February 15, 2012

Please join me in congratulating Captain Bill Soer on his appointment by ALPA President Captain Lee Moak to the position of Chairman of the ALPA National President’s Committee for Cargo. Bill brings a tremendous amount of experience to the table and I am certain he will do a great job.

One of the first actions Captain Soer will be tasked with is to plan and oversee the ALPA National Cargo Summit in Washington DC. The Cargo Symposium that ALPA will host will focus attention on issues that still need to be addressed with regard to cargo airline operations. Leading the list of issues for that symposium is the flight-time/duty-time regulatory "carve out" that we are working hard to overturn. Other topics include transporting hazardous materials, cargo screening, and the lack of requirements for airport rescue and firefighting equipment during cargo operations and at "all cargo” airports. Look for more information on this event soon.

In addition, the President's Committee for Cargo is being transitioned to a permanent standing ALPA National committee and Bill will transition to chairman of this committee. This is an important step in highlighting the importance of cargo.

Both the transition of the President's Committee for Cargo to a standing committee and the Cargo Summit have been goals of ours. Both are indeed good news for FedEx pilots and all cargo pilots.  

To read the letter from Captain Moak, please click here.

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I think it is necessary to correct a misunderstanding that was communicated in a recent message from the Block 2 Representative, Captain Jim Mumby about national audits and reviews. During the campaign for Block 1 and 4, the then candidates Captain Baker and Captain Hauserman made statements that centered around fiscal misdeeds, as well as ethical issues in MEC Officer business. Once that election cycle was concluded, I personally discussed with Captain Baker that if he continued to have such notions that he should contact our Financial Review Committee (FRC) Chairman and arrange to have him brief and review whatever documents and processes he had issue with or desire to see. First Officer Franklin, FRC Chairman, contacted me stating that he desired to have a legal advisor available in the event Captain Baker raised any issues and to ensure due process was followed. The MEC legal department asked to be relieved of this burden and that I should contact National for assistance. I did this and in the end, National determined that there wasn’t enough merit in the issue(s) at hand to expend the capital to send someone down to MEM. Therefore, it was then placed back into our MEC legal department’s hands. Captain Baker met with our FRC Chairman and spent the day reviewing documents and asking questions. At the completion of that and after a couple of follow-up clarifications, Captain Baker appeared to be satisfied and communicated as such with our FRC Chairman and myself.

During the initial phase of this internal audit conducted by First Officer Franklin, MEC Chairman Captain Scott Stratton inquired on what was occurring. I informed him that we would be progressing with some National assistance to ensure we had a completely uncontestable review for Captain Baker. That was the last discussion that Captain Stratton and I had on the issue, so in his mind he believed that National had taken part in this review for Captain Baker. Several months later, this came to the surface when it was communicated that National had conducted some form of audit to address further claims of fiscal mismanagement by MEC officers at FDX.  After a telephonic conference, I informed Captain Stratton and Captain Mumby that a National audit did not occur at the origination of the claims by Captain Baker, and that it was internal with our FRC. I then went on to inform these gentlemen that according to ALPA Administration Manual Section 60.V.4. “Each MEC Account, LEC account, and the Canada Board account shall be independently reviewed at the direction of the Vice President-Finance/Treasurer. The recommended timeline for each MEC Account review is to be at the end of the Officers’ terms. At the discretion of the Vice President-Finance/Treasurer, additional review procedures may be performed.” An audit was supposed to be performed when MEC officer terms were completed. Based on that requirement, I believed that one had occurred in June 2011 such as in 2009. I followed up this belief with a phone call with the ALPA VP Finance on whether or not an audit actually occurred. It indeed did not, and he further commented that National usually doesn’t do one unless specifically requested by the MEC. At that time, I asked that a Section 60.V.4. audit be conducted and its findings be reported to the FDX MEC. Capt. Helling, VP of Finance, informed me that the firm of Grant Thornton, LLP. conducts these audits on behalf of ALPA and that it would take a couple of weeks. I said we still desired to have the audit conducted. That audit process is underway as we speak, and as stated, those findings will be made public.

Captain Mumby communicated what he believed was accurate information.  The error was on my part not his, and it is being corrected.

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The 1^st Quarter regularly scheduled FDX MEC Meeting convened Monday, February 13 at the Embassy Suites in Memphis (1022 Shady Grove Road). The MEC meeting agenda can be viewed by clicking here. 

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To bid or not to bid - That is the question.

When confronted with this question, it has been a practice for many pilots to just simply bid “highest paying line without carryover” considering that carryover is not paid while in ITU training per Section 4.I.5.c. of the CBA.  However, it is important to consider that although you will not be paid immediately for the carryover, those credit hours go into your general make-up bank.  This will enable you to eventually pick up trips out of open time at your convenience and be paid for those hours – possibly at a higher rate of pay if you upgraded. 

