Our Union: ‘It’s Not Bragging If You Can Back It Up’

By Capt. Tim Canoll, ALPA President

As our union celebrates its 85th anniversary, it’s impossible not to recognize the common denominator that makes ALPA so uncommonly successful in achieving our mission and attracting others to join us in the endeavor. What is it? How completely and fully our pilots engage in our union’s work.

For 85 years, ALPA and our pilots have engaged like no other organization to build a strong, safe, and secure North American airline industry and to advance the airline piloting profession. The results stand out and have helped our industry—and our members—experience success on a scale beyond any in history.

A recent example is ALPA pilots’ incredible mobilization against Norwegian Air International’s (NAI) foreign air carrier permit application. More than two years ago, ALPA sounded the alarm that NAI’s flag-of-convenience business plan posed an affront to U.S. air transport agreements and to a fair and free marketplace.

As you’ll see in this issue, ALPA’s campaign against NAI’s business plan was fueled by a display of enormous unified support from across ALPA and many other unions. A huge number of ALPA pilots—more than 18,000—took part in the Association’s call for the White House and U.S. Department of Transportation to deny NAI’s foreign air carrier permit application. Nearly 60 percent of ALPA’s United pilot group participated in the union’s Call to Action, along with 49 percent of Delta pilots, 42 percent of Spirit pilots, 37 percent of Virgin America pilots, and 32 percent of Air Wisconsin pilots.

Our campaign against NAI is just one of the many examples of tremendous rates of engagement among our members. Whether it’s the participation rate of a Call to Action or growing our union, the number of members who raise their hands to step up is inspiring. ALPA’s recent merger with the Frontier Airlines Pilots Association saw the passionate engagement of ALPA pilots who volunteered to help as well as the engagement of the Frontier pilots who resoundingly voted to become members of ALPA—93 percent of the pilot group’s members voted, and of those, an incredible 93 percent voted to merge with ALPA. Frontier pilot leaders are already learning the broad scope of resources now available to them as ALPA members. And we’re keen to see each Frontier pilot engage in every aspect of our union.

Pilot engagement also lies at the heart of why ALPA’s collective bargaining vision and direction have resulted in so many gains for our members. In the span of a little more than a year, we’ve reached 11 new contracts or contract extensions that move ALPA pilots and our profession forward. The pilots who fly for Air Transat, Atlantic Southeast, Bearskin, Canadian North, CommutAir, ExpressJet, FedEx Express, Kelowna Flightcraft, Sun Country, Trans States, and United have all bargained new contracts or contract extensions─progress that wouldn’t have been possible without the dedication of these members.

Eleven pilot groups are currently in negotiations, and, again, ALPA pilots’ engagement is in clear evidence at every turn. For example, 97 percent of Hawaiian pilots participated in their strike vote in May, and an overwhelming 99 percent voted to approve the strike ballot. The vote followed an incredible turnout at their informational picketing where hundreds of Hawaiian’s pilots showed up in force and were joined by ALPA pilots who fly for other airlines.

ALPA pilots are equally engaged in furthering the safety and security of the North American air transport system. More than 40 percent of the FedEx Express pilot group weighed in to urge Congress to do more to advance the safe transport of lithium batteries by air. While the U.S. Senate and the International Civil Aviation Organization have made encouraging steps forward, more must be done to take on this very real danger.

Since 1931, our members have not only determined the course of ALPA’s work but have backed it with the full weight of their intellect, industry, ingenuity, and spirit. As the late Muhammad Ali said, “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”

This article was originally published in the June 2016 issue of Air Line Pilot.

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