Air Line Pilot Magazine January February 2023

New Beginnings

I’m honored and humbled to begin my four-year term as the 12th president of ALPA. As you’ll read in this issue, our union is more than 67,000 members strong and proudly represents the finest aviators in the United States and Canada. I intend to build upon our Association’s 90-plus year history and continue to advance our profession while taking on the unique issues that affect airline pilots’ careers and the global airline industry.

Like many ALPA pilots, I started my career flying for a regional airline. I was hired by Delta Air Lines in 2000, just 18 months before the terrorist attacks of 9/11 would change the airline industry forever. I would lose my pension and be furloughed. While furloughed, I flew for a charter airline where I advocated for labor and helped build a strong safety culture.

I had served as an ALPA local council representative prior to being furloughed. When Delta pilots turned down an inadequate contract in 2015, I knew it was time to get involved in union work again. After serving as Membership Committee chair, Strategic Planning Committee vice chair, Master Executive Council (MEC) secretary, and ALPA executive vice president, I was elected the Delta MEC chair in January 2021. During this time, COVID-19 impacted pilots’ lives in numerous ways—including taking a huge economic toll. Many airlines, however, emerged stronger than ever.

Recently, I’ve been proud to stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with thousands of fellow pilots from many different pilot groups as we’ve sent a clear message to airline managements, the news media, and the traveling public regarding fatiguing schedules and that pilots have earned the right to be recognized for our contributions during the pandemic.

As a result of our solidarity, ALPA pilot groups are making progress in achieving contracts with improved pay and work rules that reflect our value. While these agreements mark progress, many other U.S. and Canadian pilot groups are continuing work to negotiate contracts. Our union supports these groups with vast resources to secure improvements in pay and benefits along with quality of life, scheduling, and job security.

We’re focused on the same goals at the state and national levels. For example, since January 1, ALPA successfully stopped one airline’s push to remove state labor protections from airline pilots. We’re also working to block managements from misusing visas to hire foreign workers to artificially deflate wages and threaten pilots’ job security.

At the same time, regardless of the titles proponents use, such as “reduced-crew operations” or “extended minimum crew,” our union maintains that the strongest safety asset on any flight is at least two qualified, experienced, trained, and adequately rested pilots working as a team on the flight deck. Any effort to undo the safety gains we’ve achieved by reducing the number of pilots, reducing pilot training requirements, or rolling back first officer qualifications is clearly dangerous, and ALPA will continue to defend against any erosion of these lifesaving safety standards.

To that end, we’re increasing our engagement and working with the International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations and other pilot unions around the globe. We need to use every available resource to combat the threats to our profession, within and beyond our national borders.

At the onset of the pandemic, pilots were understandably concerned about their future. Through ALPA’s successful advocacy efforts with the U.S. Congress to develop and implement the payroll support program, many furloughs were prevented. At the same time, thousands of pilots retired early. Since then, airlines have hired thousands of qualified and experienced pilots while maintaining our industry’s high level of safety. Our current system of hiring and training pilots works. We can train new pilots, improve pilots’ livelihoods, and maintain our safety record.

I want to be clear that the line pilot drives our union’s agenda, and the varied experiences of every pilot will shape our collective goals. We recognize—and welcome—the generational changes that are occurring within our ranks as well as in our industry (see page 61).

ALPA pilots are demonstrating our solidarity on the flight deck and across pilot groups. Building on our heritage, we’ll work to foster a new generation of airline pilots that reflects and supports the communities we serve.

Working together, our union will deliver the best possible representation for every ALPA pilot. We’ll move forward together because we share a love of aviation and a desire to leave the profession better than we found it.