Pilots Show Support For Negotiator

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Nov 11, 2003
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Pilots show support for negotiator
By Steve Halvonik
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, September 11, 2004

Rick Thayer, a US Airways pilot for the past 19 years, has put his house in Chippewa, Beaver County, up for sale. His wife has gone back to work as a part-time secretary. And his 14-year-old son is worried about being transplanted to a new school district.

Thayer was among the dozens of Pittsburgh-based pilots who showed up at a union meeting Friday to vocally support Fred Freshwater, the rebel leader who helped shoot down US Airways' $295 million-a-year concession proposal.

"I've had it," said Thayer, a trim and youthful 51-year-old with a deep tan and full shock of black hair. "Fred Freshwater reflects my opinion exactly."

More than a hundred pilots from up and down the East Coast flew into Pittsburgh International Airport for a special meeting Freshwater and the other three union leaders from Pennsylvania called to review labor negotiations.

According to union members, more than 50 pilots signed up to speak at the closed-door summit, which was guarded by Allegheny County uniformed police. Many of those who spoke were Pittsburgh pilots supporting Freshwater.

Before the meeting began at noon, several Pittsburgh pilots patted Freshwater on the back and showered him with support. They let him know that regardless of how events play out, they support his hardline position against the company.

"I walked through the airport today with my head held a little higher," one pilot said. "Whatever happens, happens."

Even Teddy Xidas, president of Local 40 of Association of Flight Attendants, showed up to offer Freshwater support.

"I told him that what occurred is the right thing to do," Xidas said.

Thayer and other Pittsburgh pilots said they supported Freshwater because their lives have been turned upside down since US Airways filed for bankruptcy two years ago.

Since 2002, their salaries have been slashed and their defined pension was canceled as part of the $500 million in concessions the pilots made during the company's first bankruptcy reorganization. Now, they say, they are fed up with giving concessions to a company that's still unprofitable after more than $1 billion in labor givebacks.

One pilot pointed out that the company's demand for $295 million more in concessions amounted to about $90,000 for each of the 3,300 active pilots (there are almost 1,900 more on furlough).

Thayer said he had been demoted from captain to co-pilot and had his salary cut from more than $200,000 a year to about $100,000. A pension that would have paid him more than $100,000 a year was taken away. And he figured he had lost at least $200,000 in company stock that is now worthless.

If the union's leadership committee, known as the Master Executive Council, had approved the company's proposal on Monday, his salary would have been cut to $70,000 a year, Thayer said.

"I can't afford my house anymore. We don't know where we're going. At this point, I am numb," Thayer said.

Bob Cost, a Pittsburgh-based pilot from Moon, also said he supported Freshwater.

"That was a bad deal for us," he said of the company's proposal, which called for a 23 percent cut in salaries and a 50 percent reduction in contributions to the pilots' new pension plan.

"We've already given up too much," said Cost, who's been with US Airways for 27 years. "Would you want to work for 25 percent of what you make now? I'll look for another job."

At 56, Cost has only four more years remaining before he reaches the federally mandated retirement age of 60 for pilots. Under the current pension arrangement, Cost said he would probably receive a pension of about $30,000 a year -- only a fraction of the six-figured pension he would have received before bankruptcy.

Only one Pittsburgh pilot, who asked that his full name not be used, spoke against Freshwater.

"I appreciate what he's done and even his hard line," said the pilot, who called himself Mike. "But it's time to let us vote."

Rank-and-file pilots were denied the right to vote on the company's proposal when the four Pennsylvania representatives vetoed it on Monday.

Many pilots said they wanted the Pennsylvania Four to relent and let the rank and file decide its fate.

"I paid my dues, and I think I should have a vote," said George Simmons, a pilot based at Charlotte, N.C.

Garland Jones, an MEC member from New England, said the union split was not along generational lines, but along regional ones.

"We're all a senior group," Jones said, noting the average age of US Airways' pilots is 53.

In a veiled reference to Western Pennsylvania's reputation for pro-labor militancy, Jones said, "I guess geography and history do make a difference, don't they?"