OPEIU Local 108 (PHI) supports AMC pilots
14 August 2003
Fellow Pilots,
When groups such as yours are facing an election, it is common
for other organized groups to send messages of encouragement like
this one. It was no different at PHI when we had our election. Generally
the letters are of the same sort, but one from the president of
Norsk Vlygvorbund (Norwegian ALPA) had an unusual message I want
to share with you.
Of course he encouraged us to vote to form our own local union.
In addition, however, he warned us that no matter which way we voted,
we shared responsibility for what happens in our industry. It was
a simple truth we had never considered.
As you may know, the struggle to form a union at PHI was long and
difficult. In our frustration it was easy for us to blame our management
for all that is wrong in our little part of the industry. Even so,
we had always had the right to organize and to be a force for change.
By never previously forming a union, we too were responsible for
the way things were. We could have been influential, but until then,
we never were.
Speaking for those of us who are already organized, we are thrilled
at the prospect that you may actually form your own local union.
We know how influential you could finally be – well beyond
what your numbers would indicate – and we look forward to
the day when the world’s largest union of EMS pilots will
start to have the influence that only you will be able to muster.
Further, we know you are getting many conflicting messages. Despite
that, we believe you can know the truth. A common tactic for trying
to keep your union out is to take little understood issues and to
misrepresent them to cause confusion. Yet another tactic is to portray
the union as a bunch of outsiders who are trying to come in and
take over. Space does not permit tackling all the issues raised,
but I will address two of them.
First, it is true that there is no set NMB procedure to de-certify
a union. The implication is that once you vote one in you cannot
get rid of it. This is simply not true. If you look at the FAQ on
the NMB web site, you will see that a union can be removed, and
how to do it. Why would anyone try to mislead you in this fashion?
Further, we believe the best way to see if your group will be controlled
by outsiders is to look at the example of the existing helicopter
unions in the OPEIU. We run our own affairs, and have joined together
to form our own council within the OPEIU, the PHPA. We were trained
at the same places as you, and we are just as conservatively oriented
as you are. Of course we have Department of Labor standards to meet,
and OPEIU expects a certain level of professionalism on our part
as well, but nobody tells us what to do. And, we would never think
of going back to the way things were.
I have been fortunate to be able to visit or correspond with many
of you. In my travels I am repeatedly astonished at the scope of
Air Methods Corporation. With so many bases it seems like an impossible
management undertaking. Impossible, that is, until I realized that
such an organization cannot be “managed” in the traditional
sense.
Every time I would visit, I would see pilots pitching in to make
things work. Oftentimes I would walk up on a pilot tidying the aircraft
or performing some planning or customer relations function. Since
each base is minimally staffed, everyone must do this or the entire
program fails. It is your daily gift of professionalism that makes
AMC what it is and which distinguishes you. As a professional pilot,
I am proud to be associated with you, however distantly. As union
pilots, we will be prouder still if you choose to form your own
local union and associate with us.
Vote first for yourself. The union is you; it can be one of the
great ones.
Wishing you all the best that life can give,
Stephen D. Ragin, union pilot
President, OPEIU Local 108
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