Monday, March 27, 2017

Hawaiian Airlines pilots ratify labor agreement

Hawaiian Airlines pilots have voted by a 76%-24% margin to ratify a new five-year, three month labor contract, ending two years of sometimes contentious negotiations and threatened strike actions.

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents the carrier’s 670 pilots, said 97% of Hawaiian’s pilots participated in the vote. The new contract will take effect April 1 and run through July 2022.

According to ALPA, the agreement will immediately increase pay for Hawaiian’s pilots, backdated to September 2015, between 20% and 45%, depending on an individual pilot’s seat, years of service, and aircraft type. By the time the contract becomes amendable in 2022, overall pay rates will have risen between 36% and 86%. The new contract will also bring all of Hawaiian’s pilots under a single retirement plan by 2022.

“With this agreement, Hawaiian pilots have finally achieved pay rates that bring us to parity with the other major carriers we compete with worldwide,” ALPA’s Hawaiian Airlines Master Executive Council vice chairman David Moore said. “It … should make Hawaiian an attractive destination for new pilots.”

The US National Mediation Board (NMB) supervised the negotiations, which began in March 2015 with the aim of reaching an agreement by Sept. 15 of that year. When that date passed without an agreement, collective bargaining began in late September 2015. The two parties reached a tentative labor agreement in February 2017.

Hawaiian reached new labor agreements with three unions representing over 2,200 employees in 2016. The airline remains in negotiations with the Association of Flight Attendants, whose contract became amendable in January 2017.


(Mark Nensel - ATWOnline News)

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