Thoughts on a Contract Concession

[These thoughts were written prior to ALPA members' vote on a major airline tentative agreement in the summer of 2006.  The T/A passed by a vote of 63%.]

…I’ve heard the “live to fight another day” argument.  The next opportunity for me to fight another day will be in about seven years.  That’s when I’ll be leaving the piloting profession.  So this may be my last chance to do something to remember Captain Behncke, the other “key men” who started the Air Line Pilots Association and all the pilots who worked hard, struck over the years and took great risks to build the profession.  They are the ones who made our jobs great.  Theirs are the shoulders I stand upon. 

I ask myself what my legacy will be for the generations of airline pilots to come.  Will I leave them something worthwhile or will I leave them crap?

My hope is when the last pilot steps off the last flight of the last manned airliner that he will walk off the jetway in his airline pilot uniform with his head held high.  I hope he will not slink off the airplane through the catering truck in his tennis shoes and frayed overalls, his head down and his shoulders slumped, with his minimum wage salary being the legacy we left him.

Heritage and legacy are the things I think about when I put on the uniform that has been the visible symbol of the airline pilot profession for seventy five years.  Like a cardinal’s vestments, the stripes, wings and hat speak of tradition and distinction.  I’ve often wondered if there is a connection between the current trend toward “uniform relaxation” and the “relaxation” of our wages and authority.  Does the corporate conscience want to “dress us down” in an effort to change the collective perception of our worth and thus feel justified in lowering our “unit labor cost?”  Does it think that replacing captains’ authority with centralized command and control will be more efficient; cheaper?

Even the threat that either of these might be true is reason enough for pilots to suit up and resist any attempt to change.  Change is not bad except when it is in the wrong direction.

When it comes to the tentative agreement, should we take a risk?  Sometimes the fight is worth it.  In 1776, General Washington and the boys fought against the unholy alliance of the East India Company and the government of Britain.  The American Revolution was about freedom from corporate greed.  What was born of that conflict was the United States.  Today’s fight … our fight … is against the same forces. 

The middle class of this country is the greatest economic engine the world has ever known.  The corporate robber barons and their puppets in government are waging a full assault on the middle class in an attempt to grab as much wealth for themselves as they can in the shortest possible time.  We in the airline business are in the vanguard of the fight to preserve a way of life. 

During the American Revolution most of Washington’s army gave up and went home at the first opportunity.  We will do the same thing?  It’s a good thing for the United States that they all didn’t quit.

I went on to tell my friend that my bet is that the judge in the bankruptcy case will act for the creditors if we vote down the TA and head in the direction of a strike.  He will not take the company to liquidation.  Shuttering the company is not in the best interest of the creditors.  That is the reason United Airlines is still in business. 

Then I said that maybe I was wrong, that perhaps the company would liquidate.  Still, I voted for what I thought was right.

Meanwhile a lot of the pilots are scared.  But as we learned in the last presidential election, fear works as a tactic.

A friend wondered if it wouldn’t be more prudent to “take the back door out of the Alamo,” that it might be more prudent to vote “yes” on the tentative agreement in order to “live to fight another day.”  Each one must assess the risk and determine how he or she wants to fight.  One thing is clear to me … voting with only fear in mind is unacceptable.  That is cowardice.

[Pilots' current contract] fights are skirmishes in a battle in a much bigger war. Once the voting on the TA is done, the greater conflict will continue.  We must keep the enemy in our sights and remember that when this day’s fighting is over, regardless or whether we choose to stay in the Alamo or take that back door to ensure that we will be alive for the final battle at San Jacinto, there will be more days of conflict ahead.