ATI Jumpseat - Denied
 

For those who are unaware, since the ABX pilot strike in late November (2 day event), ATI has denied and restricted all ABX pilots from their jumpseats. This denial from a reciprocal jumpseat agreement has been implemented by the management team at ATI who has declared any ABX pilot to be a “safety and/or security concern”. The repudiation of access has not directly come from the rank and file crewmembers at ATI.

Although ATI management claims safety and security as their reason, when asked to articulate further about this alleged reasoning, they have been unable or unwilling to substantiate their claim. The entire process is an attack on the long-standing practice of the purpose for jumpseats and the authority of the pilot in command regarding the occupancy of these seats.

The ABX Exco has, since the end of the strike, encourage ABX pilots to allow ATI pilots continued access to jumpseats if they desired. This is regardless to the lack of reciprocation for the ABX pilots. Throughout the past months the ABX Exco has expressed [to ABX pilots] their desire to allow time for the ATI MEC to persuade their management to reaffirm their own PIC’s authority to handle any potential concern and to continue the industry practice of reciprocal jumpseats. To date there has been no change. The term reciprocal is self-explanatory and enough time has expired for the ATI MEC to resolve their management difficulties if they desired to do so.

Until such a time ATI reinstates the reciprocal part of their reciprocal agreement, I will no longer welcome the ATI pilot on-board the jumpseat and encourage other ABX’ers [and other pilots industry-wide] to do the same. ATI needs to be restored to an industry standard in this area, regardless of being a home-based airline, the benefit and use of the seat is for their members and others in the industry.

Yeah they're not riding on my jump seat.

Position update: Originally, the letter prohibiting ABX from jump seating was authored from the ATI Director of Operations. Since this time, the Vice President of ATI denies that the issue is not the company's but instead its being generated from the MEC Chairman, this information came from ABX VP. Knowing the VP and the tactics of division employed by management, I'm sure that this is not the case. Hopefully the captains at ATI will stand up to their managements attempt to destroy their Captains Authority to control their jump seats. If this happened at ABX, I am confident that within a matter of hours our membership would have corrected the situation.
Even though a comment has been made by their MEC that I will never ride an ATI jumpseat.........their guys are welcome on mine any day!

The problem it's the division that exists among ATI's pilot group. There are guys that supported our strike, want a joint certificate and are really pi**ed off at the jumpseat ban. Then, you have a few duchebags that think they'll benefit from screwing ABX pilots. I want to beleive this last group is a minority, but saddly enough, their MEC falls in this category and keeps feeding them b.s.
I hope that with all the newhires at ATI, they'll be able to get rid of this union leaders and steer the ship in the right direction.

I'm inclined to agree; however, I'm tired that as two groups we are giving management their nightly "orgasm" as they read this forum. Maybe a little leadership from both groups will go along way toward spoiling management's day. Spoke to Z and he's ready........what about you T?

Guys,
Don't fall victim to union busting 101. We all have been through this BS before. Don't let emotion cloud your actions!

You guys all seem to forget that ABX was sporadically denying ATI jumpseats PRIOR to the strike. I don't know why, but it was done.

I don’t want anyone to get lost in the side-show of things. There isn’t any hidden agenda here. The issue of reciprocal jumpseats is not union busting. Jumpseats were not issues (overall) prior to the ABX strike….why would they be a concern afterward. There have been 4 occurances prior to the strike [2 at ATI, 2 at ABX], none of which warrant wholesale actions. If that were the case, either the union or company, should have formally dissolved their agreements. Either ATI management or their MEC has made an inappropriate decision, one that abrogates a written j/s agreement, industry standards, and undermines the authority of the PIC.

Regardless of the author dictating ABX pilots are restricted from the jumpseat, the ATI MEC is charged with resolving the concern, something they have failed to do. If MC or any other ABX pilot wants to open their seats to ATI, it’s their individual choice. I fail to understand that logic given the circumstances and timeliness at this point.

Im trying to extend on olive branch to the ATI membership before the nuke falls.......and its being loaded as we speak.

Management trying to get crews to fight amongst each other is nothing new. Crews need to take care of each other.
Looks like the ATI MEC is not interested in helping out here. And if that is true,shame on them.
MC, good for you with the olive branch.