Egl ALPA wants to boot CHQ
 

Hold onto your hat this should get interesting... Least our new chairman seems to have some more balls than the other guy.

Fellow Eagle ALPA Pilots:

As you may already know, AMR announced today its plans to adjust flying for the spring of 2010. The plans call for American Eagle to increase its presence in Chicago to support American Airlines.

Management announced that it will deploy the majority of the CRJ fleet to Chicago and to retrofit the CRJ’s to accommodate first class seating. Additionally, they intend to exercise options to purchase 22 additional CRJ-700 aircraft. Deliveries of these new aircraft may begin in the middle of 2010.

The MEC is pleased that management is now moving forward with the acquisition of these aircraft. We have supported that move for quite some time. We are also eager for the company to begin recalling the pilots currently on furlough.

As CRJ aircraft are moved to Chicago and, presumably, a proportionate number of Embraer aircraft moved to Dallas, a sizeable displacement and training cycle will certainly result. We are still awaiting details from management on the scope of these displacements.

The Eagle ALPA MEC has serious objection to management’s stated intention to move American Connection flying from St. Louis to Chicago. Information released by management indicates that Chautauqua Airlines will replace American Eagle on certain short flights and will operate from the “L” Concourse in Chicago.

The Eagle ALPA MEC finds this to be wholly unacceptable. It not only represents a violation of American Eagle’s duty to “aggressively seek to increase flying opportunities” and to pursue “bidding on opportunities to provide additional feed to American Airlines” but it also transfers existing operations away from American Eagle and the very employees who built these routes and markets. Most egregious is that some of the Eagle pilots who built this operation are still on furlough.

The present circumstances are vastly different from 2001 when Chautauqua first began providing feed to TWA-LLC. American Connection has existed for some time now, but has performed regional feed to American on a limited basis in St. Louis. When this arrangement began, we challenged it through the grievance and arbitration process. Arbitrator Nolan specifically ruled that Eagle did not breach our contract when it decided not to seek the St. Louis feeder flying. A fundamental factor in his decision was that Eagle was already growing – we had approximately 2700 pilots – and the Arbitrator concluded that management was following a prudent expansion plan.

As AMR now moves forward with plans to pull down flying in St. Louis, the appropriate course of action would be to exit the relationship with Chautauqua. Certainly, there is no basis to expand Chautauqua’s role as an AA feeder on routes they have not previously served -- including Chicago routes presently being flown by Eagle pilots.

We will act immediately to oppose this plan. It is the first move by AMR to advance a third party airline into routes currently being flown by American Eagle pilots and test our pilot group’s resolve. What a tragedy that today, when we should be celebrating the announcement of new aircraft deliveries, we are beginning preparations for one of the most significant battles we will face on this property.

For years, management has used all available means to convey to Eagle pilots that they are too expensive. Only when answering questions as part of the Congressional inquiry on the Colgan accident did Peter Bowler admit that the longevity of Eagle pilots has significant value.
Sadly, when growth at our airline is stagnant and management is presented with an obvious opportunity to simultaneously grow our airline and to drive down costs, they rush to accommodate and position Chautauqua in our own backyard.

One would think that management might understand that the monies paid to Chautauqua over the past few years were actually strengthening American’s competitor. However, the current move solidly indicates management’s intentions. Rather than quickly recalling our 71 furloughed coworkers by growing Eagle, and ridding themselves of current competition, AMR seems to be going out of its way to build a “portfolio of regional feed.”

Your MEC will insist that management “aggressively seek to increase flying opportunities” and “bid on opportunities to provide additional feed to American Airlines” as required by the contract.
Please make an extra effort to stay abreast of communications from the MEC and your LEC representatives. As we engage with management and learn more about these upcoming changes, we’ll pass the information on as quickly as possible.

Until then, Fly Safe…

Capt. Tony Gutierrez
EGL MEC Chairman

Should be a slam dunk. Good luck Eagles.

what sort of cancellation penalty is there on the chautauqua contract? if its anything like the delat or frontier ones i doubt american can waste the cash to pay a huge penalty.

how is eagle losing routes in this? arent they gaining 22 airplanes while chq is keeping the status quo of 13 airplanes?

The issue is not really about CHQ or its pilots. It's about defending the language in our contract protecting our flying. Something any pilot group should do. I haven't heard too many Eagle pilots attacking CHQ pilots for this. The overwhelming majority of us know the real situation.

This is about Eagle pilots vs. AMR. If ALPA were to stand by and allow this unobjected, it would set precedent against any future incursion to our operations. No guarantee of success, but you have to try.

I hope the wholly owned MEC's are watching....

Why doesn't RAH just buy Eagle to stop this from happening?

I am trying to remember my eagle contract's language regarding this but I cant off the top of my head. But if the sole complaint is about the “aggressively seek to increase flying opportunities” and “bid on opportunities to provide additional feed to American Airlines” then I dont see what sort of stand the eagle has against the company when eagle is the one getting "increase(d) flying opportunities" to "provide additional feed to American Airlines" with the additional CRJ's. If you wouldnt mind helping me and fellow RAH pilots understand the situation I am sure it would be appreciated.

He is saying that chq is replacing eagle on some of the routes in ord, that is a violation of the contract because eagle already had that flying.

The exact reasoning behind a previous arbitrators ruling on why he denied the TSA grievance, so it would seem there's some precedent.

But this is AMR's grand plan, to set up the inevitable whipsaw.