Fellow QX Drivers,

For too long, we’ve faced challenges that our current union, the Teamsters, seems unable or unwilling to address. We lack the power to push for meaningful change against the company, leaving us with little influence over our working conditions. Persistent hotel issues—dirty rooms, no hot water, and other problems—continue year after year. Redmond anybody...? We are told the union cannot do anything unless an individual report is filed for each individual issue? Really..? It's been years? How about have some balls and put our union dues to work. This kind of thing doesn't happen at other airlines. Remember when the IBT patted themselves on the back for a record wage increase a few years ago? Every other regional was raising their pay. All we did was join the party. Alaska had no choice, but don't fool yourself and think it was because of our union advocacy.

Additionally, inadequate scheduling protections, like excessive duty hours, insufficient rest periods, long sits, etc.. jeopardize our safety and well-being. IBT talks a good game but has ZERO effective action. Most frustratingly, in the Pilot Pathways program, colleagues at OO and other airlines are prioritized for hire over Horizon pilots, and our union appears either unwilling or incapable of addressing this inequity. Now enters Hawaiian with the same results. The list goes on, for years now.

I believe the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), representing over 79,000 pilots at 42 airlines, could provide the robust advocacy we need. A lot of you may not know but ALPA represents many regional carriers in addition to mainline carriers. It might be time we seek out a change. IBT currently only represents a small handful of airlines with most being cargo carriers or the dying Silver Airlines. It really might be time to think about a change. Shake things up for a small improvement where we work.

In solidarity,
X

 

This is hilarious in so many ways, mostly because nobody at QX uses this forum. If you're gonna say that we should just go ahead and kick the union off property, go ahead and say it in the channels that the pilots actually use, I'm sure you'll get some great feedback there. You're currently stuck with an almost 9 year old contract, so of course there are some things that are going to be unpleasant. How about you get ahold of your union and discuss negotiations, they're just pilots, just like yourself. You're represented by them, speak up to them if you have issues.

In terms of hotels and layovers, man this is a regional airline. These things do indeed happen almost at every regional. You cannot seriously expect mainline level stays when you work for a regional airline. You're gonna be pinched by every penny the company can to stick the crews in the lowest quality place they can, because the terms were negotiated on over 8 years ago. The hotels that are blatantly unsafe, or dirty or do not meet standards get fixed pretty quick. Unfortunately Redmond does check all the boxes and the company (no surprise) gets a screaming deal to put crews up there. I wouldn't be surprised if it changes, especially during negotiations. What do you expect the union to do? Ask for more than they are contractually obligated to get and expect the company to just hand it out?

If the pathways thing is your biggest issue, which is crazy considering all of the other things you mentioned in your post are significantly more important, that which I haven't seen much of that goes un-remedied, then you should have known from the get that if your end goal is Alaska, you're in the wrong place. Sure, a true flow agreement would be great, but that isn't something the union can just tell the company they have to make and honor. These are things that in negotiations can come up, but think of the state of the industry 8 years ago, and think of how much has gone on at this company and industry wide.

The contract is in negotiations, if after a new agreement is reached the new contract sits significantly below industry standard, I don't think you'd be alone to feel that we might need new representation, but to say that the union needs to go now really makes no sense. Almost everyone I work with and talk with is happy with the union and its volunteers, and how they manage to get by with the out-dated contract.

In Unity

 

Isn’t it mandatory to keep a tire iron within arms reach when you are a IBT member….just in case?

 

I hadn’t planned on responding to this post, but I don’t want any unsuspecting pilot to read the original post and take it as fact. So, here’s the truth from someone who’s actually involved.

I’m Henry Simkins, Chairman of the IBT Executive Council at Horizon Air. I’ve held this position since 2022, after serving on the council before that. Taking the original post at face value—without understanding the history, contract law, or our industry—is dangerous and deserves a factual response.

Our council is made up of volunteers. We don’t collect salaries for our work. Unlike ALPA, we keep dues lower by donating our time—often daily, on weekends, and during holidays—because we care about our fellow pilots. Many of us got involved to stop the concessions past union leaders accepted (often turned management), and to stop management from convincing our pilots to accept deals like “Commit to Compete.” We said, “No more.”

