Negotiators' newsletter

Negotiators’ Newsletter 48  

Management’s “Foxtrot Uniform” to Frontier Pilots 

The Negotiating Committee and ALPA staff members met with the company at the NMB offices in Washington DC last week. To say that the company’s negotiating position was disappointing is a gross understatement. It was a slap in the face, or an “FU” to Frontier pilots.  

The NC entered this week well-prepared, with authority from the MEC to negotiate, and ready to bargain in good faith. In our view, we could have been close to a deal by Wednesday if the company had shown up prepared to bargain and shown any interest in the same outcome as your ALPA negotiators.  

The Association provided management counters to Section 11 Training and Testing, Section 21 System Board of Adjustment and Section 28 Retirement in advance of this week’s session, and made it clear we would be available to answer any questions the company had prior to the session.  

On Tuesday, management was not prepared to counter Section 11 Training and Testing, instead they wasted half a day asking for a complete run-through of all remaining open items and asking a bunch of questions that had previously been discussed. Management ultimately did not provide a counter, stating that the Vice President of Flight Operations was sick, and they weren’t comfortable moving forward without him present. As stated above, ALPA provided the company with our counter three weeks prior to the session. 

Management also provided the association with a counter to our Section 21 System Board of Adjustment. With roughly 1850 open grievances of which 475 are elevated to the System Board of Adjustment, it is no surprise that improvements to the grievance process continuously poll among the highest priorities for Frontier pilots. Management’s proposal did nothing to move us closer to agreement but instead struck a previously agreed upon framework that would provide increased access to arbitrated decisions specifically designed to clear out lower-level grievances. The company had asked for some “guard rails” as to which cases could be heard under this new construct, which ALPA provided in our last pass, however, the company’s response was to strike the entire framework and say they are no longer interested in the new process. 

Managements Economic Proposal (Attached Below with comparison graphs) 

On Wednesday, 18 months after receiving ALPA’s comprehensive economic proposal, the company presented ALPA with an economic counter that didn’t address any of our cornerstone contract issues – pay, benefits, key work rules, or job security. Management gave ALPA a presentation that painted a picture quite a bit different than the one our CEO Barry Biffle has been providing to wall street and various news outlets which begs the question, who is telling the truth? Ironically, their proposal stated that the company was in a much stronger financial position during the last round of bargaining, which anyone who was here will remember, is significantly different than the story they were telling back then, but management’s relationship with the truth has always been questionable at best. 

The Company’s proposal seeks concessions that will never be ratified, with an economic package that would put Frontier pilots dead last in compensation, and behind carriers that are still negotiating in this current round of bargaining. Delay, and more delay, is the only possible motivation for that kind of proposal.     

Elements of the Company’s proposal are described below: 

• Pay - The Company proposal pays a 12-year Frontier pilot $288.76 an hour DOS- which is less than a Sun Country currently makes, and $316.39 three years from now – which is less than a Spirit pilot makes today. It provides no retro pay and is 5 years in duration. 
  
  The proposal reduces the lineholder guarantee to 70 hours, reserve guarantee to 72 hours, pays a 125% premium (MCO) when actual block exceeds 82 hours instead of our current provision which pays 125% over 82 credit hours, and lowers daily vacation value to four hours per day, while increasing the accrual  period, among other things. 

• Benefits - The Company refused to address any of the substantive, industry standard improvements ALPA is seeking, including medical and dental cost-sharing provisions, improvements to Long Term Disability and eliminating the spousal and child surcharges. The Company proposal includes a 1% increase to the non-elective retirement contribution, which would leave Frontier pilots 2% behind our industry peers. 

• Work Rules – The Company still wants to unilaterally set the drop-swap and minimum reserve limit and dramatically change vacation for the worse. They are trying to claw back improvements we made in the last round in exchange for the implementation of PBS. Management also proposed to remove FDO lines, increase access to reserves including earlier RDP start times for “A” reserves, changing sick accrual/ use from days to hours, removing MOU1 from the hotel selection process and requiring agreement with every concessionary proposal the company currently has on the table, while not addressing a single improvement ALPA is seeking.  

• Job Security - The Company passed bullet points, not a full-language proposal as is typical with Section 1, that doesn’t commit to two-pilot cockpits, saying two pilots in the cockpit would put Frontier at a competitive disadvantage, and does not address the other substantive, industry standard improvements ALPA is seeking. 

MANAGEMENT’S PROPOSAL

COMPARISON GRAPHS 

Please throw us a DART if you have any questions, stay informed and stay unified!