HONOLULU, May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The pilots of Aloha Airlines, represented
by the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), today announced
their filing of a legal challenge seeking reversal of management actions that
violate job-protection terms of their contract.
The pilots contend that, by allocating flying under the Aloha code to
former subsidiary Aloha Island Air, Aloha management breached contractual
"scope" provisions that restrict the outsourcing of Aloha pilots' jobs and
require ALPA approval of new code-share agreements.
"The company evidently believes they found a way to do an end run around
our scope clause. However, ALPA is confident that legal precedent will support
the contention that management's actions violate the protections contained in
the collective bargaining agreement," said Capt. Conrad Waggener, chairman of
the Aloha pilots' unit of ALPA.
The Aloha pilots' action does not seek a reversal of the sale of Island
Air. Rather, it seeks either the restoration of Aloha flight assignments that
otherwise would now be transferred to the Island Air operation or an agreement
between management and ALPA on an alternative that would allow the arrangement
with Island Air to continue as an exception to the contractual code-share
restrictions.
The contract language in question was added to the Aloha pilots'
collective bargaining agreement as part of their concessionary negotiations
related to Aloha's application for an ATSB loan guarantee in February 2003.
Management offered the job protections in return for the ten percent reduction
in wages and benefits that the pilots and other Aloha Airlines employees
delivered.
According to ALPA's president, Capt. Duane Woerth, the issue strikes at
the heart of airline pilots' collective-bargaining interests. "Unlike workers
in most other industries, airline pilots make an enormous sacrifice if they
decide to leave an employer for which they've worked any significant period of
time. The seniority system forces them to restart their careers with a new
airline at the bottom of the pecking order. Consequently, pilots are more
'wed' to their employers than most other workers. This is why job protections
-- securing the pilots' right to perform the flying that generates revenue for
their respective carriers -- are essential safeguards in airline pilots'
contracts," Woerth said.
"Given the importance of this issue to all airline pilots, and the intent
of the Aloha pilots' contractual scope language, ALPA finds Aloha management's
attempt to circumvent these job protections highly objectionable," Woerth
added. "This association will give the Aloha pilots any and all support they
need to rectify this matter."
Founded in 1931, ALPA is the world's oldest and largest pilots union and
represents 64,000 airline pilots at 42 airlines in the U.S. and Canada. Visit
the ALPA website at http://www.alpa.org.