Release #: Vol. 85, No. 1
January 01, 2016

Our Union: Set Our Sails

By Capt. Tim Canoll, ALPA President

“You can’t change the wind, but you can set your sails,” said Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of Green Day.

At ALPA, our Constitution and By-Laws are the fundamental principles that guide and inspire us, while at the same time creating consistency and driving change.

Since they were first ratified on July 27, 1931, ALPA’s Constitution and By-Laws have set our union’s standards and directed our work. The objectives they lay out construct the architecture in which all of ALPA’s activities take place––at the bargaining table, on Capitol Hill and Parliament Hill, and with regulators in Washington, D.C., and Ottawa, Ont.

The first objective in ALPA’s Constitution is “to provide representation for all members of the airline piloting profession; to promote the interests of that profession; and to safeguard the rights, individually and collectively, of its members.” As you’ll read in this issue’s 30 pilot group profiles (see page 17), while every group’s leaders make their own decisions about their negotiation’s course and content, every pilot group also receives support, knowledge, and expertise of the extraordinary caliber only our union offers.

In 2016, our union’s 85th year, strategic organizing efforts will form a key element of our work to garner improved pay, benefits, career advancement, and job security for our members. ALPA’s success––and that of our industry––in this endeavor is also essential to attracting new pilots to the profession. We are keenly aware that our best strategy for success always lies in our unity—whether it’s among the members of a single pilot group or among the pilots across our continent.

In the months ahead, we will also continue to advance labor as a whole across North America. In Canada, we welcomed the government’s decision to waive through 2016 certain reporting requirements for labour organizations (see page 12), but full repeal is needed to restore fairness and relieve an onerous administrative burden.

Likewise, ALPA will continue to guard against atypical business models such as market-distorting subsidies and flag-of-convenience schemes that threaten U.S. and Canadian pilots’ jobs and their airlines’ ability to compete internationally. For example, when Norwegian Air UK recently applied for exemption and permit authority to serve the United States, ALPA strongly urged the U.S. government to seek more information about how the business model would affect jobs and the international airline industry (see page 7).

Another of the objectives in ALPA’s Constitution directs our union to exercise “ceaseless vigilance” in advancing safety “in recognition of the high degree of public trust, confidence, and responsibility placed on the members.” I know I speak for every one of ALPA’s members when I say that we are deeply aware of and respect the confidence the public places in us every time we fly.

It’s for that reason that ALPA remains steadfast in our resolve that the FAA’s current pilot training and qualification regulations, which stem from four fatal airline accident investigations, remain firmly in place. Similarly, we will continue to push for science-based flight- and duty-time regulations for all-cargo operations and call for point-of-sale registration of small unmanned aircraft systems. ALPA will also press for a full FAA reauthorization that ensures the safety of transporting lithium batteries by air, advances mandatory installation of secondary cockpit barriers, and helps implement NextGen.

This year, ALPA will do more than ever to promote a multilayered, risk-based approach to aviation security that includes equipping all-cargo aircraft with a reinforced cockpit door and taking on threats such as laser attacks on airliners. We will also build on our long history of work to promote pilots’ performance as well as their health and welfare through ALPA’s Pilot Assistance programs.

The wind may change, but it’s ALPA’s Constitution and By-Laws that set our union’s sails. 

This article is from the December issue of Air Line Pilot magazine, the Official Journal of the Air Line Pilots Association, International—a monthly publication for all ALPA members.

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