The post suggested we need “big balls” to act. Well, we’ve been acting—taking the company to arbitration even under the restrictive 2016 contract and negotiating a new agreement for over two and a half years. Progress is slow because we reject the company’s unacceptable proposals. If the suggestion is to rush and take less, that’s not an option for this team.

The 2022 Contract Improvement LOA was not a “gimme” from the company. We spent six months negotiating it—sometimes seven days a week including weekends—while the company resisted and captain attrition soared, sometimes at 35 per month. We fought for and won higher pay, better 401(k) contributions, commuter hotels, fatigue protections, and more. Even at the very end of negotiations, the company still wanted to start FO pay at $63/hour; we continued to hold at $90 and told them to just close the doors if they couldn't afford that. We got those gains because of union advocacy, not corporate generosity, regardless of ball size.

On hotels, we’re bound an arbitrator’s Minimum Hotel Standards decision. Some locations, like RDM, were “grandfathered” in before this administration. Removing a $43/night hotel is not simple, the company continues to cling to that hotel like they have stock options in it, but we’ve improved many other locations through persistence. Data from pilot reports is critical—without it, the company claims there’s no problem.

On Pathways, my stance is clear: I’m against the current version and have pushed for changes to speed upgrades and improve terms. We sent the company a proposal years ago—rejected by Horizon, AAG, and ALPA—because pilots keep signing up under the existing terms. Pilot solidarity is hard to use as leverage for change when applicants are satisfied with the current deal.

I’m reachable almost any time because my motivation is civic duty, not pay or recognition. Ask any senior captain about the union’s trajectory—we’ve been moving up, and we’ll keep going.

Joining ALPA would be a mistake for Horizon pilots. With only 660 pilots, we’d be a small fish in a large pond. Our dedicated team, legal staff and decision-making speed would be gone, replaced by competing priorities with mainline. We would be swallowed up and lost by the bureaucracy.

I’ll get back to work now so that you “weekendsoff123” can keep enjoying your weekends . And please—don’t use “solidarity”. I don't think you know what that actually means. For everyone else, my door (and phone, and inbox) is always open.

 

You’ve clearly never been ALPA. You are never swallowed up, or have competing priorities. Why? Because your MEC is the union. You negotiate your contract just like you do now. ALPA is an association of multiple unions. Each pilot group is essentially its own union. Nobody sets your priorities except you.
ALPA National brings the size, resources, and experience in a pilots only unions that Teamsters will never have. There are only a handful of airlines that are teamsters and those are rapidly joining ALPA as well.

You would (could) keep your existing representatives and volunteers, and enjoy the incredible depth of resources available through ALPA. I’ve been to IBT HQ and to ALPA HQ (and ALPA itself is an AFL-CIO affiliate giving it even more resources)

You’ve been fed a bunch of inaccurate info about ALPA, and it shows.

 

Cujo is correct. Switching unions is not the same as discarding your current reps.

Under RLA, it's still your local union. ALPA in no way injects "mainline priorities" into your union. Priorities are up to you.

I'd tend to compare dues vs. features and benefits.

It's happened where there's so much dissatisfaction with current outfit that you get a revolt led by people who aren't part of the problem, and that results in a change of reps to go with the change of union. But it doesn't have to be that way, the current MEC can initiate a union switch, and that's happened too.

 

Lee Moak………is that you?

 

ALPA is certainly not going to be on any crusade to elevate the regional subcontractors into something that they're not. If IBT is doing that for you, than by all means you should retain them. Or create a regional-airline dedicated union to revolt against the mainline oppressors... you could call it RJDC.

Otherwise I'd just consider the services and resources that ALPA might provide to you individually, and to your MEC. I don't know much about IBT, maybe it's a good discount solution but from what I understand I don't think I'd want to pay them the same % I pay ALPA.

 

A lot of the negotiations appear JV at best like the negotiated “win” for airport sits where we used to get premium pay for not getting a day room to now you don’t get a day room but you get $50. But we don’t have as many sits (and if we can grow the airline, that will get better).
however, we are only a regional. What would you suggest replacing the IBT with that would be better? Who would you nominate now that would do better than Henry?
$65k a month from the pilot group is the rumor. If that’s true, I doubt it’s being utilized efficiently but again, what would the alternative look like?

 

Having been in both unions, ALPA is just better.
No question.