The Cargo Cut Out fix will be a fairly lengthy process. Michael Robbins (ALPA National Director of Government Affairs) and I briefed the MEC last week as to the road ahead to have Cargo Carriers required to participate in the FAR 117.

We are now entering into our third week of educating legislators on the Hill regarding the new FTDT rule and the exclusion of cargo operations from the new rule. To say that we are disappointed about the ruling is the understatement of the year. ALPA had over 100 meetings with staff and members thus far with many more scheduled this week.

This is a follow up to Captain Stratton’s recent message wherein he restated our pursuit of a five-point plan and in particular, a legislative strategy designed to overturn the cargo exemption to Part 117.

The Super Committee (Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction) failed in their mission to produce a $1.2 trillion deficit reduction package. This will trigger automatic spending cuts in fiscal year 2013, split between discretionary domestic spending and Department of Defense spending. However for ALPA Members , this means that some of the talked about deficit reduction/revenue generating proposals that would have been harmful to pilots – taxation of employer-provided health benefit...

The Legislative Affairs Team was in Washington all last week accompanied by F/O Officer Ken Binder acting in his capacity as a National R&I committee member. Ken along with F/O’s Aaron Hagan and Bill Secord did an outstanding job representing FedEx and ALPA National.