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Pilots pressed to fly more
US Airways says it needs more efficient work rules; talks with union starting today
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Perhaps the most critical talks in US Airways history begin today as pilots and management sit down to discuss how US Airways plans to survive and what it needs from the pilots to do so. Pilots expect to hear details of the company's long-awaited restructuring plan and to discuss work rules -- complex contractual language that defines what a pilot can do and when he or she can do it. US Airways wants to change some of those rules to make the airline more productive by getting pilots to fly more.
Whether pilots agree to those changes could determine the airline's fate.
"I think we will cut to the chase," said pilots spokesman Jack Stephan.
Won through decades of bargaining by the powerful Air Line Pilots Association, the work rules govern how pilots are paid, how many hours they fly, how much vacation they can take, their sick leave and how their weekly and monthly schedules are set.
They guarantee pilots certain number of paid hours per month (as few as 72 and many as 85) whether they fly or not, and a certain number of paid hours per work day (at least 5). Untangling these rules will be complicated and politically difficult, since pilots have already granted the carrier $565 million in annual wage-and-benefit cuts, signed off on major pension benefit changes and called for the resignation of US Airways Chief Executive Officer David Siegel.
But US Airways says changes are needed to get its pilots in the air more hours every month. Observers say the airline would like to push the average to about 65 hours a month, from about 52 hours now. As a carrot, management has indicated it could add 60 new planes to the fleet.
But the pilots have a different view of the situation. If pilots are not flying enough, they say, it is the company's fault, not theirs.
"We don't control that," said Bill Pollock, chairman of the US Airways pilots union. "We would like to, but we don't. We are saddled with the scheduling we get."
This week's talks in Arlington, Va., a possible prelude to formal negotiations, could be the beginning of yet another classic conflict between two familiar antagonists.
"Management wants to paint the bleakest picture imaginable of the pilots," said George Hopkins, a Western Illinois University professor who has studied and written about the pilots union. The company's goal, he said, will be to make them "look as greedy as they can." But pilots also "want to get what they can get."
Next to wages, the "work rules" dispute is one of the oldest in the airline industry, and it is traditionally an argument over "who should prosper from increased technological productivity," Hopkins said.
The first test came in 1946, when Trans World Airlines moved from flying DC-3 planes to the larger DC-4 with four engines. The new planes had double the capacity and traveled twice as fast, and thus pilots wanted to be paid double to get their share of the increased productivity. Management refused and the pilots union staged its first national strike.
The pilots, in the end, got their increase, although not as much as they originally sought. But, "the pattern was set," Hopkins said. "Over time, each contract always improved upon the contract of its competitor," thereby "jacking up the house, one corner at a time."
Following are some rules that are likely to come up in the days and weeks ahead:
The amount of time pilots spend in the cockpit.
US Airways pilots average between 52 and 55 "hard" or "block" hours in the cockpit each month, well below the numbers at low-fare competitors Southwest Airlines and JetBlue, where pilots fly as many as 67 and 73 hours per month, respectively.
There is a device in the cockpit that records the start and finish of the so-called "block" hours, which begin when chock blocks are pulled from the plane's wheels and end when the plane pulls into the gate and the blocks are replaced on the wheels.
Raising the hours would allow the company to narrow the gap between what pilots are paid and what they actually fly.
How many hours pilots are paid each month.
The key to increasing the pilots' time in the cockpit is fiddling with the total number of hours for which a pilot is paid each month and how each hour is accounted for. While pilots may fly only 52 to 55 hours a month , they can be paid for up to 85 hours of "work."
Pilots can get to that total through hours spent in the cockpit, training sessions, vacation time and "deadheading" -- a term describing the transfer of a pilot from one place to another, by plane, to position him or her for a flight from another airport. Pilots counter that by saying that training is mandated by the federal government and that during the training sessions, pilots are paid for only a half-day's work. The same is true with vacations, when pilots receive pay for three hours and 45 minutes per day.
Observers expect US Airways to ask the pilots to raise their monthly maximum from 85 to 95 hours of work a month. The company, in return, could offer to add 60 new Airbus A320 planes to the mainline fleet -- and thus more jobs for pilots.
"Being able to have 10 or 12 free days each month at the end of the month has always been an important element of [pilots'] career choice," said local analyst Bill Lauer. "What you see happening is because of [low-cost carriers], that lifestyle is under siege. If the company is successful in pushing them to work 95 hours, it will have impact on the total amount of monthly free time these guys have."
