This is Communications Committee Chairman Captain Sam Mayer with the APA Information Hotline for Tuesday, August 18.
APA BOARD OF DIRECTORS SPECIAL MEETING: The APA Board of Directors reconvened at union headquarters in Fort Worth beginning at 9 a.m. Central today for its special meeting. First on today’s agenda was the Government Affairs Committee (GAC), with member First Officer Gavin Tade presenting in person and Chairman Captain Bob Coffman participating by telephone.
The GAC’s in-depth briefing included an overview of the union’s recent fundraising events on Capitol Hill on behalf of key members of Congress. In tandem with its efforts in Washington, D.C., the GAC has also met with lawmakers in Dallas, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and Denver.
The extensive list of legislative and regulatory issues that the GAC is working on include the flight time-duty time Aviation Rulemaking Committee detailed in yesterday’s hotline, the debate over airline antitrust immunity and American Airlines’ proposed joint business agreement with British Airways and Iberia. Captain Coffman noted that debate has intensified concerning the latter issue, with the outcome far from certain. If American Airlines is ultimately permitted to proceed with its plans, the key for our pilots and other employees is the inclusion of labor-protective provisions. One overriding question facing White House policymakers concerning airline antitrust immunity is whether consumers benefit, given the consolidation that inevitably occurs among companies that are granted antitrust immunity.
Another issue occupying the GAC’s time is the effort to provide airline industry employees with the same protections as rail workers in Chapter 11. Unlike the airlines, railroads cannot use bankruptcy to abrogate collective bargaining agreements. Although no legislation has been introduced yet, APA has been helping to generate interest among some lawmakers to make the necessary reforms to the Railway Labor Act to accomplish this objective.
In addition, the GAC members noted that a number of additional countries—including Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Ecuador—are entering into open-skies negotiations with the United States, indicating that the process of global deregulation is continuing.
In other activity, the Board spent a substantial portion of the day in executive session, including an afternoon discussion with the Strategic Planning Committee.
Also, after voting to continue in session past 5 p.m., the Board voted to approve resolutions re-establishing the APA Emergency Relief Fund and changing staff long-term disability plan providers to lower the cost of premiums to APA. We will provide a complete overview of Board-approved resolutions at the close of this week’s meeting, which is scheduled to continue through Thursday. We will also be providing details of the new Emergency Relief Fund.
The Board will reconvene at 9 a.m. tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Thanks for checking this hotline.
