The leadership of Hawaiian Airlines’ pilots union is accusing the company’s senior managers of “living in Fantasyland” regarding contract negotiations and is asking its members to authorize a strike.
Pilot voting is scheduled from Monday through May 17.
“The company’s fantasy approach to negotiations, and inability to move bargaining to a conclusion, is the reason that we write today to announce decisive MEC action,” the Air Line Pilots Association’s local Master Executive Council said in an internal letter Saturday to Hawaiian’s approximate 630 pilots. The two sides have been negotiating for more than a year over the pilots’ five-year contract, which became amendable Sept. 14.
A strike authorization vote is a common negotiating tactic among labor groups to apply more pressure during negotiations because it gives union leaders upfront approval to call a strike without having to later poll membership.
But the possibility of an airline strike, which would greatly affect Hawaii tourism and the local economy, is not as imminent as it could be with other industries because of the federal Railway Labor Act, which has stipulations meant to protect the U.S. economy and the public from interruptions of commerce while still permitting collective bargaining opportunities.
Under the Railway Labor Act, Hawaiian’s pilots would be able to strike only after the union is released from mediation by the National Mediation Board, arbitration is declined by either side and a 30-day cooling-off period is completed. However, if it is determined during the 30-day cooling-off period that a strike would deprive any section of the country of essential transportation service, the U.S. president could create an emergency board that could take another 30 days to propose an agreement. That would then be followed by another 30-day cooling-off period where the two sides could meet again.
“We are currently supporting the federal mediation process in the hopes of reaching an agreement with ALPA,” Hawaiian spokesman Alex Da Silva said Monday. “Every change to work rules and benefits under discussion are in areas where Hawaiian’s pilots currently enjoy better-than-industry-standard terms.”
ALPA and the state’s largest airline began talks April 1, 2015, and have been under federal mediation since January. The two sides held mediation in Reston, Va., during the last week of March and began another week of sessions with the mediator this week in Reston. Another week of mediation is scheduled for May 10-13 there.
“The company still has 30 proposals on the table six months after the contract amendable date — including management demands that they know will never be part of a contract and couldn’t be achieved in bankruptcy,” ALPA leaders wrote in the letter. “Examples are: management control of (preferential bidding system) buffers, lowering (minimum) days off in a 31-day month, and rewriting (the) vacation section to be substantially less favorable.”
Hawaiian pilots held informational picketing at Honolulu Airport on March 16. At the time, they were seeking a 45 percent increase in their overall contract value. Chicago-based ALPA spokesman Rusty Ayers said that figure has since changed but that he didn’t know the new figure being used in current negotiations.
Under Hawaiian’s current pay rates, a 12-year captain flying a Boeing 717 is paid $174.11 per flight hour, and a 12-year captain flying either a Boeing 767 or an Airbus 330 is paid $207.13 per flight hour. These are the top-scale rates in each category.
The Federal Aviation Administration limits commercial airline pilots to 1,000 flight hours per year, so those rates would work out to about $174,000 per year and $207,000 per year, respectively. A 12-year 767 captain at United Airlines, for example, makes $304 per flight hour, or $304,000 a year.
At the bottom of the scale, new-hire first officers at Hawaiian make $36 per flight hour, or up to $36,000 a year, regardless of aircraft type.
On Thursday the pilots union requested a grant of $2 million from ALPA National’s “Major Contingency Fund” that is provided to pilot groups to support their efforts when unsuccessful negotiations near an end. These funds would be used for strike preparedness activities, pilot-to-pilot outreach and family awareness events.
ALPA said a letter it received Friday from Ken Rewick, vice president of flight operations for Hawaiian, described “conceptual agreements” reached in mediation.
But ALPA said while “harmonization of our pension plans, and alternate vehicles that may provide valuable retiree health benefits have been discussed, we are far from agreement on either subject. That’s because management has put no new money on the table. The only company economic proposal was offset entirely by proposed contract concessions.”
ALPA listed what it wants from Hawaiian, including:
>> Sharing the company’s most profitable period ever with pilots, instead of having profit sharing suspended by CEO Mark Dunkerley.
>> Putting money on the table to keep Hawaiian’s Airbus A330 captains from making almost $100,000 a year less than peers at United and American airlines.
>> Acknowledging it is responsible for negotiating delays and committing fully to retro pay.
Dunkerley has said the airline and ALPA previously agreed profit sharing would be suspended beyond the amendable date of their collective bargaining agreement until a new agreement is reached.
The company’s parent, Hawaiian Holdings Inc., plans to announce first-quarter earnings Thursday after the stock market closes. Hawaiian’s shares closed down 21 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $49.96 Monday. Hawaiian’s shares hit an all-time high of $50.17 Friday.
