November 15, 2019
More than halfway through contract talks, Atlas Air always remains ready to finish the job for our Pilots
Dear Crewmembers,
As our work continues toward a new competitive pilot contract, we met this week in Washington DC with representatives from Union Locals 1224 and 2750.
At this stage, we have completed approximately 60% of the components of your new Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (JCBA). That includes reaching Tentative Agreements on 17 Articles. Several other articles have major portions of them complete.
Any remaining components are tied directly to the comprehensive economic proposal – which we have yet to receive from the union.
We again asked the leadership to produce their economic proposal for us to continue our work in completing more articles. Remarkably, after more than three years of bargaining, the union has not only been unwilling to provide an economic proposal, but has now requested the company to provide one. We were very disappointed to hear this request as it is the union’s responsibility to provide the company with their financial objective.
In seeking a final agreement, Scope is typically one of the last issues to be resolved. Establishing Scope demands as a precursor to negotiating the economics of an agreement tends to stall effective progress. The company will be in the best position to further negotiate Scope, and limits on business and revenue opportunities, when we fully understand all the costs associated with the JCBA.
We understand there have been assertions from the union that we have been unwilling to share economic information or costing models with them. This simply is untrue. The company has been urging the union leadership for months to engage in data sharing and costing model analysis, all of which has been flatly rejected. Our team has consistently offered to work with the union’s financial advisors which only recently has been approved to proceed. Any suggestion that the company has been holding up this process is blatantly false. We can confirm that when we have been permitted to work together on economic modeling, we have made progress.
We know you and your families have many questions about the state of the negotiations, and we will continue to keep you well informed. Additionally, we encourage you to reach out to your union leaders with any questions about their negotiations strategy and their anticipated timelines to produce the comprehensive economic proposal and the ISL so that negotiations can proceed at a more rapid pace.
We share in your frustration with the disappointing slow pace of negotiations. Your new contract should be in place by now providing you the competitive pay and benefits that you deserve.
We remain at the bargaining table ready and willing to get you a new, competitive contract. Simply put – this is our top priority and we will not rest until your contract is secured.
Thank you for your ongoing dedication to our company and our customers, and to your fellow pilots.
Regards,
Jeff Carlson
Sr. Vice President Flight Operations