By PATRICK COURREGES
Acadiana bureau
Published: Sep 22, 2006
LAFAYETTE — Union pilots with the PHI helicopter transportation company continued their strike for a second day Thursday, calling for retroactive pay from increases pilots say they should have received during nearly three years of contract negotiations.
Jack Bower, secretary for Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 108, said Thursday that among the issues that led to the strike is that, during the recent 2 1/2-year negotiation period between the union and the company, pilots did not receive regular pay increases, such as cost of living.
He said that union pilots want that retroactive pay, as well as agreement on sick leave accruals the company wants to pull back and on requiring all pilots in the company, union or not, to pay union agency fees.
Bower said that the union is required to represent all pilots whether union or non-union, so should be paid to cover expenses.
A PHI official, who did not identify herself, said the company’s news release on the subject matter, sent out Wednesday, still stands and would be the only information released Thursday.
According to the release, about 25 percent of the pilot work force is participating in the action and the company has implemented contingency plans to continue normal operations as much as possible.
The release says that PHI has offered the pilots an industry-leading compensation package, and management is disappointed that the union has elected to go through with a work stoppage.
A company statement released in August, noted that PHI management believes that the union has “regrettably persisted with unreasonable and irresponsible economic demands” for the past two years of bargaining.
Bower said the 25 percent figure given by PHI is probably low, but that because of the shift schedules within the company, the true number will probably not fully be known until today when the three-day shift rotation is scheduled to change.
He said that no more than half the pilots are on duty at a given time, and if 25 percent of the total force did not show up for work, that could mean about 50 percent of the pilot work force might be expected to be participating in the strike.
Bower said he has heard that the stoppage has caused the company problems in meeting its contract obligations with one large customer, BP, and several smaller ones.
He said that pilots think the company is holding fast to its stance in hope of breaking the union by forcing them to choose between holding out and crossing the picket lines.
Bower said many pilots have already crossed back, and his own wife was frightened by a letter sent by PHI stating that he would be “permanently replaced.”
He said “permanently replaced” is not the same as fired, but the company wants to scare pilots who believe they cannot get their jobs back if they do not abandon the strike.
Story originally published in The Advocate