Lars

Horizon Air Pilots Will Receive Wage Increase

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- Horizon Air and its pilots, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters APA Local 1224, today jointly announced that the neutral arbitrator responsible for choosing the 2012-2013 wage structure most appropriate for the Horizon Air pilots has ruled that there should be a 2.8 percent increase for all pilots in 2012 and an additional 1.2 percent increase for first officers in 2013, as outlined in the proposal by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), which represents Horizon's pilots.

“Of course, we will entirely abide by this decision, which was the product of a very fair process agreed to by both sides,” says President Glenn Johnson. “Despite our different views on compensation levels, Horizon and the IBT always agreed about one thing: the professionalism of our highly skilled pilots and the great value they add to Horizon every single day.”

In November 2010, Horizon's pilots ratified their current five-year contract, which becomes amendable December 2015. It includes a clause specifying that wages will be re-examined by the company and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) twice, once in 2011 and again 2013.

This year, Horizon and the IBT arrived at a tentative wage settlement, but it was rejected by the pilots who had not seen a wage increase in more than five years. Per the contract, both parties then presented their “last, best and final” offers to the arbitrator, who was charged with choosing one or the other (versus some combination of the two), after considering the merits of each.

“Both sides made compelling arguments in presenting a case to the arbitrator for consideration and we are very pleased with the arbitrator’s decision,” said Horizon Air Captain Mark Niles, who serves as the Executive Council Chairman for APA Teamsters Local 1224. “This small boost in wages will have a tremendous impact on the morale among our pilots. We have always been proud to be affiliated with a strong company, and look forward to working with Horizon Air to build upon the company’s continued success.”

Horizon and the IBT will return to the negotiating table by late 2013 to attempt to arrive at an agreement for 2014-2015 wages. If a tentative settlement is not achieved and ratified, the decision will again shift to an outside neutral arbitrator.

Horizon serves 48 cities throughout Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Baja California Sur (Mexico), and British Columbia and Alberta (Canada). Together, Horizon Air and Alaska Airlines serve more than 90 cities and are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK).

The Airline Professionals Association, Teamsters Local 1224 represents the flight deck crewmembers of ABX Air, Atlas Air, Cape Air, Gulfstream, Horizon Air, Kalitta Air, Miami Air, Omni Air, Polar Air Cargo, Southern Air and USA 3000.

eoners

Hopefully this will not lead to the Air Group farming out more flying to Skywest. Congrats to the pilots though!

Green Banana

The pilots have no control over that at all. Good for them! Jacking their corner of the house up! Hopefully more pilot groups follow suit and grow a pair. No need to swing for the fence. Keep the base hits coming and we will all win!

JungleBus

Congrats QX pilots! Not a big raise, but not the paycut the company wanted either. Looks like the gamble on binding arbitration to get the rest of the contract done paid off. I suspect Colgan's new contract bolstered the IBT's argument considerably.

TherealOC

.......
agreed!

AxialFlow

a step in the right direction...congrats!

ShyGuy

Actually, as the labor costs go up, the carriers overall costs go up. Alaska ain't stupid. Expect to see more of Horizon flying farmed out to Skywest or others.

Beaver Hunter

We all want a raise. But everytime a group raises the bar some douche bag has to pee in the punch. No wonder this career is dying.

Green Banana

Brilliant! And all this time I thought that as labor costs go up, the carriers overall costs go down? Score one for Captain Obvious.

pete2800

Because Skywest can do the same flying cheaper than a Q400 with a CRJ? There's a reason Horizon sold off the jets.... Even if they are paying the pilots another buck an hour, that's not nearly going to offset the fuel burn cost difference.

It was a very modest raise. Not a big deal to AAG at all. The way I understood it is the first and second year FO's, and first year captains get a 2.8% bump. That's it.