How pilots are paid.
Pilots' hourly pay is set according to experience, rank and the type of plane they fly. Many make more than $100,000 a year and some make close to $200,000. But airline observers do not expect Siegel to go after wages. Instead, they expect him to ask for changes in the way workers track their time while on "duty."
Pilots are often scheduled on blocks of three- and four-day trips that may involve a lot of flying on one day and little on the next as the pilot rests for the return trip. For each day, pilots are paid according to a complex formula that takes into account three work rules: minimum duty credits, duty rigs and trip rigs.
The trip and the duty period start at the same time -- one hour before the first flight on the first day of the trip. The duty period ends 15 minutes after the last flight for that day, and the trip "rig" ends 15 minutes after the last flight on the last day of the trip.
A pilot is guaranteed a "minimum duty credit" of five hours of pay per day, but he or she can earn more if forced to wait for long periods of time between flights. Thus, time spent in hotels or airports in between flights often counts as time on the clock.
This system of duty pay dates back to the beginning of air travel, when pilots delivered mail, not passengers, and as a result would sit for long periods between deliveries. The pilots asked for duty rigs as a way for the company to pay for the pilot's time even if the pilot was not actually flying and to force the carriers to use their pilots more efficiently.
It "is an ancient complaint of pilots -- put us to work," Hopkins said. "If you can't keep us flying as much as you want us to fly, that is your problem, not ours. You can't treat airline flying like you can a factory job."
The pilots' reserve system.
If a pilot calls in sick, it is up to the company to find a replacement crew. For that, it turns to the "reserve" pilots who wait to be called into action. Reserves are guaranteed 72 hours of pay per month, even if they fly only 20.
Last year, though, the pilots agreed to changes in the way reserves are called up, ensuring that replacements are picked according to the number of hours a pilot has flown that month as opposed to seniority. That agreement narrows the gap between how much a pilot actually flies and what he or she is paid, but it has taken almost a year for it to become effective. It starts Feb. 1.
The change will save the company lots of money. Still, the pilots chairman argued that being a reserve pilot is demanding work. "These are guys who are called out when an airplane breaks or somebody gets injured or calls in sick or an airliner is hit by lightning," Pollock said. "It is certainly not money for nothing."
US Airways says it needs more efficient work rules; talks with union starting today
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Perhaps the most critical talks in US Airways history begin today as pilots and management sit down to discuss how US Airways plans to survive and what it needs from the pilots to do so. Pilots expect to hear details of the company's long-awaited restructuring plan and to discuss work rules -- complex contractual language that defines what a pilot can do and when he or she can do it. US Airways wants to change some of those rules to make the airline more productive by getting pilots to fly more.
Whether pilots agree to those changes could determine the airline's fate.
"I think we will cut to the chase," said pilots spokesman Jack Stephan.
Won through decades of bargaining by the powerful Air Line Pilots Association, the work rules govern how pilots are paid, how many hours they fly, how much vacation they can take, their sick leave and how their weekly and monthly schedules are set.
They guarantee pilots certain number of paid hours per month (as few as 72 and many as 85) whether they fly or not, and a certain number of paid hours per work day (at least 5). Untangling these rules will be complicated and politically difficult, since pilots have already granted the carrier $565 million in annual wage-and-benefit cuts, signed off on major pension benefit changes and called for the resignation of US Airways Chief Executive Officer David Siegel.
But US Airways says changes are needed to get its pilots in the air more hours every month. Observers say the airline would like to push the average to about 65 hours a month, from about 52 hours now. As a carrot, management has indicated it could add 60 new planes to the fleet.
But the pilots have a different view of the situation. If pilots are not flying enough, they say, it is the company's fault, not theirs.
"We don't control that," said Bill Pollock, chairman of the US Airways pilots union. "We would like to, but we don't. We are saddled with the scheduling we get."
This week's talks in Arlington, Va., a possible prelude to formal negotiations, could be the beginning of yet another classic conflict between two familiar antagonists.
"Management wants to paint the bleakest picture imaginable of the pilots," said George Hopkins, a Western Illinois University professor who has studied and written about the pilots union. The company's goal, he said, will be to make them "look as greedy as they can." But pilots also "want to get what they can get."
Next to wages, the "work rules" dispute is one of the oldest in the airline industry, and it is traditionally an argument over "who should prosper from increased technological productivity," Hopkins said.
