ALPA’s Single-Council Pilot Groups
By John Perkinson, Senior Staff Writer
As a primer for this year’s annual Leadership Training Conference, Capt. Sean Creed, ALPA’s vice president–administration/secretary, and Capt. James Harding (Wasaya), ALPA’s Group C executive vice president, held a special session for a select group of union officers. This additional session was designed to set the stage for the larger annual conference, which focuses on preparing newly elected local executive council (LEC) reps to take office. Creed and Harding briefed the officers of single-council pilot groups to help these pilot leaders better understand the additional roles and responsibilities they play as both master executive council (MEC) and LEC leaders.
Single-council groups make up 19 of the Association’s 42 pilot groups and include pilots flying for U.S. and Canadian carriers who transport both passengers and cargo. Some may be smaller groups while others represent more than 900 pilots, and the individuals who lead these groups share a special perspective of the Association’s governing-body policies. Currently, they represent approximately 5,600 ALPA members.
Whereas local council members of pilot groups with more than one local council elect their LEC representatives and the elected status reps then nominate and elect MEC officers, local council members of single-council pilot groups elect LEC officers who also serve in the respective MEC officer positions. As a result, these union leaders each wear two hats in support of their individual pilot groups.
The biggest distinction in their roles relates to the governance meetings each pilot group is required to conduct. These elected officers preside over MEC meetings, which must be held at least twice a year, but they also need to arrange governance meetings for the local members at least once every four months.
“We have a dual role to play,” explained Capt. Sam Larson (Sun Country), his pilot group’s recently elected MEC chair and a previous vice chair and secretary-treasurer for the single-council MEC of former Compass Airlines. “As MEC officers, we juggle larger pilot group responsibilities, including directing contract negotiations and overseeing the MEC committee structure,” he said. “Like our peers at multicouncil pilot groups, our captain and first officer reps also have national responsibilities to the union as members of ALPA’s Board of Directors (BOD). However, in addition to being an LEC chair, captain status rep, and member of the BOD, as the MEC chair, I’m also a member of ALPA’s Executive Board. That’s a lot to keep up with!”
Larson also noted, “At the LEC level, we represent members facing disciplinary charges, interact with the chief pilot’s office, and engage line pilots, sharing information and soliciting feedback.”
Harding, who’s also an MEC chair of a single-council Canadian pilot group, highlighted the challenges of staying in contact with members. He pointed to pilot groups like Flair, which is represented by LEC 250 in Edmonton, Alb., but has pilot bases in Calgary, Alb.; Edmonton; Toronto, Ont.; Vancouver, B.C., and Waterloo-Kitchener, Ont.
“If your local council is based in a city where your pilots are domiciled, you stand a better chance of having members attend your local council meetings,” Harding remarked. “If you’re a single council and your pilots are located in every direction, meeting attendance, committee participation, and the ability to personally interact with your pilots become more challenging. Even your elected officers in these councils may live in multiple places, limiting their ability to meet in person.”
“With single-council pilot groups, it’s easy to overfocus on in-house responsibilities and lose sight of your national duties,” said Capt. Jeremy Keyes (Kalitta Air), who chairs the largest single-council group within ALPA. “At my airline, we’re deeply involved in collective bargaining right now.” He added, “To be successful, you really need to have good volunteers so that you can delegate aspects of your responsibilities and know they’re being properly addressed.”
In addition to reaching out to volunteers, reps for single-council pilot groups are encouraged to turn to ALPA staff—including their assigned labor relations counsel, communications specialist, Economic & Financial Analysis analyst, event planner, and council services coordinator—for assistance and support.
Single-Council Pilot Groups
ALPA pilot groups that operate with single councils include Air Inuit, Air Transport International, Amerijet International, Breeze Airways, Cargojet, CommuteAir, Flair, Kalitta Air, Keewatin Air, Kelowna Flightcraft, Morningstar Air Express, PAL Aerospace, Pascan Aviation, Pivot, Ravn Alaska, Sun Country, Sunwing, Wasaya Airways, and Western Global.
