RAH Union Letter to AE MEC Chairman
 

Captain Tony Gutierrez
American Eagle MEC Chairman
Xxx xxx Way- Suite xxx
Xxx, TX xxx

Dear Captain Gutierrez,

On behalf of the Executive Board and all the nearly 3,000 pilots of Teamsters Local 357 representing the pilots of Republic Airways Holdings, I'd like to thank you and your pilots for your strong stance in rejecting your management's latest concessionary demands. We know that this is a difficult time and strongly believe that pattern bargaining amongst all pilots in the industry is crucial to upholding our profession, regardless of what Union we are in and what management we work for.

As you know, the pilots at Republic Airways Holdings, which includes pilots of Republic Airlines, Chautauqua Airlines, and Shuttle America, have been in negotiations since 2007, the last two years in federal mediation, and have gotten nowhere. Yet we continue to insist that RAH negotiate in good faith a contract that rewards our pilots for what we contribute to our Company's profitable bottom line, and not engage in some "race to the bottom" theory that has besieged our industry for the past several decades, the "regional" segment in particular. And I know you and your pilots stance is to be commended, because no doubt what your management attempting to do will be echoed by all managements in the industry if we pilots allow it to continue.

I know that my Negotiating Committee Chairman, Dan Sneddon, consults regularly with Doug Gibbs and we want to continue to coordinate our efforts when it comes to this crucial time confronting both our pilot groups.

So I just wanted to personally take the time to encourage you and your pilots, as I know your fight is our fight as well. Holding the line is holding the line for all of us at Republic, too! Thanks for all you do, Tony, and if there's anything you need from us here at Local 357 and our Republic and Frontier pilots, just let me know. We support you and stand at the ready.

In Unity,

Craig Moffatt
Executive Board President- IBT Local 357
317-xxx-xxxx

RAH Union Letter to AE MEC Chairman
 

And we look forward to taking more of your flying in the future. Sincerely yours.

Took the words out of my mouth!

AA management takes flying away, not rah pilots. No pilot group takes flying away, management farms it out to get one to low ball and then squeeze the rest. Anger or disgust should be directed to management not pilot groups.

So if 200 of your pilots at you regional realized your flying was farmed out to X regional, and left to go do it, that wouldn't be there fault? Only managements fault that pilots left your airline because they wanted to fly another airlines big jets?

Whatever helps you sleep at night. Another classy move by the IBT. Put real Eagle pilots on the street then thank them for the opportunity to transfer the jobs to Repugnant.

I think that all that is being said here is, management teams are the powers that accept or decline flying. Unions can make it easier for management teams to add or remove flying by voluntarily ratifying concessionary contracts because they fear that their jobs are at risk. I applaud Eagle's MEC for taking a stance that others have failed to take! It's nice to see that the EXCO for Local 357 has pledged solidarity with their fellow pilot brothers and sisters. We need more of this! IMHO, ALL MECs and EXCOs should embrace and support (publicly) what the Eagle MEC has done. The race to the bottom has to stop!!!

Nice letter, but wrong recipient. Moffatt apparently has no clue he congratulated the very guy who spearheaded the "B-scale" behind the scenes at Eagle and the only thing that stopped him (this time) was lack of agreement by a sufficient number of MEC members.

Moffatt's cozying up to the worst guy possible regarding this issue.

You have a valid point, but we have to look beyond whom he addressed the letter. In my eyes he addressed the letter to the MEC chairman, not necessarily Tony. In my eyes he was addressing the Eagle pilots and I am sure he is not naive to know Tony's history and the fat that he will be gone in less than two weeks.

Of course he references Eagle pilots and they DID have a hand in influencing their reps in opposition to Gutierrez's beliefs, but he shouldn't have included Gutierrez in any way if he truly knew the facts. If his contact in the future is Gutierrez, that isn't much benefit to Eagle pilots per se. I understand Gutierrez only has a limited time in office, so hopefully whenever the next significant issue for all concerned arises requiring collaboration, it won't be Gutierrez or any of his sidekicks involved with mapping this pilot groups or the regional industries future.