After listening to the ALPA National's recent conference call answers to the Atlas membership (actually lack of answers, a lot of tap dancing around the posed questions, outright miss representations to the crews on many, and outright lies on a couple of issues I have direct knowledge of ) I can see why IBT is coming to the combined group. Of course, the National team on the phone blamed Polar for everything. I'm sure if Polar had a conference with them that they blamed the Atlas membership likewise.
The recent removal of most of the Atlas members from the National Cargo and Safety committees by Prater is another. There is nothing at ALPA for us left. Especailly since they have cut our budget to 1/4 of Polar's and they are less than half the Atlas crewforce size. Tells me everything and why the IBT is next for us.
Also came across this email in response to Pat Walsh's (Fedex MEC) letter to the Atlas membership trying to convince them to stay ALPA. The author inserted his responses in bold and I guess most of us can guess who wrote this judging from style an prose.... I left his name/email off since National is getting rid of all the Atlas guys they can.
Captain Pat Walsh, MEC Chairman at ASTAR Air Cargo, has requested that ALPA forward this letter to you.
November 21, 2008
Dear Fellow ALPA Pilots,
I realize that you have an important decision to make, whether or not to leave ALPA for the IBT. Of course, this decision can only be made by the Atlas and Polar pilots, who know the issues better than an outsider like me. Therefore, I won’t try to convince you to stay with ALPA if you don’t want to.
I’d like to point out that this is the same Pat Walsh who not only worked feverishly to revoke our access and membership in favor of Polar’s in GCAP (the Global Cargo Pilots Alliance); begun by Dan Brannan, former DHL/ASTAR MEC Chairman who was a solid Atlas supporter. GCAP is the group who invited us to join them as representative of BOTH Atlas and Polar, and invited Dave Bourne to their meeting in Leipzig that led to Rolf Buttner of ITF/Ver di, the EU trade unions, to visit with us in Miami. The same meeting that Bobb Henderson crashed and referred to us and ABX and Atlas as “scabs” in the presence of Dave Ross from ABX.
The same Pat Walsh who joined the Prater/Helling/York/Luby bandwagon and called Dave Bourne a “scab” a “mobster” and a “union raider.” Whom, when I challenged him about his comments at the May ALPA Executive Board, said he was “just repeating what he had heard from higher ups at ALPA.” Real class act.
But I do want to tell you about our pilot group’s experience with ALPA representation during very challenging times. Since Astar Air Cargo is also an ACMI carrier with about 500 pilots, I think our experience with ALPA is relevant.
Astar is owned by John Dasburg. Who has been selling off ASTAR’s aircraft, leaving older CAT I planes. Something Rolf Buttner spoke about when he came to visit us from Germany in January 2007 when we showed him a CAT II and III approachs in the -400 sim. DHL had just been forced to suffer through a week of no flying by ASTAR because the weather was below their minimums.
Given the train wreck that has occurred during Pat’s tenure and that of his predecessor, it would be better to ask their last real MEC Chairman Dan Brannan, to comment.
As the ASTAR MEC Chairman, I can tell you that our group has received and continues to receive excellent service from ALPA Communications, Legal, and Legislative Affairs staff. After four years of often arduous negotiations, in March of this year we ratified a Collective Bargaining Agreement that is one of the best in the industry. We received a 20 percent pay raise over four years, a decent retro settlement, improved work rules, and improved job security. It was truly an extraordinary achievement, considering DHL was losing over a billion dollars a year. And while our pilots fought hard to achieve this, there is no doubt in my mind that we would not have accomplished this contract without ALPA. In addition to the tens of millions of dollars our pilots received in retro and pay raises, we also obtained a two-year no-furlough clause.
I fully agree that the STAFF of ALPA (with the exception of a small few) are top notch folks. They are what made ALPA the best in the business over the years. Unfortunately, even they are being abused and watching their years of dedication and hard work for pilots…and those who came before them for 77 years…being destroyed by the current elected ALPA National leadership and those who carry his water.
Unfortunately, the Teamster-represented ABX pilots (Local 1224) who also provide DHL lift have not had the benefit of these same ALPA resources. They have been trying to negotiate for four years, have never reached a new agreement with the wage improvements, work rules, and job security provisions that we have, and are now engaged in concessionary bargaining as their airline is downsized.
Pat, that may be true. Sad thing is, Atlas pilots have been trying to negotiate for years too…and will now have to do so in a lousy economy, because in January 2007, John Prater made a promise to conclude the Atlas Polar merger rapidly and get the contract done. Our management has been ready. We (Atlas) have been ready. We have a PID that has been delayed for years because John Prater, Randy Helling, Bob Henderson, Robin Hair and Bruce York and Bob Savelson have stopped it. We Atlas pilots have gone since 2005 being denied access to the JNC process because of Polar and John Prater. Where we could have had a new contract in a sound economy, we will now have to deal with the current economy. Because John Prater lied to us time and time again. Our pilots have gone without fair representation by ALPA. Why have you not spoken up for us Pat?
