AP reports American Airines pilots vote out union leadership

In today's news this story. In spite of incumbent president Hunter's calls for major pay raises and signing bonuses and his recent activism, some in the rank-and-file have said that Hunter was too slow in working for reparations from a past acceptance of salary cuts in the face of AA's crying poor several years ago.

We in the faculty ranks of the Contra Costa Community College District know what it's like to take a cut in pay when management has worked us into a financial bind (in our case, they did it by cancelling hundreds of classes--the main source of revenue for a college funded by enrollment, of course).

We don't know, however, what it's like to have a union leadership that stands firm for making up that cut as quickly as possible. Even with the current contract offer of a seven percent raise for 2007-08, we have no assurance that there will be anything greater than an offer of the state-provided COLA for 2008-09, although we have not had a pay increase for five years. Nor does our leadership organize protests against the stunning contracts awarded to our college presidents, featuring merit increases, built-in pay hikes; meanwhile, our chancellor is receiving more per year than the governor of the state.

The pilots rejected Hunter's presidency in spite of his apparent militancy, which this article suggests was mostly for show anyway. The rank-and-file are putting their hopes on Lloyd Hill and his more aggressive response to management infractions.

Here's AP's story.
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American Airlines pilots oust union leadership in election
From the Associated Press
June 21, 2007

Pilots at American Airlines, unhappy over pay and angry at company management, ousted their union's top officers and elected a slate of newcomers who promised to take a harder line against the nation's largest carrier.

Miami-based pilot Lloyd Hill defeated incumbent President Ralph Hunter by a ratio of more than 2 to 1 in a runoff. Challengers also unseated the Allied Pilots Assn.'s next two ranking officials.

Hill charged that Hunter and other union leaders were too cozy with company management. Hunter's post was clearly in jeopardy after he got only 25% of the vote during an election in May and barely made the runoff.

The first test for the new officers will come quickly — the union is in the early stages of negotiations for a new contract in which it expects large raises.

Under Hunter, the pilots union proposed pay raises of 30.5% and big signing bonuses. Hunter also organized protests against $160 million in stock awards given to more than 800 management employees.

Privately, airline officials viewed the protests and pay demands as part of the union leaders' campaign to stay in office by appearing tough. If so, the plan came up short against challengers who took a harder anti-company stance.

Pilots voted by mail, with ballots due Wednesday. The votes were counted at union headquarters in Fort Worth.

Hill got 4,573 votes, or 68%, to Hunter's 2,180. Dallas-based pilot Tom Westbrook defeated Vice President Sam Bertling by an even larger margin, and San Francisco-based pilot Bill Haug defeated incumbent Secretary-Treasurer Jim Eaton.

The union represents more than 9,000 pilots at American.