Trustee Update – November 15, 2024
Allegiant Pilots,
Yesterday, I spoke with the Director of Mediation Services of the National Mediation Board (NMB). Contrary to rumors you may have heard, our negotiations are not “on ice” and have not been “recessed” by the NMB. Any statements to the contrary are the company’s continued opportunistic attempts to create division within our ranks. If management or training department personnel makes such a statement to you, please document the conversation and send it to me so that the Teamsters can make the NMB aware of any misrepresentations of the NMB’s position. The Director of Mediation Services informed me that the NMB will provide the Union with an update soon. After hearing of the upcoming dates, I will inform you.
The Company “Playbook”
Refuse To Meet
It’s essential to remember that the Railway Labor Act does not prohibit management and the Union from agreeing to negotiate or sharing negotiations-related costing and operational analysis between mediation sessions. We have repeatedly asked management to meet outside of mediation sessions to expedite finalizing the CBA, including asking multiple times in November alone. Allegiant management is refusing to negotiate between mediation sessions. This is unacceptable and a disservice to every pilot. Typically, the NMB provides carriers and unions with only three days of mediation per month. It is common to continue working together outside of mediation sessions if the parties truly want to get to an agreement. Allegiant’s refusal to meet exposes the company and its surrogates’ rhetoric as disingenuous, self-serving propaganda designed to undermine support for the Union and wear you down.
Refuse to Provide Costing and Operational Data
We have repeatedly asked management to share its costing, operational methodologies, and analysis with our economists. Most importantly, to include how Allegiant costs out the operational impact of the current scheduling rules: the very issue they are demanding concessions on. Allegiant, without justification, refused and continues to refuse to provide the information. This refusal to share information, coupled with management’s refusal to meet, exposes the self-serving and disingenuous nature of Allegiant’s position. Management has repeatedly told our pilots that “knowing the cost” is critical to forward progress at this stage of bargaining but refuses to do any of the work required to get results. This behavior is disturbing and not indicative of a carrier that “wants a deal.”
Allegiant has not done the work to determine whether our scheduling proposals reduce, increase, or even impact costs or headcount. When our economists met with Allegiant on July 11, 2024, Allegiant admitted that it had not performed any analysis and that they were not in a position to share how it would perform such an analysis. The Company then canceled joint costing/operational meetings scheduled for July 18 and August 1. On August 30, the Company notified the Union that it was canceling another joint costing/operational meeting scheduled for September 4, 2024, and that it would no longer discuss these matters outside of mediation. To add insult to injury, the Company then failed and refused to provide any costing or operational impact analysis during the September and October 2024 mediation sessions. All of this is from a company that claims it wants to reach an agreement without delay.
Management simply wants to box us in. Please, re-read the Negotiating Committee’s November 5, 2024, message regarding the Company’s real bargaining strategy and agenda. They are trying to set up the pilot group for failure while your Negotiating Committee is holding the line to protect quality of life and ensure that pilots receive the compensation they deserve, not one at the expense of the other.
Refuse to Address Non-Economic/Quality of Life Provisions
It is also self-serving and disingenuous for Allegiant to suggest that negotiating over economic portions of the CBA now will somehow speed up negotiations over the critical reserve, schedule and PBS provisions that remain open. To put this into context, the Union has been asking Allegiant to schedule a joint meeting with a PBS vendor since June to assist the parties in resolving the final issues related to PBS. After repeated attempts for nearly 6-months, The Company refused to schedule the meeting until November 18. This is a deliberate and inexcusable effort to delay negotiations by the Company that has negatively impacted the bargaining process on top of a continuing refusal to provide costing and operational information. Adding additional, unrelated Sections of the CBA into the bargaining mix now will take the focus off of completing the important language and “detail work” necessary to ensure that the scheduling rules in your second contract will be clear, enforceable, and implemented based on mutually agreeable timelines. Issues that are truly economic in nature can be set aside for compensation negotiations, which is standard practice in RLA negotiations. What is not standard in RLA negotiations (at least for good contracts) is demands to trade scheduling rules and quality of life for compensation, which is precisely what Allegiant is trying to set you up for.
The Pathway to an Agreement
The faster management agrees to meet and focuses on resolving scheduling and quality of life issues and sharing costing and operational information, the faster we will move into the final stages where scope and economics can be resolved.
Fraternally,
Greg Unterseher
Trustee