot group, together.

Not if you get a substantial number of no voters. Then it will fracture the group even more.

Who the hell is going to vote no?

Pilots to whom Atlas/SAI is the best job they are capable of getting (especially on the SAI side). They don't want to rock the boat. You'd be surprised how tough they talk in public but vote to save their job.

Exactly. Why in the world would anyone vote no?!?

Radioactive!

Home boy got banned

Whaledriver101
Good luck on that. You are not going to strike. The union knows it and the company knows it. It would fail anyway, so why try? There are enough carriers to pick up the loads.

1224 pretty much has the lock on all domestic and the majority of the international lift at DHL. You'll be hard pressed to find "enough carriers" willing to cross a picket line or fly struck goods. A strike by any of the US based DHL carriers would cripple DHL across the board.

Picket set by any of the IBT represented contractors (air/ground) ought do the trick. Lest any wonder who’s calling shots at AAWW, need only look east…” your papers bitte?”

Three point you are riding fat and sassy on the coat tails of many pilots who fought for the contract that you now enjoy. It wasn't always that way at FedEx. Pilots sometimes have to fight for the contract that they deserve. Your post makes it sound like you have never fought that kind of fight and wouldn't know how to fight if you had to.

Lobbing insulting pot shots from the comfy sidelines at a company about which you know nothing only serves to illustrate your ignorance about the operation at DHL and the Atlas / Southern situation. Better to keep your uninformed opinions to yourself and let everyone think you are wrong than to open your mouth prove that point.

8

Oh, I walked the line in MIA (even during Hurricane Rita) while others went in the back door. As long as there is a corrosion corner on NW36th St. you will have those who will cross. Just like all companies AAWW will hold out for as long as they feel they need and probably give you 50% of what you asked for and still make money. It is the way of the world, they company always wins.

Corrosion Corner is long gone...

I guess the Alaska Air pilots will be taking a pay cut when they amalgamate the two contracts with Virgin???

I hope like hell that we are wrong about this but AAG managment has proven that loyalty is more of an insult to them.

A strike vote is always just symbolic. Until it isn't. Not many airline unions get an opportunity to strike anymore. Once the NMB finally allows self help, a court or PEMB always seems to force the union back to work in a matter of days, if not hours. Can't have the traveling public or American business handicapped.

Which is why the Teamsters actually have a legitimate strike threat. Since DHL is a German company, if a strike eventually happens, management will have less pull than a comparable US corporation would.

Atlas could be the largest airline to be allowed to _stay_ on strike in our lifetimes.

I tried a little google-fu but got more confused. I've seen some of your jets with DHL livery but always thought that was just Atlas as a DHL contractor. DHL has some kind of management stake in a US airline? Without turning it into a War and Peace dissertation, can you explain this dynamic re: DHL and your possible strike?

DHL owns 49% of our Polar division.

interesting times ahead for sure. Stay united!

"Self Help" is legal if you're in Section Six negotiations and the company violates the status quo. It does not require the approval of the NMB. It is not an idle threat, and it is not, "years away." Does anyone know of a 1224 DHL carrier that is not in Section Six negotiations?

Same movie, different players. Those who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it. Peace out.

Corrosion Corner is long gone..
Yet places like AJT and Skylease and the like remain. You say its gone; I say it looks different but the corrosion corner spirit is alive and well. I know several people at Atlas and I wish them well against Frank and the scum who run DHL. I will gladly walk the line down in MIA in support of my Teamster brothers and sisters. Go get em guys!!!

Quite a complex story but... G4 pilots were in that situation a few years ago, the judge just said no.

Corrosion corner, so to speak, is NOT gone. You can paint a turd gold but its still a turd! Given they cleaned up the place a bit, which I think sucks, it was awesome back in the day if you loved old airplanes but, the place still has remnants of its past. Trust me, there will always be a dark seedy element there in Mijami. Pilots will walk over each others dead bodies. You should have been down there during the Eastern strike.

Now places like Millon and Arrow and Fine are gone but you still have; Centurion/Slylease, WGA, World Atlantic, Amerijet and Florida West.

The circus is still in town just a better tent and different clowns.

Be careful my Atlas friends, there are maqaques hiding in the trees that will attack for the chance to fly for Atlas. Strike breaking in MIA is legendary.

The DHL play book is a common thread among German companies doing business/owning companies in the USA. I have friends (not in aviation) working for companies that a German firm bought and are now branded and controlled/managed from the other side. German management (and by extension, their society) treats its own very well. Whether its by law, custom, or labor negotiated, Germans give them selves a lot of paid time off, generous pay, and even better benefits. My (management) friend tells me at his place, they often work days when this bosses are off (German holidays, which are many) and he and his American colleges are expected to work and pay for benefits that the brothers "over there" have by law or common practice.

Having seen how DHL treated/worked with subcontractors in the past and present, it's obvious that DHL model to compete, at least in the USA, is to whipsaw its American labor to try and compete with its (higher cost) American competitors. I believe that DHL in particular, and German industry's owning companies in the USA generally, look down on American labor. They see low union participation in US in general and consider US labor to dumb to look after their own interests by organizing. BMW is a good example. They came to South Carolina, not for the weather or great location, but for the non unionized labor they could expect from the local work force. You can see how they've been rewarded, with a factory set up in Mexico after the fact.

Good luck Atlas, Southern, and all others being whipsawed by their managements/clients. At least you all have seen this show before, know how it's been played (DHL airways vs ABX). Stay strong, get united, and don't let the German machine push you around. They take care of their own (over there), make them respect and compensate you, at least to industry standard over here. ;)

Even if all those you’ve taken liberty to paint with the same brush could replace 800 crews working the DHL system, which of course they can’t, your charges are baseless and low. Atlas received 4 76 freighters from ABX last year. The pilots are NOT to blame. Trippe, Rickenbacker, Baker; these were tough MIA guys who fathered an airline culture not yet surpassed. They were also, by any account, hard nose businessmen with whom pilots did not always see eye to eye. While not forgetting the past, don’t reinvent it either.

You do have to have a finding (Status Quo viloation) from a court, but at least you don't need the permission of the stooges at the NMB.

That was after. We actually did have a status quo violation approved by the court. We then scheduled a strike and our union reps initially were called in of a judge. She basically didn't want to deal with the drama and just told us to go back to work and gave us zero legal justification for her decision. Later on the previous ruling was rescinded nullifying everything.

I have zero faith in the legal system to back up labor these days. Hell, at RAH I believe it was the NMB that referred to us as "Republican Airways."