Trustee Update – November 22, 2024

Allegiant Pilots,

On October 29 – 31, 2024, a hearing was held in front of a three-person tribunal appointed by General President O’Brien regarding charges I filed against six members of the removed Executive Board.

In summary, Robles embezzled more than $1 million dollars from Local 2118, mostly through a fraudulent pay scheme he devised several years ago. In this scheme, he disguised his salary as a contractually reimbursable flight pay loss. He used this fraudulent method to secure direct payment from Allegiant Air, based on PCH, that he alone claimed. He then ensured that Local 2118 reimbursed Allegiant for those payments, plus an additional 23% to cover his benefits.

Robles didn’t stop there: he unilaterally increased the amount of illegally disguised salary and then, while attempting to cover up his scheme, attempted to obtain even yet another increase in his disguised salary.

First, regarding the actual salary increase that Robles fixed for himself, shortly after Local 2118 was released from administrative trusteeship in January 2022 and he was installed as its President and executive officer, Robles unilaterally increased the number of PCH hours on which he based his disguised salary from approximately 96 to 120 hours. This increase caused Local 2118 to incur approximately $200,000 more in lost assets illegally secured by Robles.

Then, earlier this year, he attempted to give himself another increase in salary. This took place while he was covering up his wrongdoing by causing the Local to pay tens of thousands of dollars to outside consultants and attorneys to quickly draft up a so-policies and procedures manual. The policies and procedures manual is a required governance document that Robles had not undertaken to create and implement for more than two years. Through that policy manual, Robles planned to illegally increase the amount of his disguised salary, yet again, by approximately $12,000 per year.

He set this up through the Union Impact. Up to this time, Union Impact required him to separately enter each of the 30 days of his claimed Flight Loss Pay in a month. Because vacation pay is paid by the company and not reimbursed by the union, that meant that when Robles had an awarded 7-day vacation block that contractually only paid 20 hours, he incurred 8 hours less pay than he wanted from the Local, namely, 112 PCH rather than 120 PCH. To accomplish this, he had Union Impact install a one button feature, that he alone had access to. Now all he needed to do was tell Allegiant what to pay him. This past March, when the change to the Union Impact program was completed and relying on the new procedures manual’s newly invented “Full-Time Flight Pay” provision, Robles claimed 100 Hours for Flight Pay Loss for the month, while separately claiming 20 hours of vacation from the company. The result of this was that Robles claimed and was paid 20 hours of vacation by the company that is not subject to reimbursement by the Local, while also claiming Flight Pay Loss for the full 100 so-called Flight Pay Loss hours that the company was supposed to pay him directly and the Local was supposed to reimburse to the company. In other words, Robles sought to double-dip into the amount of vacation pay. He now was having the union pay the difference in the 2.86 hours for 7 days, and now ensured he was paid 4 hours per vacation day.

The Local 2118 Executive Board never authorized Robles’s salary. Robles devised the above-described pay scheme to avoid seeking the legally required authorization, including the amount, from the Executive Board. He avoided seeking authorization of his salary because he did not want to risk the very likely – if not certain – Executive Board rejection of the salary amount he wanted and thought he was entitled to. Robles believed he was entitled to a salary commensurate with the more than $500,000 salaries the American Airlines pilots authorized for the principal officer of their union, the APA. The APA is not a Teamster affiliate and is more than five times larger than Local 2118. Robles spent a great deal of time at the hearing arguing what he thought he was worth, which had nothing to do with the charges.

The evidence presented at the recent hearing on the charges showed that Robles deliberately concocted his salary fraud. This was demonstrated, for example, by Robles’s repeated (but unsuccessful) efforts to amend and “clarify” the CBA to allow for the payment of flight pay loss by the company to the union.

On November 14, 2018, after he let his currency lapse and was therefore de-qualified, Robles requested that Allegiant schedule him for flights so that he could regain his currency and remain on flight loss pay. Allegiant properly denied the request, stating that he had de-qualified on 10/8/18 and that Allegiant did not conduct flight training in aircraft; he would need to do so in a simulator. Per the Vice President of Flight Operations, Robles was put in non-pay, inactive status. After he re-qualified and once again became an active pilot receiving flight loss pay, Robles embarked on a plan to secure a joint “clarification” of the CBA that would enable him to receive flight pay loss even while he was de-qualified and, therefore, in an inactive status – a status that he told the company he intended to slip into.

When that plan failed, he set out to amend the contract to obtain the same result. This years-long crusade by Robles to secure a salary that he wanted shows that he intentionally and knowingly set out to enrich himself at the expense of Local 2118 and the membership. He used Local 2118 money to secure for himself a disguised salary using a method (flight pay loss) that was not legally available to him because he was not an Active Pilot. And, even had he been an Active Pilot, he was not entitled to the salary he gave himself. This is because the Local 2118 Bylaws require that the Local 2118 Executive Board authorize Robles’s’ salary and Robles never sought nor obtained such authorization.

The above-described violations involve only one of the five charges that were addressed at the recent hearing. The other four are related to Robles’s embezzlement scheme described above and extend to several of the other former Local 2118 Executive Board members. Those other charges are detailed in the charges, which, as noted above, I will upload to our website.

Before closing, however, I want to emphasize the fifth charge, which is against Robles and his compatriots Kurt Hanson, Joshua Rockwood, Ryan Fogelsanger, Michael Cawley, and Kenneth Sieden, all of whom have resigned from the union. These six individuals sought to retaliate against Ryan Joseph, the only member of the former Local 2118 Executive Board who sought IBT guidance regarding what he thought were questionable actions related to Robles pay scheme. Ryan Joseph’s actions brought to light Robles’s embezzlement scheme. His actions should have led his remaining Executive Board members to welcome the exposure of Robles’s actions, but those other Executive Board members sided with Robles to help conceal Robles’ actions. Just as disturbingly, they joined Robles and formed a pact to punish Ryan Joseph by (1) stripping him of responsibilities and assigning them to a former Executive Board officer and ally of Robles who no longer works for Allegiant Air, Erick Valenzuela, which included full access to your local’s QuickBooks and (2) to bring internal charges against him. As Brother Josh Allen testified at the hearing, the purpose of this pact ultimately was to seek Brother Joseph’s discharge from Allegiant Air, which would result in his expulsion from the Local. That kind of conduct by Robles and his compatriots represents an unacceptable mean-spirited lack of decency. It is also illegal and constitutes a stain on the entire Local.

My closing statement is attached and I will make records, including exhibits introduced at the hearing, available on the website ASAP. At this point, the hearing record is being reviewed by a three-person tribunal. The tribunal will provide a report and recommendation to the IBT General President, who will then decide the charges. I will keep you informed as the process proceeds.

Download/View Closing Statement

Fraternally,

Greg Unterseher
Trustee