Low & Slow

The court case UAL v. ALPA resumed in Federal District Court in Chicago on Tuesday and is expected to continue into Thursday before Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow.

During cross-examination today, Managing Director, Labor Strategy-Flight Jay Milone testified/disclosed the following:

► Within the airline industry there exists an Airline Industrial Relations Conference (AirCon) composed of the labor strategy personnel from the various airlines. Milone is a member of this group and testified that they meet on a semi-regular basis to discuss pilot labor issues on their respective carriers. Milone testified that their activities are usually discussed verbally rather than written.

►It was disclosed that during the summer of 2007, a video tape recording system was installed in at least two domiciles, San Francisco and Chicago, for the purposes of observing and recording the activities around the union bulletin boards, flight office and flight manager offices. Milone testified that the sole purpose of the surveillance was to monitor the areas for evidence of “harassment” of pilots. He also testified that at least the chief pilots were aware of the surveillance devices but to his knowledge they are no longer installed.

The United MEC is taking this opportunity to reconfirm its position that pilots should not engage in activities either individually or collectively that may disrupt operations. Specifically, the United MEC and its officers do not condone and strongly oppose calling in sick when you are not ill, refusing to accept junior/senior manning assignments for the purpose of disrupting operations, or pressuring other pilots in any way with respect to their individual decisions to accept junior/senior manning assignments.

If there is a continuation of the sick leave levels that United experienced in July, and if United is unable to obtain pilots who will accept junior/senior manning to avoid flight cancellations, United will argue that it is a justification for the court to issue a preliminary injunction. Please understand that this is a serious matter, and that failure to comply with our legal obligations could have serious consequences.

The court hearings are open to the public. It is appropriate for pilots to attend in uniform.

The Court is located at:

Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse
219 South Dearborn Street, Court Room 1925
Chicago, IL 60604

Bucking Bar

Maybe UAL should stop spending so much on outside consultants and security firms and focus on running their airline profitably, while making it a good place to come to work. It can be done. UAL has great crews.

fireman0174

This was also done after our strike in 1985.

Airhoss

Kind of like working inside the iron curtain. Stalin would have been proud!

newKnow

That whole "Airline Industrial Relations Conference (AirCon)" sounds like collusion to me.



Collusion:
Definition

"In the study of economics and market competition, collusion takes place within an industry when rival companies cooperate for their mutual benefit. Collusion most often takes place within the market form of oligopoly, where the decision of a few firms to collude can significantly impact the market as a whole."

If our union had any guts, they would take all of the involved airlines to court. For what?

I would argue that their illegal secret meetings has cost our profession and individual pilots millions of not billions of dollars.

I'm not joking. That is total BS.

newKnow

Low,

Where did you get the informaton about the trial?

seaav8tor

AirCon was set up before deregulation as a legal entity to act as a balance of power over labor unions. After deregulation the power has shifted dramatically in favor of management. No one turned it off so it has kept going and achieved gains that were beyond their wildest dreams. Over the last 30+ years labor is now left with a tiny fraction of their influence and a tiny fraction of their pay.

ClipperJet

Does anyone know the actual numbers of aircraft/pilots before deregulation vs now? We all know the industry has changed--dramatically and probably irreversably in the past 30 years, but does anyone have hard numbers?

How many major airline pilots/planes were there in 1960? 70? 80? 90? 00?
How many regional airline pilots/planes were there in 1960? 70? 80? 90? 00?

We could then figure out if there are more or fewer of us out there relative to the overall population. That would give us some insight over pay.

If, back in the day, there were very few airline pilots then one would expect the pay to be higher. If the proportions are the same today, then we would expect the pay to be relatively the same. If there are more of us today (adjusted, per capita) then the pay would naturally trend downward. (Note I said "would" not "should" trend downward)

Does anyone have the real numbers? I'm curious.

Airhoss

It was an E-mail sent to all UAL pilots by the ALPA MEC.

HalinTexas

I don't think such a raw metric will tell you that much. For one thing, a comparison to miles or hours flown would be necessary with a comparison to number of seats and/or sizes of airplanes. Jets vs. props. Two vs. three man crews. Etc.

Another thing. When the airlines were regulated, the government basically assured that there would be a profit. Ticket prices were exorbantently when compared to the income of the average American. It was a luxury, not mass transit that it is today. "Back in the day" vs. today comparisons of pay in a regulated market will not give an accurate depiction of supply/demand for pilots. It was pretty rare to have a non-ex-military pilot hired into the majors back then.

If you want to really find out what a pilot is worth in terms of salary, outlaw unions and wait a few years to see who's left and what they're paid. I would bet a TRUCK driver would be making as much as an AirBUS A380 driver.