We won, and so can you!

Fellow Pilots,

I am very pleased to be able to assist my friend Jeff and the Air Methods Pilots’ organizing committee in this great undertaking. I know it has not been easy for you; it will not be easy this time either. What I can tell you though is this, if your experience is anything like ours, you will not regret making the OPEIU choice.

Most of the improvements that came from organizing at PHI, Air Log, and Ft. Rucker are well known. Rather than go into all of them, I want to discuss another aspect of organizing that you may not have considered. It has to do with your participation in the Professional Helicopter Pilots Association.

When you are recognized, you will automatically become full members of the PHPA, a council within the OPEIU. You already know it is important for your voice to be heard in the arenas where PHPA membership can gain you entry. It is true that we already have EMS pilots both at PHI, and at CareFlite. For now, theirs is the only EMS voice within the PHPA, and through PHPA, internationally. Clearly, we need the pilot’s voice from the world’s largest provider of aeromedical services. Moreover, we need it as soon as possible. Only you can make this happen. You are the ones who must seize the place you rightfully deserve in the international community of pilots.

One last note: I cannot speak for others, but when I first became involved in organizing, I could not quite shake the notion that I was being disloyal. All sorts of bad things would happen to ‘my’ company when we ‘went union.’ I could not help worrying about it. As you now know, PHI and Air Log are both financially better off than ever before. We won, but PHI did not lose. No, I am not saying that organizing made the two companies do better. What I am saying is that it will make an enormous difference for you and your family. Besides, where is loyalty important? We think it is to yourself, your family, and to your fellow professionals; these three first.

I look forward to meeting, or at least talking to as many of you as I can. Ask me how it went at PHI, and then decide. We won, and so can you!

Wishing you all the best,

Stephen D. Ragin, Union Pilot
President, OPEIU Local 108
Pro-OPEIU is not Anti-AMC.