APA News Digest

Dec. 22, 2023

Editor’s note: Some links in this message will work best if you log in to AlliedPilots.org before clicking them.

In This Edition ...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

This is a new message from APA President CA Ed Sicher.

APA Pilots,

On behalf of my fellow APA National Officers, I would like to wish you and your loved ones the very best for the coming year.

As we look toward 2024, APA remains committed to protecting and advancing your interests in everything we do, including preserving and enhancing the margin of safety, timely and correct implementation of our Collective Bargaining Agreement, ensuring you get the training you need, and expediting your return to the cockpit following a medical-related absence.

During this often-hectic time of year, please keep in mind the many member support services your union provides and do not hesitate to contact us for assistance. APA’s dedicated team of subject-matter experts is here for you 24/7.

Stay safe, watch out for one another, and remember – we are all in this together. As the outcome of our Section 6 negotiations so aptly demonstrated, membership unity is a potent force for good.

In closing, thank you for the opportunity to serve as APA President. It is one of the great honors of my life.

All the best,

Ed

Armed With The Facts

Make sure you are fully armed with the facts regarding APA and the value it provides to our members, and why any move to change representation would be a mistake. The Armed With The Facts webpage, readily accessible via the AlliedPilots.org member home page, features helpful background material posted on Nov. 28, Dec. 12, and Dec. 20 regarding the advantages of APA representation. Be sure to visit the page regularly for the latest updates, and also be sure to check out the latest video:

Global Grievance Caucus Update: Returning More than $800,000.00 to APA Members

This is a new message from APA Legal.

APA President CA Ed Sicher, Vice President CA Chris Torres, members of the Grievance Resolution Committee, and APA Legal met with management this week to continue discussing some of the pending Presidential Grievances and Domicile Grievances. The parties were able to reach resolution on approximately 50 grievances, which will return more than $800,000.00 to the affected pilots. APA Legal will email the affected pilots with an update regarding the outcome of each grievance next week and APA will provide additional details on the caucus in the coming days. This was a good way to wrap up 2023 and we are looking forward to continued discussions of the remaining Presidential Grievances in January 2024.

National Town Hall Meeting Set for Jan. 3

Your National Officers will host a National Town Hall Meeting via Zoom at 1600 Central on Wednesday, Jan. 3.

Click here to register for the Jan. 3 meeting.

Email townhall@alliedpilots.org to submit your questions in advance – the deadline for submitting questions is 2359 Central on Jan. 2. Pre-submitted questions will be addressed during the call, with live questions taken as time permits. For those unable to participate live, we plan to upload a recording of the town hall to AlliedPilots.org/Videos after the meeting.

Southwest Pilots to Vote on Tentative Agreement

The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association Board of Directors voted on Wednesday to send a Tentative Agreement to its membership for consideration.

“We know that the last few years have been difficult for our pilots as well as our customers, but we believe that this TA rewards our pilots as well as improving reliability for our passengers,” SWAPA President Captain Casey Murray said in a press release.

Ratification voting will open on Jan. 8 and conclude on Jan. 22.

Meanwhile, the American Airlines passenger service agents represented by the CWA-IBT Association began voting on a TA on Thursday. Their voting period will end on Jan. 8.

FAA Expected to Name Mental Health Panel

Before December ends, the FAA is expected to appoint aviation and medical experts to a committee that will study the mental health of pilots and air traffic controllers and make recommendations.

“We’ve got to make sure that when the FAA gets these recommendations, they actually institute them,” APA Communications Committee Chair CA Dennis Tajer told Fox News. “Don’t cherry-pick.”

APA Holiday Schedule

APA headquarters, including Contract Administration, will be closed on Christmas Day. Contract Administration will be open from 0700 to 1900 Central on Saturday and from 0700 to 1700 Central on Christmas Eve.

As always, your APA support team remains available 24/7. When Contract Administration is closed, calls will be forwarded to a phone service operated by Contract Compliance Committee and Flight Time/Duty Time Committee volunteers. Please note that call-back times may be longer than normal due to limited staffing. If your call is not urgent, we encourage you to wait until normal business hours resume.

You may also want to consult the pilot volunteers on your domicile’s Contract Compliance Committee. Almost every domicile has one, and some of them have larger rosters than the national committee. Contact your local committee by visiting your domicile’s page on AlliedPilots.org and clicking the “Domicile Committee List” link.

To reach a contract administrator, call APA HQ at 1-800-323-1470 and press Option 3. If you prefer to e-mail your question to the contract administrators, click here. For specific FAR 117/fatigue issues requiring immediate attention, you can also call the Emergency Help Line at 682-738-6670 manned 24/7 by Flight Time/Duty Time Committee volunteers.

