Open letter:




Op/Ed Hosted by Unbiased Facts
August 12, 2009
An Easy Mark For The Boys in Phoenix
By Guest Writer Captain Chris Beebe
For years I have watched our pilot group run wild on rumor and innuendo. Unfortunately, the emotional appeal of using rumor instead of fact is so prevalent that the truth has little chance.
Nevertheless, I will address again only those issues in which I can personally stipulate to the facts.
After the concessionary contract ratifications at USAirways, I was being paid as a group 2 captain. I chose that position because it was what I could hold, even though I was entitled by resolution of the Board of Directors, to be paid as a group 1 captain. Also, by resolution of the Board of Directors, I was entitled to the pay rate I had on January 1, 2003. I voluntarily took the LOA 93 pay cut along with every other pilot at USAirways. I stayed at that rate until I could hold group 1 captain at which time I was voluntarily paid at the concessionary group 1 rate. Just to round out the allegations of the rumor mill, I did not get an ALPA pension. I got what all the rest of us got, PC3 and working until I die.
It might interest you to know that Paul Rice, the Secretary, and Dennis Dolan, 1st Vice-President, did exactly the same, again, even though the Board of Directors voted to pay all of us as though no concessions took place. In regard to the President, he is entitled to the average of the highest three ALPA carriers. Duane Woerth voluntarily went to the pay consistent with his seniority at Northwest. Contrary to your statement, and I would like to know your source because it is dead wrong, all four officers did just what I have stated.
As a side note, ALPA also elected, as a resolution that was brought by me, to publish the National Officers' pay and it was posted to the ALPA.org website for all members to see. Very few took the time to look because it was so much easier to avoid confusion by avoiding or ignoring the facts. MEC's were encouraged to do the same but it was left to their discretion to do so. I would hope that USAPA will publish their FPL numbers.
As for the pilots with the highest W-2 getting to change the Merger Policy, when that happened in 1990-1991, we were still very much at the top of the pay scales. And, it was the USAir MEC that got the bias for date of hire into the policy in the mid 80's prior to the PSA and Piedmont transactions. It had little to do with W-2 but a lot to do with fears at United and others at the time (aided and abetted by many who felt their ox had been gored in the Kagel decision). Do you think UAL would like date of hire today? That's why they introduced it at the Executive Board a year ago.
The TWA guys, as much as they may want to change history voted to abrogate their own seniority in the American transaction. They did so because they felt they had a gun to their
collective head and could take a bad deal or no deal. Sound familiar?


The issue of seniority at PanAm/Delta was not an ALPA national issue but one of dispute between the individual MEC's. And as far as help to our pilot group, we got about $3M over about 3 years for various efforts ranging from contract enforcement to picketing, to communications. I do not think our MEC was ever turned down for help of a financial kind. And this is where I want to shift gears because all of this is like pissing into the wind because no matter how much you put the truth out there, our group believes what they want and uses whatever rumor is around to validate their position. Nevertheless, here goes, again.
ALPA is very different from any other union. Here's how; ALPA is a decentralized form of governance. That is because the member MEC's and pilot groups insist on their own autonomy in making decisions and retaining their independence of the national. They have that authority under the constitution and by-laws and just as you might want the president to break that rule, he can not, under penalty of law. If he chose to enter that fight, as you suggest he should, both MEC's and both pilot groups, I would add, would have told him not so politely to mind his own business and butt out, again under penalty of law. As another side note, when a labor union, or a corporation for that matter, violates those rules, it is a federal offense. So you can not simply ad lib as you go. You must follow the rules or go to jail. That's why I have to laugh when one of our luminaries comes up with the accusation that an ALPA rep cut their own deal for their own benefit. You do what is in the best interests of the group you represent or face the consequences.
Another difference of ALPA is that ALPA officers remain members of their pilot group. At a union like the Teamsters, and maybe every other labor union in the US, officers are employees of the union. They are entitled to whatever pay their board decides, they get a union pension, and union benefits. Think of the Negotiating Committee, or the NAC, being employees of the international as opposed to members of our own pilot group. Gee, maybe we could call them professional negotiators. The founding fathers of ALPA decided, in 1931, that their officers both national and MEC would remain tied to their carrier and not be employees of ALPA. This was revised in 1934 to make the president the only pilot to be an ALPA employee in order to remove him from the influence of his own airline and make it easier to govern all of the ALPA carriers.
That continues today and the philosophy of remaining tied to your own airline is what gave rise to the many seminars, schools, and conferences ALPA provides (over 100 in all) to assist themember pilot groups in providing expertise in all their areas of safety, contract, legal, etc. Provide the education for each group to conduct their business.
My opinion? ALPA is gone because ALPA had baggage (some real, most rumored), our pilot group needed someone to blame (certainly we could not be blamed for our own ineptitude and poor judgment), and USAPA offered a sliver of hope while ALPA offered none. Unfortunately, the hope presented by USAPA is nothing more than illusion, and in time they also will have their own baggage to bear. The paradox and irony of a fresh start as a union being run by pretty much the same old gang is not lost on me. So, you are certainly free to make your own decision but please use facts and if someone can not verify what they tell you, you should give them no credibility.
Is ALPA perfect? Absolutely not. And the level of perfection or flaw fluctuates as various issues affect the individual pilot. I have told the governing bodies at ALPA that they must decide to be a union or a federation because they have been much more of the latter. Just as I have told them that the US Airways pilots, both East and West, will not return to the ALPA they left. But, are the Teamsters, or the TWU, or the IAM better representative of pilots? Hopefully we will have that choice before we all drown under the weight of inferior pay, benefits, and infighting that makes us an easy mark for the boys in Phoenix.
Regards,
Chris Beebe