If you have any questions or concerns, feel fr*ee to contact Contract Enforcement at 901-842-2210 or 901-842-2211 or send an email to fedex-enforcement@alpa.org.

Fellow FedEx brothers & sisters,

As many of you know, we started a Foundation a few years back to support kids with life-threatening medical conditions pursuing their dream of playing sports and other activities. Many of you have already made a big impact of spreading the word, writing articles, etc. in support of the Foundation.

I wanted to let you know of our 1st Annual Golf Tournament in Phoenix on April 9th to raise funds for these great kids and families. Below is ALL the information and how to register. This course is a private, BEAUTIFUL course!  It will be in PRISTINE shape as later that week will be their annual "Member/Guest" tourney. For $85, it's a GREAT value! Just for that price it would be a steal to play it, but you will also be receiving a golf shirt, balls, dinner, and other goodies.  

Click here for more information on how to register.

Thanks for your support,

F/O Jan Tavrytzky

Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Time: 1130-1430
Place: Snow Goose Restaurant (717 3rd Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501)

Agenda:

1. Council Officers' Reports
2. Committee Reports
3. Council Business

• Approval of Minutes
• Old Business
• New Business

Please make plans to attend. Spouses welcome. We look forward to seeing you there!

Captain Susie Latvala
Chairman
Susie.Latvala@alpa.org

First Officer Ted Duell
Vice Chairman
Ted.Duell@alpa.org

First Officer Bill Hubbell
Secretary-Treasurer
Bill.Hubbell@alpa.org

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16th Annual FedEx Pilots Ski Event for Special Olympics Alaska

Our goal is to raise $2,500 for this event. Ski Buddies and non-ski volunteers are needed at the Special Olympics Alaska Winter Games March 10th and 11th, 2012. Pilots, families, and friends are encouraged to volunteer.

The competition occurs at Hilltop Ski Area in Anchorage. Donations of $100.00 or more will receive a Special Olympics Alaska/FedEx t-shirt (indicate the size you would like with your donation).

Please put your donation checks in the events locker in the front of the pilot locker room or you can mail them to my address at:

7350 Kidron Street
Anchorage, AK 99502

Make checks out to Special Olympics Alaska or SO-AK.

Donation "Thank You" letters that include the Special Olympics Alaska Tax ID number will be sent to you.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATION!

For more information, please contact:

Doug Franz ANCFO #446729
907-317-5136
douglas.franz@fedex.com or
dtp717@hotmail.com

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FedEx Express began a class of 10 pilot new hires on February 6, 2012.  One new hire is headed to HKG as an A300 FO, 5 will be MEM B727 FOs, and 4 will be MEM B727 SOs.  These pilots come from a diverse background, including the USAF, USAFR, USANG, Atlas, BNY Mellon, Delta, Sky King and Skywest. 

The junior seniority number, or the infamous "Caboose" is now 4610 on the Master Seniority List.

Membership Committee Member FO Marc Campbell and MEC Block 8 Representative FO Lloyd Ballard gave a "Welcome Aboard" Brief on behalf of FDX ALPA and the pilots of FedEx Express on February 8.  Following the presentation, a New Hire Social was held and members from the MEC and other committees came to meet our newest pilots.

Please join us in welcoming our newest pilots to the FedEx Pilot seniority list!

Garrett Zindel, Chad Cartier, Eric Palichat, Tom Kilroy, Douglas Glendening (HKG), Chris Sharpe, Jeremy Toombs, Jim Lindow, Johnny Harrison, Dan McSeveney

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A study presented at the October meeting of the ICAO North Atlantic Scrutiny Group (SG/5) has revealed that a significant number of lateral deviations on the North Atlantic were due to a misunderstanding of weather deviation procedures by pilots. Clearly this presents a potential for loss of separation events; especially when a large number of aircraft divert from track to avoid build-ups of severe weather.

The procedure for weather deviations is described in Chapter 13 of the NAT Doc007 (formerly the NAT MNPS Manual) and is set out in the bulletin on the Flight Safety Page of the ALPA Web Site here: http://fdx.alpa.org/Portals/26/docs/Safety/natwxdev.pdf 

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We recently added the Seniority Crystal Ball Program to the FDX MEC website. This seniority calculation program will show you what your overall system seniority will be annually until retirement. This is based on the Age 65 retirement and is drawn from the data in the ALPA database. This information while interesting is obviously a worst case scenario, as we have no way of projecting when individuals will leave the seniority list.

To access this program, look in the Pilot Services Tab, or click here.  

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The cruise will take place aboard the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines ship Monarch of the Seas, sailing from Port Canaveral on Friday, December 7th, 2012 (Pearl Harbor Day).

How can you help us?

For more information, please call Al Schroeder, Advisor to the Museum Board and Program Manager, at 407 679 6674.

Please visit www.thankyouveteranscruise.org (website currently under construction).

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