Let Us Review Your Fatigue Narrative

This is a new message from the APA Flight Time/Duty Time Committee.

If you have a fatigue event, we recommend you send your draft narrative to us prior to submitting through the reporting system. The report should be sent to fatigue@alliedpilots.org, as that is the only email address that will route your draft to the appropriate reviewers.

Thanks for sending us your drafts. We are usually able to reply within a few hours if you use that email address.

Hotel Survey is Available Again

This is a new message from the APA Hotel Committee.

Make sure you have downloaded the new APA Pilot app to your smartphone or AA iPad. Once you have done so, the Hotel Survey should automatically appear on your device after your layover, approximately one hour prior to departure. If the survey is not completed then, it will be stored in your APA Pilot app inbox to fill out later.

This survey is one of the most important items each pilot can complete to improve layovers. With the survey data on hotels and transportation, your Hotel Committee can address problems you are facing on your layovers. That data has helped us get out of RED/unsuitable hotels and has also facilitated us in keeping some great hotels even though hotel rates were rising.

Since March 2017, your Hotel Committee has collected data from the Hotel Survey. The old version of “green, yellow, red” served its purpose, but we now need more concise data. The new survey gives us details on multiple categories of your layover, including climate control, noise, food options, location, safety, fatigue, etc. Transportation pickup and return each have one question with the option to select your experience as great, +15-minute wait, no show, “walked” to a different hotel, etc. This more-detailed survey lets us drill down deeper, identify issues, and allows us to find resolution.

As an example, recent survey data showed a consistent problem with the LAX Renaissance hotel shuttle, which we addressed with the AA Hotel Contracts department. There is now third-party transportation provided to help pilots start their layovers and get pilots back to the airport on time. Thanks to all of you who took the time highlight the problem via the survey.

If you have any problems with the Hotel Survey, send an email to hotel.chair@alliedpilots.org.

For more information, see the QRH – Quick Reference Hotels document, which should answer 99 percent of all hotel and transportation questions while providing helpful solutions. Suggestion: Download this QRH document to your AA iPad for easy access in the future.

Get Educated About Our New Contract

This is a repeated message from the APA Contract Compliance Committee.

The Contract Compliance Committee wants to do everything we can to ensure that all APA members are well acquainted with the 2023 Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Join us on Jan. 11 in LAX for a full day of training on the new CBA. This training will be conducted in hybrid fashion, with members welcome to participate in person or virtually via Zoom.

Please take a few moments before the training to familiarize yourself with the Electronic Document Index. You must be logged in to AlliedPilots.org for the links to be accessible. This Index connects you to a vast array of APA documents that we will reference. It is equally useful in the daily operation as a line pilot, so we recommend you retain the Index for future reference. During the training, it may be helpful to have two screens; one to run Zoom and one to reference these documents.

Help us help you! The Contract Compliance Committee’s goal is for you – the membership – to be informed, educated, and knowledgeable. Every single pilot should strive to be a contract expert or, at the very least, strive for continued learning and engagement. Knowledge is power, and it will assist you in employing and being a watchdog of your negotiated work rules.

Pig of the Week

APA commends American Airlines’ hardworking aircraft maintenance technicians for their outstanding work. We believe they are the best in the business. When repetitive problems do arise, they’re often due to managerial decisions that fail to properly prioritize tasks and to management’s decision to outsource a significant portion of the airline’s maintenance to offshore, third-party repair stations.

  • After reactivation following more than three years in storage, B737 aircraft 3AM was returned to service in mid-October. Since then, it has been written up 20 times, been on MEL six times, and out of service eight times for the aft cabin temperature being uncontrollable. It was last signed off on Dec. 20 and is currently restricted to Class 1 maintenance stations.

APA Welcomes Captains’ Leadership Class

This is a new message from the APA Membership Committee.

Click the image for a closer look.

On Dec. 20, the APA Membership Committee hosted a casual dinner for the following pilots who were in Fort Worth for American Airlines’ Professionalism, Leadership, and Mentoring class: Bryan Allen, Matthew Bossert, Kane Cairncross, Charles Churchville, Gary Davis, Erik DeWinne, Edward Fong, Robert Forrester, Bryan Francis, Angel Gonzalez-Zeno, Kevaughn Hammond, Alejandro House, Jared Jacobs, Christopher Lavelle, Taylor Lee, John Llano, William Lockhart, Timothy Lunsford, Erin McWhorter, Matthew Miller, Robert Schindlar, Tami Smith, Michael Tice, Kevin Wilburn, James Wilson IV, and Daniel Winebrenner.

Domicile Events

Click the image for a closer look.

Nearly 200 pilots and guests converged at Topgolf in Fort Worth last Saturday for the DFW Holiday Party. You can see more photos on APA’s Facebook page.

