Ask Government To Start Clock For A Potential Strike
Hawaiian Airlines pilots represented by ALPA declared Monday
they believe their contract negotiations are at an impasse, and
asked the federal government to release them from mediation, a
process that could start the clock for a future pilots’
strike at the airline.
In a letter sent to the National Mediation Board (NMB) on behalf
of the Hawaiian pilots, ALPA President John Prater outlined three
years of stalled negotiations where HAL management has repeatedly
demanded contract concessions from its workers while the airline
soared to unprecedented profits and richly rewarded its senior
executives.
“The Company continues to insist that its present business
plan requires significant sacrifice from pilots and other
employees. That position is not justified by either the competitive
environment, the Company’s place in the industry, or its
present financial condition,” Prater said. “There is
simply no reason to believe that the Company will change its
position without the imposition of a deadline and the possible
release from mediation. The Association believes that further
mediation is not likely to lead to an agreement and that further
bargaining, in the absence of a proffer, will be futile.”
ALPA formally requested that the NMB end its mediation efforts
and issue a Proffer of Arbitration to both parties. If the Board
makes a proffer and either ALPA or Hawaiian declines to enter
binding arbitration, the two sides would be released from mediation
and will enter a 30-day cooling-off period after which the parties
are free to take self-help. At that point Hawaiian’s pilots
could strike.
Capt. Eric Sampson, chairman of ALPA’s Hawaiian group,
said when the company announced a $30.7 million net profit for the
3rd quarter of 2009 at the same time they asked pilots, in large
part, to fund pay increases with productivity savings and work rule
changes, it was unacceptable to the union. The Company continued
its track record as one of the most successful airlines in the
United States and put it on target to record over a $100 million
profit for the year.
With that profit, like last year, company executives will share
millions of dollars in bonus money – enough, the union says,
to fund the contract improvements ALPA is seeking. The bonuses and
awards that Hawaiian gave to just its top five executives in 2008
are almost double the amount ALPA has asked for in 2010 pay raises
for its more than 400 HAL pilots. HAL CEO Mark Dunkerley alone
received a 42 percent increase in his total compensation in
2008.
“Our pilots have worked under a bankruptcy-era contract
for almost five years, while the airline made more and more money.
Every time the Company needed help, we stepped up to the
plate,” Sampson said. “We helped them emerge from
bankruptcy, we made acquiring new Airbus A-330s possible by
agreeing to fly those larger planes for the same rate we fly our
current Boeing aircraft, and we waived work rules to fly more hours
so the Company could fill the void left when Aloha and ATA stopped
flying.”
“To us, ‘ohana’ and ‘aloha’
aren’t just company marketing slogans. They mean something.
We’ve had enough and we’re stating simply that pilots
and other employees have to be rewarded the same way that
management rewards itself for the Company’s unprecedented
success and extraordinary financial performance,” Sampson
stated.
In a strike authorization vote taken earlier this fall, 98
percent of participating HAL pilots gave their leadership the
go-ahead to declare a strike if the NMB releases ALPA to self-help.
It would be the first walkout in Hawaiian’s 80-year
history.