Amerijet International Strike

The professional pilots and flight engineers of Amerijet International, Inc. an airline providing cargo transportation services with a fleet of five Boeing 727 jet aircraft headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, FL find themselves in a position no pilot or flight engineer ever hopes for, a strike.

After 5 years of negotiations, the last two years in mediation through the National Labor Relations Board, the Flight Crewmembers have not been able to reach a mutually agreeable settlement with the management of Amerijet. Daisy Gonzalez, a spokesperson for the pilots and flight engineers who are represented by the international brotherhood of teamsters local 769, a labor union, has said the workers feel the company has not been bargaining in good faith over the past five years. The pilots voted in favor of union representation in March of 2004 and have since seen little improvement in dealing with the company’s leadership. In March of this year the company imposed a 10% wage cut on the crew members, which have not seen wages increased since 1999. The breakdown in negotiations resulted in the National Mediation Board taking a seldom used course of action and releasing the workers to self-help, giving the workers the right to withhold their services by conducting a legal strike.

The pilots and flight engineers have spent the past five years trying to negotiate modest improvements to working conditions and benefits. Among one of the most notable requests has been to install lavatories on the Boeing airplanes which the company has refused to do. The result has been a need for flight crews to conduct international flights while armed with plastic bags to be used in the course of meeting physiological needs.

The Boeing 727 aircraft operated by the crews of Amerijet serve not only U.S. destinations but carry time sensitive cargo to between locations spanning the North and South American continents. Shipments consist of a wide variety of cargo; meat, fish, dairy, and produce, as well as other shipments for the oil industry among commercial cargo. The company operates approximately 15 to 20 flights per week carrying on average 60,000lbs of cargo per flight.

Before joining Amerijet International on the Boeing 727 as a Flight Engineer John Guy, a 21 year veteran of the Air Force, spent 15 years as a cockpit crewmember serving as a flight engineer in the C5 Galaxy and KC10 Tanker aircraft. John explains that the flight crews at Amerijet have tried to reach an agreement with the company but that the demands of the company have been and continue to be unacceptable. John says “the flight crews at Amerijet are among the lowest paid” and goes on to say that working conditions are similar in nature to those brought to light by recent congressional hearings into the Colgan airlines accident where work rules and sick time usage policies have been under scrutiny. The pilots and flight engineers have made several basic requests for improvement in the contract during negotiations, these improvements are:

Sanitation
Currently crewmembers are not provided any sanitary bathroom facilities on the aircraft, instead flight crew must urinate and defecate into plastic bags, which then must be sealed and left on the floor for them to remove upon landing. To do this requires standing up just outside of the cockpit or cargo area and balancing oneself. (For men and women) Leaks have occurred on several occasions. This also exposes perishable cargo to the possibility of contamination with human waste. The company does not provide any way to wash one’s hands after using the bags, or materials for spill cleanup. With no lavatory to wash hands, crewmembers must return to the cockpit having only a moist towelette provided with the urinal kit to clean and sanitize their hands.

Nutrition, Hydration, and Proper Rest
Cargo flights typically operate during the late night hours and arrive at cargo ramp areas of the destination airports, these locations are typically remote in nature and do not afford crew members the ability to purchase meals from a restaurant or fast food provider. It is typical for cargo operators to provide crews with water on all flights and crew meals, a box lunch, on longer flights where it would not be possible for a crew to remain nourished otherwise. Amerijet currently does not provide any drinking water or crew meals, regardless of flight time or duration.

Cargo flight operations typically occur during night time while some flights are conducted during the day duty periods can be long. Amerijet flight crews operate to the maximum allowed by the Federal Aviation Regulations and complain that often the company pressures crew to fly schedules that induce fatigue. Flight Engineer John Guy states that currently work rules do not provide for adequate rest and fatigue management. Crew members feel operating at the minimum required rest as standard procedure is not in the best interest of safety.

The pilot’s and flight engineers union, the IBT local 769, is demanding sanitary facilities on the Boeing aircraft for flight crew to be able to meet physiological needs and wash hands in a clean safe manner. Additionally the union has asked for crews to be provided drinking water on flights for hydration and crew meals for long flights or flights that operate during a time or to locations where food is not available.

