Pilot Unions From Across The Country Rally Behind Local 1108
Advocates representing 95,600-plus pilots urge support for organized labor
COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pilot groups across the country are rallying behind the professional flight deck crewmembers represented by IBT Local 1108 as a management-supported decertification campaign plays out at OneSky. Local 1108 represents the interests of more than 575 Flight Options and Flexjet pilots as well as approximately 100 Travel Management crewmembers.
The NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP), a labor peer in the fractional sector of the aviation industry, as well as the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA), Allied Pilots Association (APA), and Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA) have sent letters of support, encouraging their Flexjet and Flight Options peers not to decertify their union.
"The aviation industry has the highest concentration of unionized employees – 90-plus percent – compared to any other profession for a reason: An experienced labor organization is the only entity that can negotiate and demand compliance with a collective bargaining agreement that memorializes wages, benefits and working conditions in a fair and consistent manner," NJASAP President Pedro Leroux said. "Stated another way, approximately, 95,600 professional flight deck crewmembers cannot be wrong: Strong unions are essential to supporting the entire industry – it extends well beyond any individual pilot group's interests." To that end, pilot groups do not decertify their unions, and there is a reason for that. "Predatory owners and managers exist, and pilots require an advocate to defend their interests," Leroux continued.
Fellow labor organizations have emphasized the confluence of factors currently in a professional pilot's favor, including a sharper focus on safety, a high demand for pilots, the increasing shortage of qualified aviators, a healthy economy and an increase in travel across the U.S. population. The failure for any pilot group to seize upon this moment is to actively work against their own best interests. As one labor leader put it, "If the decertification effort of Local 1108 succeeds, the ramifications and consequences to our profession will be very damaging and far reaching."
"Among the many troubling aspects of this campaign is OneSky management's open support for the initiative as well as the involvement of highly-funded third-party entities with ties to union-busting activity," Leroux said, adding any attempt by a third party to breach organized labor's stronghold in the aviation industry is unwelcome and will be fiercely rebuked.
"Our Flight Options and Flexjet peers owe it to themselves and their families to fully examine the information they receive regarding decertification to parse fact from fiction." Leroux continued, "In these situations, management has everything to gain, and our Flexjet and Flight Options peers have everything to lose – including their job security, access to just-cause language in disciplinary matters and the right to bargain for improvements."
With so much at stake, labor advocates across the industry continue to step forward to lend their support, encouragement and assistance as their Flexjet and Flight Options peers sustain an all-out assault on the advocate charged with safeguarding and enhancing their professional interests.
About NJASAP Founded in 2008 as an independent labor advocate, the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP) represents the professional interests of the 2,700-plus pilots who fly in the service of NetJets Aviation, Inc. For more information, please visit our web site, www.njasap.com, Facebook page, www.facebook.com/njasap, or Twitter feed, @njasap.
SOURCE NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP)
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