PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
** Fact-check the company town hall with your Union Executive Board at 6 p.m. Eastern on Monday. Email invites to follow. **
In my last message, I explained why I directed our Negotiating Committee to leave the table after the company failed to provide the economic number we had repeatedly been promised. At this latest session, we made a different decision. We stayed for the full week to understand what the company envisioned.
The Company’s own update makes its sequence clear: it will not make a comprehensive economic proposal until there is greater alignment on the contract framework. In the meantime, it wants us to consider changes to deadheading, training, hours of service, scheduling, and reserve rules, changes it says will improve productivity, flexibility, and financial performance. The Company is asking pilots to discuss concessions now while withholding the economic proposal needed to evaluate what, if anything, pilots would receive in return.
We had agreed with the company that we would not fall back into positional bargaining. We would negotiate fairly and find a way to reach a good deal for our pilots. A deal that ensures our crew members are not left further behind. The company has broken that promise. The Negotiating Committee and I have made clear that we fundamentally disagree with this approach. After years of record profits, it is unacceptable that pilots are still being left behind. A quick deal no longer appears within reach.
Atlas and Apollo can fund a fair CBA. They have chosen not to. This is a choice about priorities. The company’s proposals would make pilots fund the improvements we are seeking by giving up protections and working longer duty hours.
We have told the company there is no need to meet again in two weeks. The Negotiating Committee will use that time to reassess our strategy and prepare a robust proposal for the November meeting. We will put our full language proposal on the table so both sides’ positions are clear and we can determine the next steps under the Railway Labor Act. If mediation becomes the right step, we will decide whether requesting it serves the pilots’ interests.
Improvements to our CBA will not be handed to us. We will have to fight for them. The company and the NMB are not our friends, and neither will fight this battle for us. Our strength comes from one another. The unity we showed in the recent LOA vote must carry into the fight ahead. We are prepared to stand together and fight for the fair CBA our pilots deserve.
Yngve Paulsen
President
IAP 2750