United Pilots Joke ‘When Is A Day Off Not A Day Off?’ When You Fly For United

The leader of the United chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association expects thousands of pilots to demonstrate Friday as the union continues to seek quality of life contract.

The contract, which covers 14,000 United pilots, became amendable Jan. 31, 2019. “We are four and half years past the amendable date, we have been negotiating for five years, and we haven’t had meaningful work life changes in 11 years,” said Garth Thompson, chairman of the United ALPA master executive committee, in an interview.

Demonstrations are scheduled for 10 cities including Chicago, Denver and San Francisco. Thompson expects that with several thousand pilots combined at the sites, the demonstration could be the largest single ALPA demonstration ever. Based on RSVPs, the Denver turnout would eclipse the approximately 500 American pilots (They are members of Allied Pilots Association) who demonstrated in Charlotte on May 1, also protesting the slow pace of contract talks.

When Delta announced a pilot contract deal that took effect March 1, contracts at American, United and Southwest were expected to follow in short order, but that has not been the case.

“We’ve made some progress in scheduling, but we are still far apart in several important items,” Thompson said. “The amount of movement in the company’s proposals has been insufficient.” While negotiators have engaged virtually this week, two weeks of face-to-face negotiations are scheduled to take place next week in Chicago. Agreements have been reached on about 80 quality-of-life improvements.

In a prepared statement, United said Thursday, “We’re continuing to work with the Air Line Pilots Association on the industry-leading deal we have put on the table for our world-class pilots. All United flights will operate as planned while our pilots exercise their right to distribute information and picket while off-duty.”

In the ongoing talks, many key quality of life issues involve the 15% to 20% of United pilots who are on reserve. The current contract requires that twice a month, reserve pilots may be called to sit at the airport for up to four hours, unpaid, in case they are assigned to flights. After the first two calls, pilots are paid, but Thompson notes that neither American nor Delta have this requirement for their reserve pilots.

Additionally, United ALPA wants to cap the number of times per month that a reserve pilot can be on “short call,” required to get to the airport on short notice. “It is now unlimited,” Thompson said. Delta pilots have a cap of six and American pilots are negotiating the point.

As for pilots who fly monthly schedules rather than sitting on reserve, they too seek contract improvements that would provide more control over their schedules. Thompson said a joke among pilots begins, “When Is a day off not a day off?” with the response, “When you work for United Airlines.” One day last summer, Thompson, a Denver-based A320 captain with 30 years on the job, completed a planned three-day trip in Denver, but then had to fly Denver-Richmond on the fourth day.

As for pay, United ALPA is “seeking to raise the bar some from Delta pay rates,” Thompson said, The carrier has offered average 18% pay increases including the 5% increases that began in December. By the end of the proposed five-year contract, top pay including retirement contributions would be $587,000 for widebody captains and $474,000 for narrowbody captains.

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