FAA regulations prohibit pilots from operating an aircraft while sick. The safe operation of an aircraft requires both crew members be fit for duty. Pilots at Amerijet International have complained that the current sick call policy at the airline unjustly punishes a pilot for calling in sick when not fit to fly says FE John Guy. The sick call policy at Amerijet International allows for the accrual of 1.16 hours sick time per month, the equivalent of 6 days per year. Amerijet’s policy is to charge one day’s pay against the pilots sick bank for those who call in prior to their 2.5 hour crew call however FE John Guy says the airline has been taking two days 2 days of pay (5 hours) for every day a crewmember calls in sick the day of the flight. This action the pilots feel is to discourage flight crew from calling in sick. Additionally Flight Engineer Guy says that sick flight crew members are required to call a management pilot when calling in sick, in addition to calling crew scheduling .

The pilots have asked the company to realign the sick call policy to remove pressure from crews to fly sick. Also, crews have asked that more clear language be written in the contract to appropriately charge sick time rather than over drafting sick banks in order to discourage flight crews from calling in sick when they are unfit for duty.

During the course of normal operations airlines pre arrange and prepay overnight hotels for crew members. This ensures the crews have a place to adequately begin their rest period upon arrival at the destination airport or in the event of a diversion at an alternate destination. Amerijet International does not provide, schedule, or prepay for hotels for flight crew. Flight Engineer John Guy says “this has resulted in crewmembers having to pay out of pocket for company expenses and wait for a lengthy reimbursement process, anywhere from two to four weeks.” Additionally given the low pay first officers earn, this places a hardship on them and their families, having to ration a small check to cover company expenses rather than pay personal and family expenses.

The pilots have collectively demanded the company pre-schedule and prepay for overnight hotels eliminating the need for pilots to pay out of pocket.

In March of 2009 the company imposed a unilateral 10% wage cut on crewmembers. The wages that workers had been working under till that point had not been adjusted since 1999. The union says Amerijet pilots are among the lowest paid pilots for the type of aircraft operated and the segment of the airline industry they work in. “First Officers earn on average less that $32,000 per year pre tax” says Daisy Gonzalas. Flight Engineer John Guy states “the company advertises starting wages as approximately $60k when hiring and then after beginning their employment pilots earn wages drastically lower, up to 40% less”. The Continental Connection flight that crashed in Buffalo, NY most recently raised the public’s awareness to the low wages pilots may experience and the resulting pressure that forces many to seek additional jobs possibly contributing to fatigue. To retain experienced crews, the union argues Amerijet needs to improve and stabilize its pilot and flight engineer wages.

The union has requested a 3% pay increase to the 1999 wages and immediate elimination of the 10% unilateral wage cut. Additionally the workers are seeking a $250 signing bonus per crewmember and a 3% yearly wage increase for the duration of the requested 4 year contract. “These terms would still leave the pilots and flight engineers well bellow the industry standard” says Flight Engineer John Guy, but would be a welcomed improvement to working conditions at the airline.

As a result of the two parties, the pilot’s and management’s, inability to agree on a contract the NMB has released the pilots to self help, the legal strike began on August 27^th, 2009 and will continue until an agreement is reached says Flight Engineer John Guy.

What’s “Block or Better” mean?
The time it takes to operate an aircraft from departure gate to arrival gate is a predetermined and scheduled time. That estimated time is referred to by most airlines as “block” time, the time blocked off to accomplish that flight within the schedule of airline operations. The actual flight time will depend on many variables i.e. weather, ATC delays, airport traffic, airline operational issues, or other abnormalities.

Most airlines pay a pilot based on what’s coined “block or better”. The pilots will be paid the greater of scheduled flight time (block) or actual flight time. This provision establishes a minimum pay for the trip and also compensates the pilots when the flights duration is extended. When a pilot has a block or better provision in their contract it ensures that they are paid for working longer than planned. If the pilots are able to arrive early at the destination the “block or better” ensures they will, at a minimum, receive the original blocked time with regard to pay credit.

There are two typical ways to implement the “block or better” provision, per leg and per day. With the per leg method each flight is looked at as an individual event and the other flights do not impact the calculation. A per day method takes into account the entire days flying, this is less advantageous because the additional pay credit gained over several flights may be negated be operating a flight that arrives much earlier than scheduled.