The first test came in 1946, when Trans World Airlines moved from flying DC-3 planes to the larger DC-4 with four engines. The new planes had double the capacity and traveled twice as fast, and thus pilots wanted to be paid double to get their share of the increased productivity. Management refused and the pilots union staged its first national strike.
The pilots, in the end, got their increase, although not as much as they originally sought. But, "the pattern was set," Hopkins said. "Over time, each contract always improved upon the contract of its competitor," thereby "jacking up the house, one corner at a time."
Following are some rules that are likely to come up in the days and weeks ahead:
The amount of time pilots spend in the cockpit.
US Airways pilots average between 52 and 55 "hard" or "block" hours in the cockpit each month, well below the numbers at low-fare competitors Southwest Airlines and JetBlue, where pilots fly as many as 67 and 73 hours per month, respectively.
There is a device in the cockpit that records the start and finish of the so-called "block" hours, which begin when chock blocks are pulled from the plane's wheels and end when the plane pulls into the gate and the blocks are replaced on the wheels.
Raising the hours would allow the company to narrow the gap between what pilots are paid and what they actually fly.
How many hours pilots are paid each month.
The key to increasing the pilots' time in the cockpit is fiddling with the total number of hours for which a pilot is paid each month and how each hour is accounted for. While pilots may fly only 52 to 55 hours a month , they can be paid for up to 85 hours of "work."
Pilots can get to that total through hours spent in the cockpit, training sessions, vacation time and "deadheading" -- a term describing the transfer of a pilot from one place to another, by plane, to position him or her for a flight from another airport. Pilots counter that by saying that training is mandated by the federal government and that during the training sessions, pilots are paid for only a half-day's work. The same is true with vacations, when pilots receive pay for three hours and 45 minutes per day.
Observers expect US Airways to ask the pilots to raise their monthly maximum from 85 to 95 hours of work a month. The company, in return, could offer to add 60 new Airbus A320 planes to the mainline fleet -- and thus more jobs for pilots.
"Being able to have 10 or 12 free days each month at the end of the month has always been an important element of [pilots'] career choice," said local analyst Bill Lauer. "What you see happening is because of [low-cost carriers], that lifestyle is under siege. If the company is successful in pushing them to work 95 hours, it will have impact on the total amount of monthly free time these guys have."
How pilots are paid.
Pilots' hourly pay is set according to experience, rank and the type of plane they fly. Many make more than $100,000 a year and some make close to $200,000. But airline observers do not expect Siegel to go after wages. Instead, they expect him to ask for changes in the way workers track their time while on "duty."
Pilots are often scheduled on blocks of three- and four-day trips that may involve a lot of flying on one day and little on the next as the pilot rests for the return trip. For each day, pilots are paid according to a complex formula that takes into account three work rules: minimum duty credits, duty rigs and trip rigs.
The trip and the duty period start at the same time -- one hour before the first flight on the first day of the trip. The duty period ends 15 minutes after the last flight for that day, and the trip "rig" ends 15 minutes after the last flight on the last day of the trip.
A pilot is guaranteed a "minimum duty credit" of five hours of pay per day, but he or she can earn more if forced to wait for long periods of time between flights. Thus, time spent in hotels or airports in between flights often counts as time on the clock.
This system of duty pay dates back to the beginning of air travel, when pilots delivered mail, not passengers, and as a result would sit for long periods between deliveries. The pilots asked for duty rigs as a way for the company to pay for the pilot's time even if the pilot was not actually flying and to force the carriers to use their pilots more efficiently.
It "is an ancient complaint of pilots -- put us to work," Hopkins said. "If you can't keep us flying as much as you want us to fly, that is your problem, not ours. You can't treat airline flying like you can a factory job."
The pilots' reserve system.
If a pilot calls in sick, it is up to the company to find a replacement crew. For that, it turns to the "reserve" pilots who wait to be called into action. Reserves are guaranteed 72 hours of pay per month, even if they fly only 20.
Last year, though, the pilots agreed to changes in the way reserves are called up, ensuring that replacements are picked according to the number of hours a pilot has flown that month as opposed to seniority. That agreement narrows the gap between how much a pilot actually flies and what he or she is paid, but it has taken almost a year for it to become effective. It starts Feb. 1.
The change will save the company lots of money. Still, the pilots chairman argued that being a reserve pilot is demanding work. "These are guys who are called out when an airplane breaks or somebody gets injured or calls in sick or an airliner is hit by lightning," Pollock said. "It is certainly not money for nothing."
