PHPA supports AMC pilots
There are so many things I would like to tell you about the process
you are about to undergo but it would take a book to cover them
all. Consequently I will try and cover a few of the things I have
found most interesting about this union business since I became
involved with it.
First I must say that when I came to work here at Rucker I was as
anti-union as they come. I refused to join the union here for the
first couple of years because of my anti union feelings. It wasn't
long before I started seeing how the company was doing everything
in their power to prevent us from gaining anything, so I started
looking closer at the union. I started looking for facts and listening
less and less to those stereotypical ideas imbedded deep within.
One fact which impressed me most was eighty-five percent of the
pilots were members of this "Open" shop union. This means
they did not have to join but chose to do so anyway. This said to
me that these guys obviously knew something I did not. What they
knew was this union was what stood between them and the company.
This union prevented a deterioration in wages, benefits and working
conditions. This union was taking care of its members as best it
could and eighty-five percent of the workforce was smart enough
to support those efforts by joining and supporting their union and
all it stood for. I was learning, and even though it was a slow
process, I eventually realized that there were no "Jimmy Hoffa's"
at work here. There were however some very dedicated fellow pilots
who held these volunteer positions and were fighting the battle
day in and day out to help us gain better wages, benefits, and working
conditions.
Soon you and your fellow pilots will have the opportunity to decide
whether you want these same protections in your work place. It will
be a tough decision for many of you because you really have no factual
background to base your vote on. So, I will attempt to give you
some idea of how our union here at LSSI has benefited us.
First, having a union does two things. One, it weeds out the bad
employees and two, it weeds out the bad managers. It weeds out the
bad employees like this. Once the CBA is in place there will be
a set of rules to work by. There will also be a set of prescribed
punishments for breaking those rules. Consequently, when a pilot
breaks a rule his punishment is already determined in black and
white. Some rules have to be broken several times in a given time
frame before an employee is fired. Other rules need only be broken
once to warrant dismissal. As long as the company plays by the rules
and documents the infractions, the union will agree and the employee
will receive the prescribed punishment. I have been on this job
for twenty three years and have never been punished in any way.
Of course I know what the CBA says and I stay within its guidelines,
and yes we have had several pilots fired because they could not
stay within those guidelines and they were fired with the unions
blessing. You see, we don't want to work with bad pilots anymore
than the company wants to keep them on the payroll. We also have
saved one pilots job who was dismissed unfairly for something the
company was eventually found to be partially at fault for, and recently
we had a members forfeiture of two weeks pay reversed to a letter
of reprimand because the punishment did not fit the infraction.
Sometimes the company leaps before it looks and it is those times
having a CBA is of real benefit to the workforce.
Now for the bad managers. Bad managers end up weeding themselves
out by causing so many grievances to be filed against them that
the company eventually tires of their inability to play by the same
rules everyone else plays by and they end up letting them go. You
see, the CBA is a set of rules that BOTH sides must play by equally.
Unfortunately a few managers have built their own personal little
empires and they just can't let that go. This ends up causing them
to continually abuse the CBA, which in turn causes grievances to
be filed, which in turn the company gets tired of losing, so out
goes the empire builder and in comes someone who can live within
the guidelines of the CBA.
Now, weeding out the bad guys is a great benefit but an even greater
benefit is the one which says you get to sit down across the table
from the company at prescribed intervals and "negotiate"
a new CBA. Think about this for just a moment. How many times in
your career have you been able to schedule a series of meetings
with the company officers to negotiate better wages, benefits and
working conditions for yourself? How many times in your career have
you had the opportunity to collect your thoughts over a period of
time about things you would like to see improved and then compile
those thoughts into a program to present to the company who "must"
consider them and then negotiate them with you in good faith? Guys
and Gals this is something you will never accomplish without the
protections of a CBA. To put it bluntly, you have two choices in
this business. You can be a part of the process which directly affects
your future or you can stay on the outside hoping against hope that
this year the boss will treat you a little better. Personally, my
career is the business which supports myself and my family and I
want to have some control over how that business is managed. Having
a CBA gives me that control.
In closing I would ask that you all do yourselves a favor and look
at the facts and eliminate the rumor, innuendo, and old wives tales.
One fact I feel is most important is nearly fourteen hundred of
your fellow pilots have already chosen the security of the CBA.
The pilots at LSSI, Air Log, PHI and CareFlite have all made the
same decision. These work forces are made up of the same exact type
of pilots you have at Air Methods. LSSI has had a union in place
for thirty years and it is getting stronger because the members
are participating more and more as they realize that corporate America
is working harder and harder to take away from the employees. We
were told during this last negotiation that there would be "No
raises in 2003". After careful reconsideration of "Our"
proposal and the "Facts" to go with it I personally received
a $17,000.00 a year raise over the life of a thirty three month
contract. So, as you can see...Negotiations Work! And the only way
you will ever get to negotiate is to form your own union at Air
Methods. Therefore, my suggestion is if you want some control over
your career simply vote YES!
Feel free to call or email me with any questions you may have. I
will be glad to discuss anything you wish to talk about.
Butch Grafton
President - PHPA
Butch@autorotate.org
334-790-4417
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