AAWW Negotiators and Leaders Brief Members on Groundbreaking Contract
It’s been slightly over two years since the pilots and flight engineers of Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo, (AAWW) voted to leave another pilot union to join the Teamsters Airline Division. This week, they began briefings on what eluded them for years with their previous union and led to their joining the Airline Division. Something they have now accomplished with the Teamsters; the joint collective bargaining agreement.
While the three sections awaiting the ruling of a Federal arbitrator are expected shortly, the negotiating committee and members of the Executive Council conducted a crewmember meeting describing the highlights of the new SCBA in Miami this past week.
Committee Chairman Captain Bob Ulrich presented to the crewmembers what can be described by any critical measure as a game changing contract in an industry where pilots have suffered devastating losses in pay, pensions, benefits and changes in work rules that have eroded their quality of life in recent years. The new contract now places the crewmembers of the new combined unit; known as Atlas Air Worldwide, on par with the pay and benefits of many “legacy” passenger airlines, who have long been considered the “gold standard.”
In addition to hourly rate pay raises averaging 30% for Polar and 14% for Atlas that brings the two groups to parity; work rule changes over the current working agreements can yield a monthly increase of up to a 41% for Atlas crewmembers and a 50%for Polar crewmembers, when compared to similar flying conducted under the old work rules. Travel, long a concern for the crews who operate around the world on very difficult schedules was also extensively improved, allowing crews the ability to get home in an expedited manner after they have completed their trip. Additionally, improvements on the number of days of vacation, additional medical disability coverage, an expedited grievance process with the union control of the docket, and a 10.5 million dollar signing bonus are some of the additional improvements in the agreement.
Profit sharing is also extended to the Polar crews in the agreement as well. In March, the Atlas crewmembers received profit sharing calculated at 20.1% of their past years W-2 salary.
“When we began this process two years ago, Airline Division Director David Bourne promised our pilots and the negotiating committee that while the decisions were ours to make, he would be there to fully support us as we moved forward,” said Ulrich. “He delivered on that promise with the Airline Division, and with the entire International offering us tremendous support. “It was because of Dave’s support that we were able to bring in Captain Rick Dubinsky as our professional negotiator. Rick’s expertise, which was responsible for negotiating the biggest airline pilot contract in history at United Airlines, was critical to our success. We were also able to have with us John Wentz, the outside legal council for the Airline Division and Local 1224 as our lead legal council. His expertise in writing the language of the new SCBA was invaluable in ensuring the language of our contract was written in a way that provides us the strongest leverage possible should we ever need to go to arbitration on an issue. When it came to scope; one of the most critical areas of the contract, when we asked Captain Bourne for his thoughts, he suggested we talk to Roland Wilder, who is recognized as the best attorney in the country on Scope language to ensure we have the strongest scope language possible. Our decision to bring him aboard gave us a tremendous team at the table,” Ulrich continued.
Additionally, we had help from Airline Division Representative Scott Hegland. Crewmember negotiators were Polar Captain Dan Wells who was on the former Polar Negotiating Committee Chairman, Atlas First Officer Paul Kvernplassen and Atlas Captain Bill Holcomb who was on the Scope subcommittee with Dan Wells. The make-up of this Negotiating Team is what made our outcome possible.
“One thing that became readily apparent as we proceeded was the tremendous disadvantage our previous Atlas Air union leadership and negotiating team were under from the first contract. They inherited a flawed document that had been rejected by the members and were given very little opportunity by the NMB and our previous national union to do anything but make just enough structural changes to get it ratified,” Ulrich said. “In the years that followed, they tried everything they could to make more changes and they deserve credit for their tireless efforts.
“Our crewmembers stood strong throughout this long, drawn out process and the leadership and support from our TEC, and Local 1224 Present Joe Muckle has been excellent.
In the end however, the one person who was always there for us in the background was Division Director Dave Bourne. When we needed something, he always delivered. In my opinion it was his leadership as the Division Director and knowing that we would have the support from Dave, as well as General President Hoffa and 1.6 million Teamsters if we needed it, which made this contract possible,” Ulrich concluded.
Contract road show will be scheduled once the final SCBA clean-up work is completed. The contract will be implemented upon receipt of the final rulings on the open sections from the Federal arbitrator.
Week In Review News Items
Labor Developments
Fourteen airline unions from the United States and seven other countries have formed a cooperative global organization to give workers a stronger voice in dealing with the world’s major airlines. The One World of Labor Council was created this week during a two-day meeting of union officials in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Transport Workers (TWU) and sponsored by the London-based International Transport Workers Federation (ITF).
Does Air Canada need a low cost subsidiary? Or will a blood transfusion do? Yesterday, the flag carrier’s pilots’ union effectively dumped its leader, declaring war on management’s recent proposal to establish a low cost subsidiary. This could be a seminal few weeks for the carrier…and American Airlines flight attendants upset at executive bonuses while company profits continue to fall picketed at Palm Beach International Airport this week.
Legislative, Safety & Regulatory
The U.S. Department of Transportation this week issued a long-awaited final rule on a number of air travel consumer protections it had proposed last June. While new regulations related to tarmac delays, contingency plans, consumer complaints, flight delay notifications, oversales and other areas are set to take effect in 120 days, DOT deferred a decision on whether to force airlines to make information about charges for optional services available via the global distribution systems in which they participate.
The US Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday issued new work rules aimed at preventing air traffic controllers from falling asleep on the job during overnight hours. Six separate incidents have alarmed regulators and safety advocates in recent weeks, including a lone controller at Washington's Reagan National Airport who fell asleep on March 23 with two jets en route. The new rules give controllers an extra hour of rest time between shifts and require FAA managers to work more early-morning and late-night hours.
Federal aviation officials say another air traffic controller has been suspended, this time for watching a movie when he was supposed to be monitoring aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement on Monday that it had suspended a controller and a manager at a regional radar facility in Cleveland that handles high altitude air traffic.
Airline Industry Finances & Structure
The first quarter is always weak one for airlines, as travel drops with the start of the new year. But this one was especially difficult, the airlines reported Thursday, as fuel prices spiked and Middle East unrest and the earthquake in Japan cut into demand for international flights. The rise in jet fuel prices — up 50 percent in the last year — has been particularly tough, airline executives said. And even though the airlines have repeatedly resorted to fare increases this year, higher fuel costs have largely eroded their revenue gains. Fuel now accounts for about 40 percent of an airline’s costs, up from about 30 percent last year.
Leadership Profile
When United and Continental merged last year to create the world's largest carrier, the official announcements never came out and stated the deal's true rationale: to blend Continental's management with United's scale. That's one reason former Continental chief Jeff Smisek is CEO of the new company. While he's scrupulous about calling the combination a merger of equals, nearly all of top management hails from Continental, which was far more successful than United over the past 15 years, despite being smaller. United, with a history of nasty labor relations, even went through bankruptcy from 2002 to 2006.
Miscellaneous
It happens fairly frequently – maybe one in every 20 searches or more. A travel website shows you the lowest price for air travel, and when you click to buy, gosh darn, the price just went up. Are airlines or their ticket-selling agents baiting you with a low price and then switching you to something a bit higher once you have your desired times and flights?