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.
Sick Call Policy
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.
Layover Accommodations
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.
Pay and benefits
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 27th, 2009 and will continue until an agreement is reached says Flight Engineer John Guy.