April 2, 2013
Pilots of Council 121
We hope all of you had a wonderful and safe Holy Week.
We are approaching 17 months in bankruptcy. With the announced and UCC approved merger with USAir we now extend our time in bankruptcy to accommodate the process creating a new company.
Although Eagle faced similar representational and corporate structural challenges we have for the last 25 years, AMR added the need to diversify their feed. We now look at the divide between USAPA East and West, APA and ALPA represented groups. We add USAir and AMR regional feed providers as well as USAir owned Piedmont and PSA creating one heck of a layer cake.
This merger poses some interesting scenarios, impediments and opportunities. Our new CEO has a very different way of operating his regional feed than AMR had been doing and the complexity of both systems will take a careful and methodic hand.
New York is unique in that we have a pilot group that is engaged and maintaining a level of professionalism as demonstrated by the 200 million we brought in to the corporation as found in the monthly financial report to Judge Lane and the Unsecured Creditors Committee.
Here are a few things you have brought to our attention:
• Two pilots submitted a resolution to prompt a discussion at the next MEC meeting regarding the hiring at USAir that could place our pilots in the 824 at a disadvantage. Sam and I will shepherd this to the floor for discussion.
• Another discovered that the company has been covering cancelled flights out of DFW to cover our code share partners.
• Several others have caught scheduling working deals with NY reserve pilots that were displaced out of DFW, ORD and SJU to LGA/JFK wreaking havoc on the reserve staffing and call out in base. Asking to be “ground transported” to your former home base to cover open trips in that base out of seniority order is unacceptable and subverts both our working agreement as well as the simple seniority rule. We have asked our Pro Stds folks to speak directly with these pilots and gently encourage them to stay on course and follow their contract. No matter how enticing the offer seams – interfering in a seniority based system is a double edge sword please remember that causing one of your peers to be assigned prematurely out of seniority order is unacceptable.
Here are a couple of issues we want to bring to your attention:
1. New York ready reserve room will remain at the hotel for a little longer as the company remodels the hanger ready reserve room.
The tests done for the company to comply with the OSHA complaint came back negative leaving the room available for use. The bed bug issue was confirmed and a more aggressive plan for removal and treatment was implemented.
2. AQP- Progress has presented itself in the form of a resolution process to the “off track” questions that plagued us several months ago. The bankruptcy has presented us a timely break to that process allowing the parties to work differences and come to a more realistic understanding of what concerns the pilots under this new system which will greatly benefit all involved IF it is implemented properly. We will continue to monitor the progress and should have an LOA for your review shortly.
3. PBS- On February 13th the MEC was presented with a high level overview and discussion of PBS. After the meeting was closed, the Negotiating team presented the MEC with a full Letter of Agreement less than a week later yet only several hours before the LOA went before the company. To date the negotiating committee has moved past version 2 with the company yet no version has been approved by the Master Council. Sam and I are concerned and remain vigilant. We clearly understand your steadfast guidance that a pay cut is far better than a sub-par PBS system.
4. MEC Officer Abuse of Power- Several weeks ago we published a letter from Council 83 First Officer Rep, Kelly Paul regarding a flagrant violation of MEC policy regarding the purchase of alcohol at group meals paid for with your dues dollars.
In response to the blowback from the leadership team toward MEC Secretary Treasurer Gaston Valdovinos and Council 83 FO Rep Kelly Paul for their discoveries, several pilots from around the system met at ALPA HDQ in Herndon VA to verify what First Officer Paul found as well as check to see if this was a onetime event or a pattern of abuse.
First Officer Igou was one of those pilots. He has sent several letters to ALPA National asking for their involvement. Those pilots subsequently found a pattern of blatant and intentional action to subvert MEC Policy.
The scope and depth of the abuse of funds uncovered dwarfs the discovery of the SPC “snackgate” receipt several months ago and helps Sam and I to truly understand why the MEC Chairman and Vice Chairman went to such lengths to lock the Secretary Treasurer out of the office, out of his ability to review and approve expense reports and force him back to the line in response to his attempts to resolve the SPC expense from last year.
Today we received the appended letter and receipt from Kelly Paul to the pilots of Council 83. To wrap our heads around the scope of this repeated abuse I have included a spread sheet breaking the “meal” down into parts for your review.
There is one point to keep in mind as you review this expense incurred by the members of the leadership team, grievance, negotiating and SPC committees with 1 member of the Master Council also in attendance. All of these individuals were in the room when the MEC alcohol policy was debated and approved yet no one seemed concerned as they were ordering at this meal. You also must realize that this meal was the beginning of a night of massive consumption by these same individuals, the alcohol receipt that FO Igou released last week for your review from Barmy Liquor in Washington for a total of $177 was incurred on the same date.

Reviewing this receipt Sam and I sat back in our chairs in amazement and ask, would we allow a group of people who so blatantly and flagrantly abused both our trust and our dues money manage our financial future and get us to our retirement? I am shocked at the realization that these are in fact the same people we have put in positions of power and trust to negotiate and manage our contract which ultimately affects the livelihood of every pilot on this property.
Fraternally,
Sam and Phil