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This is your
MEC chairman, Marcin Kolodziejczyk, with an
update for Dec. 9, 2011.
Grievance was
one of the main agenda items this week with
a pregrievance meeting and meeting of the
System Board of Adjustment. Grievance
Committee Chairman Tad Hetler and System
Board Chairman Scott Ewing met with several
company personnel in Phoenix to resolve
issues that have arisen since the last
meeting in Nov., as well as to address other
cases that were discussed previously but
required additional information from the
Association and/or the pilot. We were able
to get 7 issues resolved (most involving
money for our pilots) to our mutual
satisfaction. Remaining issues were either
resolved or need additional data. Affected
pilots will be notified shortly.
Uniform
appearance was again a topic at this
meeting. Keep in mind that the public sees
us as a pilot and does not identify us with
any specific airline. If we expect to be
treated as professional airline pilots and
respected throughout the industry for the
outstanding service that we provide our
partners, we need to dress accordingly.
Also of note,
your grievance representatives reviewed the
software glitch Dash-8 pilots encountered
while bidding for December Golden Days on
Saturday, Nov. 26. We believe that all Dash
pilots have since been accommodated. If this
is not the case, we need to know as soon as
possible. Any Dash pilot who was unable to
bid for Golden Days on Nov. 26-27, needs to
e-mail the Grievance Committee at
MesaGrievance@alpa.org
so that we may help to resolve the issue.
Now let’s talk
about our furloughs. As mentioned last week,
we are pleased with the company’s increased
projections that will bring many of our
furloughed pilots back to the line. The
company has also mentioned that only one in
two furloughs are accepting recall, making
us question how many pilots are only
accepting recall due to contractual
requirements and how many will actually show
up to training. This should be an eye opener
for senior management that something needs
to be done – and fast!
As we have
stated on numerous occasions, it’s a pilots’
market. Many regional and mainline carriers
are hiring currently or have plans to do so
in the coming months. And tomorrow, Dec. 10,
several regional carriers will be at the
FltOps.com Regional Airline Pilot Job Fair
in Orlando. Two additional job fairs are
scheduled in Jan. 2012, including a SkyWest
job fair in Tempe and an ex-pat job fair in
Honolulu, and more are scheduled throughout
the year. [Check out
FltOps.com
for more information.] If this aggressive
schedule is any indication, we can expect to
see a lot of movement within our industry in
the coming months.
Pilot
retention will be key. Mesa has an
experienced, professional group of pilots
and senior management needs to be able to
retain those pilots and attract new ones if
and when the time comes to do so. This
starts at the bargaining table, which leads
me to my last topic for the week – contract
negotiations.
Our next
negotiating session is scheduled for Jan.
17-19. It’s seems fitting somehow that our
next session will be in the New Year. At
that time, we expect the company to be
prepared. Current Book Won’t Fly! Nor
will we allow the provisions of our contract
to be diminished. We recognize the
challenges this company is facing and have
developed reasonable proposals that will
provide our pilots with the improvements we
deserve and enable the company to
take advantage of any flying opportunities
that may present themselves. The company
must do the same in order to get a deal
done.
That’s it for
this week. Happy holidays!
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