In our example we will look at a single day of flying and apply booth per leg and per day methods of “block or better”. The pilots are scheduled to fly 4 flights, the results look like this:

Flight 1, Scheduled (block)-1:30  Actual duration-1:20 (block -:10)
Flight 2, Scheduled (block)-1:00  Actual duration-1:15 (block +:15)
Flight 3, Scheduled (block)-2:35  Actual duration-2:15 (block -:20)
Flight 4, Scheduled (block)-1:40  Actual duration-1:45 (block +:05)
Total flight time Scheduled (block)-6:45 (expected pay credit 6:45)
Total flight time Actual-6:30
Pay credit without block or better 6:30

Pay credit using block or better [per day] 6:45
(6:45 +:20 -:30) = 6:35 < block, the additional time comes from flights 2 and 4 being over block but the negative time comes from subtracting the early arrival time because the total day is looked at for this method. Because the resulting flight time was less than block, pay credit will still remain at 6:45. The benefit gained is that the pilot will be protected from being paid less than the scheduled block time for the day.

Pay credit using block or better [per leg] 7:05
(6:45 +:20) = 7:05, the additional time comes from flights 2 and 4 being over block. And the flights under block are paid at scheduled time because this method provides pay protection from being paid less that block time. This way the pilots are not only protected from being paid less than the scheduled flight time on flights 1 and 3 but also compensated for the additional time spent on flights 2 and 4. This provision ensures pilots are paid for each flight based on a minimum of scheduled flight time and also compensated on those flights that are extended beyond their intended time.

Pilot pay rates and longevity

Have you ever looked at the hourly pilot pay rates and wondered what it actually means? Hopefully this little look at pilot pay helps clear up some of your questions.

Longevity is applied to the graduated pay scale used to determine pilot pay. Longevity step increases occur on the anniversary of the pilot’s date of hire. For example, A pilot hired on August 1, 2008 shall be paid at step two or “second year” pay for work performed after August 1, 2009. Longevity is a function of time at the company and not in any particular aircraft or position, Captain or First Officer.

     Example Pay Scale, EMB145

Year    Captain            First Officer 

1          60                    23 

2          62                    33 

3          64                    35 

4          67                    37 

5          69                    40 

75 Hr MMG
An Airline Pilot’s monthly pay is generally the sum of three key sources: Minimum Monthly Guarantee, Per Diem, and Additional Pay.  

Minimum Monthly Guarantee (MMG) - A pilot is typically paid a minimum monthly guarantee (MMG) of paid hours of hourly pay at the applicable rate, provided that the pilot is available for assignment for the entire month

Per Diem - Per Diem is meant to cover costs incurred while on the road. These include but are not limited to: food, toiletries, replacement costs, etc. Per Diem is typically an hourly rate that is negotiated in a union's CBA (contract). Per Diem gets paid differently than straight compensation. Typically it is computed beginning at the time you are required to be at your base airport to the time you get released at your base airport to days off. Generally speaking a pilot reports to their workstation an hour prior to flight time on the first day and ends their duty 15 minutes after their last flight. All hours in between are paid at the Per Diem rate.  

Additional Pay (Add Pay) - Additional Pay is any flight time pay for work a pilot performs above the minimum guarantee to include any paid vacation time, voluntary additional flying, or mandatory reassignment or loss of days off.

Consideration should also be taken in how a pilots monthly pay is dispersed. A common method is to pay pilots bimonthly with the following breakdown for each paycheck  

The first paycheck contains half of the pilots MMG.

Example: first paycheck covering approximately two weeks will be payment for 37.5 flight hours. No Per Diem, No Add Pay.

Paycheck 1
862.50 (23/Hr X 37.5Hrs)
862.50 (Total Payment)
The second paycheck contains the second half of the pilots MMG, all Per Diem accrued during the previous month, any Add Pay from the previous month.

Example: second paycheck covering approximately two weeks will be payment for 37.5 flight hours, 322 hours Per Diem, 5 hours Add Pay.

Paycheck 2
862.50 (23/Hr X 37.5Hrs)
579.60 (1.60/Hr X 322Hrs)
115.00 (23/Hr X 5Hrs)
1557.10 (Total Payment)

$2419.60 (before taxes)
80 flight hours
322 hours away from base