United Airlines pilots have ousted the head of their union.
Pilots at United Airlines have recalled Anne Worster as chairman of the United chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association, replacing her with Brian Noyes, the previous vice chairman. …Worster was recalled at a special meeting Monday morning, said a source familiar with the chapter.
…“ The straw that broke the camel’s back was last week, when she named her husband to be her executive administrator,” the source said.
All of this despite pilot wages being at an all-time record and Untied pilots now have upgrade priority over paying passengers while deadheading – something they got from the airline in exchange for allowing fellow members not to be furloughed during the pandemic.
American Airlines pilots also ousted their union President in October.
Southwest Airlines pilots recently faced internal turmoil stemming from an internal investigation of its own union President’s ‘sexual misconduct’, after it was reportedly revealed that he had a romantic relationship with a union staff member in violation of a “no fraternization” policy.
Meanwhile flight attendants at United removed their negotiators, and American Airlines flight attendants are dealing with charges filed against their President.
All of these work groups except United Airlines flight attendants (who remain in negotiations) have seen significant wage increases in recent years. That hasn’t been enough to forestall infighting and accusations of corruption.
I’ll say it yet again: Generally, unions are good for workers; corruption (including nepotism) is bad. Glad that the pilots and crews are getting paid more and receiving better benefits–they deserve it. And for those upset about upgrades (or lack thereof), please just pay for First/Business if you really want it–you folks often complain about ‘handouts’ anyways.
@1990 – Say what? I normally agree with you but I confess that I’m puzzled here, particularly by the “you folks” part. I absolutely think that a loyal passenger should get bumped up before a deadheading pilot making half a million dollars a year. In fact I’d assert that the pilot could more easily afford to pay for first than normal humans. What good is loyalty as a passenger if all you get for it is a kick in the teeth?
Overall I agree that unions are vital in big companies because corporations – particularly in the USA – don’t tend to care at all about employees and something has to offset corporate greed. While pilots are doing insanely well I wish they’d spend a little of their efforts at helping coworkers who are getting paid a quarter of pilot pay.
Poor corporate image to see uniformed United pilots in First Class, which I was seated with, along with vacant seats while elderly are crammed in economy due to lack of funds to pay higher fares.
It would have made someone’s day to upgrade them.
Pilots at United are NOT bumped (upgraded) into first class before revenue upgrades. The United pilots negotiated, in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in concessions to help the company during Covid, many things, one of which was to be booked into an open first class seat when a deadhead assignment is made. The seat must be open at the time of booking and it is virtually always long before the day of the flight when passengers upgrade into open seats. It is no different than any corporation purchasing a first class seat for its employee who will be traveling on company business, except in this case, the United pilots paid for the right to book that seat through concessions.
@Captain Friendly – ‘to help the company during covid’ is one way to look at it, they extracted a concession so united wouldn’t have to furlough pilots which helped both pilots and the airline, and that concession was that they trump passengers for the last remaining first class seats when deadheading.
It is disingenuous to say that “United pilots paid for the right to book that seat through concessions” without specifying the concession was NOT FURLOUGHING PILOTS.
Unions are a detriment to society in this current day and age…they had their use once upon a time ago, but now it’s sheer greed!
Unions don’t have a monopoly on corruption.
Mr. Leff,
You said, “It is disingenuous to say that “United pilots paid for the right to book that seat through concessions” without specifying the concession was NOT FURLOUGHING PILOTS.”
You are spinning the reality of the situation. There were MANY concessions made. First, the seat was not “tied” to a no furlough clause. Secondly, “Not furloughing pilots,” was good for the company because when covid ended it allowed it to “spool up quickly,” and it saved the company TONS of money in mandatory contractual obligations, seat movements, and retraining. Further, the United pilots didn’t prevent the furloughs, the Federal Government did with the CARES ACT. The company was not allowed to furlough if they wanted to take the taxpayer’s dollars.
The fact is that the pilots gave us significant amounts of hard dollars for that contractual right. Let me say that again, hard dollars.
Lastly, even if the company would have been in a position to furlough (had there been no CARES ACT) the only individuals who would have be benefit from the massive concessions made were the relatively small percentage of pilots who would have been subjected to furlough – not the vast majority of the pilots. One can hardly call that a gain for someone not getting furloughed. Again, the CARES ACT prevented the furloughs, not the pilots.
Your spin aside, the same arguments you’re making can be applied to any salary, benefits, or working conditions for anyone — if you (pick your job title) didn’t make X number of $$, or cost the company X number of $$, my cost of purchasing a car, or a loaf of bread, a gallon of gas, or whatever would be cheaper . . .
Everything has a price. In this case the pilots paid for the right to book a first class seat. They could have exchanged that leverage for dollars, or meals, or virtually anything the company could provide. In this case they negotiated for the right to a first class seat when on company business – just like so many other business travelers. Importantly, the seat has to be available when booked – nobody gets to “bump” anyone as you suggested.
Jonathon, you are ABSOLUTELY wrong! Unions, especially in safety-sensitive positions are a must. As pilots, we sometimes have to make decisions that don’t make economic sense in the corporate thinking (diverting to an airport in an emergency situation for example). Unions protect that choice, allowing pilots the final say so w/o worrying about their job in the process. Of course, the safety of the passengers and crew that choice gives us benefits the company too.
As far as pilots being given 1st class… a rested pilot is a safer pilot. Sitting in a middle seat in economy for 4-5 hours, then being responsible for flying a plane later is a sure-fire way to have a very fatigued pilot. Just my .02.
Here goes wannabe pilot Gary again… Gary, I bet you dress up in a pilot uniform with four stripes and play MS Flight Simulator at home.
“We delivered during difficult times”……No, you sat at home and were paid your full outrageous salaries. You “delivered” nothing.
“Contract first, United next”……and passengers (you know, the people who make it possible for you to have your job) last.
“Future pilots are watching”……watching what? …a bunch of the world’s tallest 3 year olds parade outside the terminal because they’re not satisfied with $300,000/yr.?
“Families first. Fix our schedules”…….actuality, you can resign and spend 24 hours per day with your family and the current wife who cheats on you when you’re on trips…..just like ex-wife 1,2 &3. Working for a living and having to leave your house to go somewhere sucks doesn’t it?
I’m inclined to agree with the policy, but ONLY in the case of deadheading to operate a live flight in the same day. Anything that can assist in ensuring the pilot is well rested beforehand makes sense to me.
Unless you’re a pilot at UAL, no one wants to hear what you think of ALPA so STFU. As far as deadheading upgrades, crew members are on Company business so they need to be well rested & no one is being kicked out of their seats for DH crew, they are just ahead of people who paid for coach and are asking for an upgrade using miles etc.. If you want to sit in first or biz, buy a ticket. It is, however a damning admission that siting in coach suuuuuuuuccccckkks.
Did you mean to spell ‘United’ as ‘Untied’ in your lede paragraph?
Who hurt you Chris? Pretty angry about something that probably doesn’t affect you very often if ever. You’ll live longer if you let some of that anger go
@Wetcoaster – deadheading counts against duty day, normally they’d be flying in the cockpit operating the aircraft, why do they need rest for the deadhead flight?