Visit AlliedPilots.org/Calendar to RSVP for any of these upcoming domicile events:

  • BOS: Telephone Town Hall Meeting on Jan. 23
  • DCA: Washington Capitals game on Jan. 16; Contract Compliance training on Feb. 1
  • DFW: Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo on Jan. 24
  • LAX: IMAX training on Jan. 10; Contract Compliance training on Jan. 11
  • LGA: Telephone Town Hall Meeting on Jan. 23; Winter Warmer event at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Jan. 26
  • PHX: Domicile Meeting on Jan. 26

Domicile Elections

The following CLT pilots have been placed into consideration for nomination as Interim Domicile Chair and have indicated a willingness to serve, if elected:

CLT Domicile Chair
FO Russ Blackwell
FO Ryan Cianciolo
CA Casey Granger
FO Erik Knauff
CA Dan Scola

The candidates’ resumes were mailed to all CLT pilots on Dec. 5. Nomination Round ballots were mailed on Dec. 6, and they will be tallied on Dec. 28. The three candidates with the most votes will advance to the Election Round.

Pilots’ names can be submitted for the regularly scheduled DCA and DFW Domicile Elections until 0001 Central on Dec. 26. Submissions can be made on the APA Elections webpage.

If you have any questions, contact the APA Elections Department via 817-302-2175 or elections@alliedpilots.org.

Week in Review

The following messages were sent since the previous News Digest was published on Dec. 15.

Are You Willing to Serve?

Each of these national committees or subcommittees has the indicated number of vacancies:

  • Aeromedical Committee (1)
    • Disabled Pilot Awareness Subcommittee (3)
    • Human Intervention Motivation Study Subcommittee (2)
    • Pilot Occupational Health Subcommittee (2)
    • Project Wingman Subcommittee (3)
  • Captain’s Authority Committee (2)
  • Communications Committee (0)
    • National Communications Network (7)
  • Grey Eagles Liaison Committee (1)
  • Hotel Committee (3)
  • Jumpseat/Non-Rev Committee (1)
  • Retirement & Benefits Committee (2)
  • Scheduling Committee (5)
  • Training Committee (3)
    • Checkmate (1 on 777 and 1 on 320)

If you would like to serve on one or more of these committees, visit the Member Engagement Portal.

Professional Standards FAQs

What issues are not appropriate for Professional Standards?
Professional Standards will not normally address CBA disagreements, substance/alcohol abuse, and any immediate threat to safety of flight. The program is not designed to address issues related to security violations; legal, medical, or criminal issues; or gross negligence. Professional Standards is not able to address issues arising from “The Line” forums, nor should PS volunteers post to “The Line“ forums. However, if you are in doubt about which APA committee is best suited to handle your needs, all Professional Standards volunteers are familiar with the vast network of support offered at APA and through the company. Call Your Union First!

To read all of the FAQs, click here.

Professional Standards’ 24/7 hotline: 817-402-2181

Sharing the Holiday Spirit with Christmas Epaulets

Aero Crew News recently published an article by CA Tim Knutson about how his family got involved in the annual Christmas epaulets effort. This popular, long-running program benefits the families of our nation’s fallen heroes and young people seeking ways to further their education.

CA John Knutson – U.S. Army veteran and a pilot for North Central, Republic, and Northwest Airlines – lost his battle with cancer in 1997 at age 56. To honor his memory, John’s widow, Mary, decided to start making Christmas epaulets. Mary originally directed all proceeds to the Chetek-Weyerhaeuser Scholarship Foundation, since John was a 1959 graduate of Chetek High School. In an acknowledgement of John’s love of country, the proceeds have been shared between the Gary Sinise Foundation/Snowball Express and the Chetek-Weyerhaeuser Scholarship Foundation in recent years.

You may buy your epaulets here for $20 plus $5.50 for shipping and handling. They’re also available at Crew Outfitters stores at DFW and IAH. If you have any questions, please contact CA Tim Knutson via info@christmasepaulets.com.

Thank you for supporting this worthy cause.

If You’re 50, Join The Grey Eagles

Are you a pilot for American Airlines, at least age 50, active or retired? Please join The Grey Eagles for food, fun, and fellowship. We offer cruises, conventions, monthly luncheons, retirement dinners, professional mentoring, and assistance to surviving spouses – all for a one-time lifetime fee.

Pilot Job Fairs and Future Pilot Seminars

Future & Active Pilot Advisors’ next Pilot Job Fair and Future Pilot Seminar are scheduled for Jan. 12 at MCO. Click here for more information.

Industry News

For more about what’s happening in the industry, be sure to visit the Industry News page on AlliedPilots.org.

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