THE HOSTAGE EDITION
Charlotte Domicile Special Update
Status Quo
On Friday May 27, 2011 at 1400 hours your Union filed a lawsuit against US Airways Management for continued abuses and violations of past practices and changes in the Status Quo. It is not a secret that every time we come to work something has changed, whether it be ACARS pay procedures, manual insertion of incorrect times, or FOM changes designed to limit your Captain's Authority and adjust your work environment from long standing practices. Management is clearly attempting to move the company back to the dark ages of aviation with their new techniques of reintroducing the Frank Lorenzo methods of Safety Culture. These policies include intimidation, fear, and using the Jerry Glass "Triple D" methodology of controlling your employees - document, discipline, and dismiss. These unacceptable management tools and policies violate every moral and ethical principal of SMS and not only create the flawed Safety Culture noted by Dr. Terri van Thaden but are indicative of the changes in the status quo of our airline since the merger. Imagine any of the airline's former management groups behaving in the manner we are witnessing today. Even Stephen Wolf knew not to tamper with pay, work rules, and most importantly employee morale in his attempts to outsource our airline. The changes we have witnessed since 2005 has been like dealing with the punks in the school yard who attempted to rule through fear and intimidation. Attempting to use intimidation to manage professionals and their decisions to operate beyond the bounds of common sense and safety is, in and of itself, the very definition of a safety culture in crisis.
One thing we do know is that Doug Parker and his minions cannot fly jets and they appear clueless as to the intricacies of the relationship between machine, man, and human factors in our professional environment. For them to continue to attempt to intimidate pilots through their flawed policies, corporate attitudes, and lack of concern for the safety culture of our airline is clearly operating outside the envelope and in an environment we have never seen on this property in past administrations. This in itself is a defined change in the Status Quo.
Hostages have Been Taken
To further illustrate the changes in management philosophies one has only to look at the 2008 "fuel school incident" created by our illustrious management team as, up until now, the most glaring example of Team Tempe's lack of concern for our profession. At that time none of us had ever seen the likes of one of our Captains (let alone 8) being brought in and questioned as to how much fuel they required for their flight. Not only a contradiction of the FOM, Company Policy and Procedures, as well as the FARs, management's attempted hostage taking of these 8 pilots was an example of Team Tempe modeling their management style after the tyranny of the old Chinese judicial system - shoot a few to educate the rest - in order to keep the masses in line. This failed strategy was met with strong resistance by your union along with your resolve, yet they continue to attempt to find new ways to introduce intimidation into our workplace. Their attempts to single out specific targets with the hopes of forcing flawed policies and behaviors into our cockpits must be met with equal resistance. We must all stand together and once again demonstrate to US Airways' management, our passengers, and the regulators of our industry that Management's behavior and lack of concern for our Safety Culture will not be tolerated.
Once again Management is attempting to cross the line: on Tuesday May 31, 2011 at 1400 the Tempe bullies have ordered our Charlotte Chief pilots to bring in 4 of our Captains to the airport for a meeting regarding Al Hemmingway's recently referenced "minor discrepancies" letter to Mike Cleary. The history begins as follows: At approximately 1500 on Tuesday May 24 Captain McKee received a phone call from one of the affected pilots regarding a call from an Assistant Chief Pilot to a scheduled hearing. During that conversation no details were given other than that a hearing was to be held either the following Friday or Tuesday and USAPA was informed. The real facts: USAPA was not informed until Chairman McKee was contacted during this same phone call (call waiting and switched over) at 1600 by Captain Pate that 4 pilots were being called in for a hearing. When questioned as to the nature of the hearings as well as the specific topic to be discussed Captain Pate informed Captain McKee that he was not sure yet and was directed to notify the pilots as well as the union of the meetings. Pressing Captain Pate for specific events, flight numbers, days, as well as events leading to this notification it became very apparent that those in Tempe who ordered the hearings were not yet sure what to pursue and how to proceed; their only direction was the bring in the named parties. To his credit, Captain Pate stated he would have to get back to us on the nature of the events as well as the topics of discussion when he was brought into the loop by upper management.
As of this writing, we have only been informed that 2 of the Captains will be questioned about FDML write ups specific to the FAR requirement of secured crash axe brackets in the cockpit of the Airbus. The third Captain is being brought in to question his request to have maintenance fully service his oxygen that was less than 1000 psi prior to departure on the SFO redeye, and we have yet to hear why they need to bring in the most senior Captain. Can you say "witch hunt"???
Other than fuel school, at no time in the history of US Airways has any Captain been questioned on his judgment to enhance safety to meet or exceed the standards of our operation. At no time has any Captain been summoned to the Chief Pilot's office to discuss vague items without specific examples or a description of the events. At no time has any pilot been subjected to this amount of stress and pressure based on conjecture and unknown circumstances and at no time have your Representative ever been left with the "wait and see what sticks" and "we will tell you later" philosophy of conducting a hearing.
The hearings begin at 1400 on Tuesday May 31 and we must stand together with these hostages to not only protect to them but to stand up for the honor of our profession against these flawed management practices. We need to send a message to Tempe that their intimidation and behavior will not be tolerated by our pilot group and most importantly we must all stand beside our brother pilots who are being used as scapegoats by flight department management to keep the rest of you in line. We look forward to this righteous battle and look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday at 1330.
Final Thoughts
Each of us being on board is the requirement to effect the changes in the flawed safety culture of our airline and get our Safety Culture back into the green. We must all employ the Volant Model of Threat and Error management techniques to assure not only our cockpits but our work environment remain in the green at all times. Once we have established and recognized a threat, we must all exercise extreme caution using our problem solving skills to bring our environment back from the red or yellow into the green. Make no mistake, the stress and pressure that are being placed on all of us by this management are indeed threats to the safety of our airline and specifically our work environment, the cockpit. Isolating our pilots for discipline for the purpose of "education" adds significantly to the stress levels of our Safety Culture. We have an opportunity to move US Airways Safety Culture from the Red to the Green and it will require that each one of us to make a conscience decision - you are either on board with the goals and direction of your union or you are on board with Team Tempe's way of managing your work environment and professional judgment. We all know what it is like to work in a friendly, team spirited, as well as a stress free work environment. We need to reclaim that environment and move Team Tempe to accept the green they teach rather than push us into the yellow and red which they practice. Being on board means we will leave no soldiers behind; they take one of us, they take us all and, most importantly, that we maintain control of our threat environment and always keep it in the "green" to protect all they attempt to intimidate.
Tuesday Management is attempting to move us all to the red by taking Captains Hank Ratliff, Mike Gearing, Rick Taylor, and Tom Jellar as hostages in their campaign to intimidate and control US Airways pilots. We must stand together to protect and defend not only these pilots but the profession we have so proudly chosen.
Remember it is your duty regardless of management intimidation techniques to always keep it in the green; we must all focus on meeting or exceeding all US Airways Safety Standards and protecting all that are counting on our judgment, experience, and Captains Authority. Thank you all for being on board in protecting the safety and integrity of our airline and profession.
Be Safe out there; see you Tuesday as we stand up for the 4 hostages they have chosen!