As I am sure you are aware, in May DHL announced that they plan to reach an agreement with UPS that would have UPS supply all of DHL’s North American air cargo service. Immediately after that announcement, we started fighting to stop DHL and UPS from consummating the agreement with an aggressive media campaign, political lobbying, and litigation. ALPA spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on newspaper ads all over the country and in Germany, staged several picketing events, and lobbied Capitol Hill. In addition to our pilot lobbying efforts, ALPA Legislative Affairs and Legal staff as well as ALPA President, Captain Prater, lobbied on our behalf.
Without taking anything away from the Ohio Congressional delegation or Teamsters Local 1224, who also objected to the agreement on the grounds that it was a violation of antitrust laws, ALPA played the critical role in obtaining the Congressional hearings. And at the hearings, dozens of ASTAR ALPA pilots attended at ALPA’s expense. There was also an impressive display of solidarity with dozens of pilots from other ALPA airlines attending. In addition, ALPA filed a grievance and a lawsuit against DHL, and the ALPA Legal Department will likely be litigating our case in the courts for years to come. ALPA will continue to represent us just as they did the Emory pilots, long after our company ceases operations. Unfortunately, no matter what happens with the DHL/UPS agreement, it is clear that the jobs of all ASTAR and ABX pilots are in jeopardy. However, the fact that we have protections against furlough in our agreement gives us some tools to work with in dealing with this threat. As bad as our current situation is, we are certainly much better off with the new contract that ALPA negotiated.
While this is well written hyperbole from ALPA for you to sign, (maybe not since it was “Emery” not “Emory”), the sad reality is that John Prater made promises in May and throughout the summer about getting a contract done here… and broken each of them as well.
I take comfort knowing that ALPA is there for us now and will continue to be there for us even if we lose our flying to UPS. ALPA recently has been putting lots of resources into assisting furloughed pilots and ALPA pilot groups—Delta is just one example—have recently negotiated preferential hiring opportunities for ALPA pilots who lose jobs because of company shutdowns. You may have noticed the Furloughed Pilot link on the ALPA website.
Pat, while this is laudable, the Atlas pilots and the Atlas MEC, under the leadership of Dave Bourne take a back seat to NO ONE when it comes to helping furloughed pilots with finding employment. We didn’t need to “negotiate” it…we just made a phone call and got it done. We also led the fight in the first secondary strike in support of another ALPA carrier…one where you sat on the sidelines and did nothing. Unlike every other ALPA carrier, one and only one ALPA carrier stood up and did the right thing; and suffered not only the consequences of their company, but that of being called scabs by other ALPA carriers. And only one who stood the test and was proved not guilty…Atlas Air. You have stood openly with those who called us scabs…and now you want us to trust and listen to you as an impartial observer? You either have no memory or no honor. Or both.
As a side note, I am happy that Delta did this. As a former Eastern pilot, I have to wonder how many jobs and families they could have been saved had the taken such an honorable step in March of 1989. Instead of just taking our planes and gates.
Of course, I didn’t mention the improved safety and security that our pilots have benefited from by being in ALPA. Or the international, technical, and industrial expertise that we have received from IFALPA, thanks to our ALPA membership.
A membership (IFALPA) that has been marginalized by Captain Prater’s politization of the process by appointing his flunkies to oversee the actions of ALPA’s appointed IFALPA representative. We must also wonder what was gained by taking numerous representatives of ALPA carriers who did not engage in international operations; but were political allies, to the Mexico City meeting, who walked around according to one foreign participant; “smoking cigars, drinking and acting like a bunch of gangsters.”
Nor did you mention the fact that the Vice Chairman of the National Air Safety Committee was passed over in favor of a political appointment to replace the outgoing USAirways Chairman. And at ALPA Air Safety Week; an event he was critical in organizing and executing this year and years past, he was the ONLY person specifically not recognized by the President of ALPA out of petty political partisanship…an act seen by even those outside ALPA as disgraceful and shallow…beneath the dignity that once was ALPA’s hallmark.
Only the Atlas pilots know the issues and the reasons they should stay or leave ALPA, and I respect that. I just wanted to tell you about our pilots’ experience.
Thank you Pat, our pilots DO know the issues. One thing that Dave Bourne and I prided ourselves upon was in giving our pilots the FACTS…and letting THEM decide.
And Pat, I trust them today to do the same thing. Without your spin, Bill McReynolds or anyone else’s. What I’m really curious about is this. During our sympathy strike for Polar, when the FedEx MEC Chairman called me and branded our pilots scabs and this MEC as scab supporters, Bill McReynolds was silent. When the FedEx pilot who was the Strike Oversight Board representative to Polar during the strike concurred with Polar in writing that Atlas pilots were scabs, nothing was said. You were made aware of Bob Henderson’s comments in January 2007 in Miami when he said in my presence and others that he wanted Polar to be owned by ASTAR so they would not be “scabs” like Atlas was to them or ABX was to you. You’ve said nothing to refute this.
Yet now you tell us you “don’t want to convince us,” and you “respect us.”
Pat, your previous comments about Dave Bourne and your utter silence on other things speaks volumes.
Good luck with your decision and your careers.
In Solidarity,
Patrick Walsh