Air Line Pilot Magazine September 2024

ALPA Is Leading Big Wins by Unions

In the past year, 11 ALPA pilot groups ranging in size from 180 to more than 16,000 members have ratified new collective agreements—some for the first time. The profiles in this issue leave no doubt how ALPA’s 43 pilot groups in the United States and Canada are capitalizing on their equal access to our union’s abundant resources to not only improve their own pilots’ careers but also set a brand-new standard for airline pilots in the industry (see page 13).

As we begin 2024, our union continues to target its formidable expertise and financial backing to support pilot groups in negotiations and during all phases of their companies’ development, including mergers. At the same time, we’re also putting an intensive new focus on making certain managements respect our collective agreements.

Managements’ attempts to break their pilot agreements can take many forms. For example, managements may try to unilaterally publish partial blocks rather than follow the agreed-upon process and work through such issues with a pilot group’s Scheduling Committee. Airlines may attempt to break exclusivity agreements for providing feed to a mainline carrier, assign layover hotels without consulting the master executive council, fail to inform pilots of the calculations behind the pay they receive, or refuse to pay negotiated contractual overrides. In these and all disputes, the solution is the same: pilots working through our international union to follow the established process to resolve the issue.

To help facilitate this collaboration, ALPA has set up its first-ever Association-level committee dedicated to contract enforcement—the President’s Grievance Committee, which is charged with coordinating ALPA’s institutional knowledge, experience, and best practices for grievance-related issues. In March, we’ll launch an Air Line Pilot series detailing how we’ve resolved thousands of individual grievances and used the data to inform negotiating goals and create stronger contracts for all ALPA pilots.

ALPA’s dispute-resolution strategy is helping improve pilots’ careers, create pilot jobs, and propel the labor movement to a position of new strength. It’s also allowing us to push collective agreements to the next level—and our success is getting noticed. For example, as The Wall Street Journal noted in “The Big Wins by Unions in 2023,” unlike those of other unions, many ALPA contracts feature “snap up” provisions that ensure that when a pilot group ratifies a collective agreement, its pilots don’t lose out when other groups reach deals in the future.

Contract snap-up provisions are just one example of how ALPA protects and supports its pilots in every aspect of their work. In another, after voicing our concern about a recent change to China’s crew visa application requirements for U.S. flightcrew members who are military veterans or reservists, the U.S. State Department informed ALPA that the process will return to normal and crews will no longer be required to provide military documentation. Our union is monitoring the situation closely to ensure that this successful policy outcome is followed in practice.

In Canada, ALPA continues to support pilot flight-time/duty-time regulations that were released in 2018 and oppose attempts to weaken or suspend them (see page 11). We created the ALPA Canada Flight and Duty Time Task Force, which is charged with reporting on our union’s

outstanding safety concerns and will work to gather data needed to ensure that airlines adhere to the science-based rules that protect pilots from fatigue.

Similarly, no one is more committed than ALPA to enhancing the assistance that our industry provides pilots around mental health. While the airline piloting profession is highly vetted and scrutinized, the United States and Canada can—and must—do more to encourage pilots to report issues as well as clarify their path to recovery and safely returning to the flight deck. During the NTSB’s “Navigating Mental Health in Aviation” summit, ALPA representatives underscored how, for 50 years, our union has led a proactive approach to pilot mental health and stands ready to help the industry do more (see page 57).

As U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg notes in this issue (see page 5), recent near misses and the aircraft door plug accident have demonstrated once again the importance of professional and well-trained pilots and crew on the flight deck. As lawmakers continue their FAA reauthorization efforts, Congress must stand firm against needlessly and arbitrarily injecting uncertainty that would compromise the U.S. air transportation system.

Big or small, ALPA pilots make every ALPA win possible. And each one adds up to a stronger profession for every pilot in the United States and Canada and a safer air transportation system for passengers and shippers.