Release #05.ATA7
August 18, 2005

ALPA President Authorizes Strike Vote for ATA Airlines Flight Crewmembers

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Capt. Duane Woerth, President of the Air Line Pilots Association, International, has authorized pilot union leaders at ATA Airlines to conduct a strike vote if they cannot reach an acceptable agreement with the airline in bankruptcy court. 

The action comes one week after the airline filed a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis to abrogate ALPA’s collective bargaining agreement with ATA and impose more than $37 million in additional pay and benefit concessions. ALPA has offered $18 million in new concessions. 

“Our members have already provided almost $70 million in relief to ATA since 2004, and these new demands would reduce our pay by more than 40 percent from our 2005 rates,” explained Capt. Jim Anderson, chairman of the ALPA’s ATA Master Executive Council. “We are already severely underpaid, and we will not hesitate to hold a strike vote if ATA insists on financing its bankruptcy by slashing compensation for its pilots and flight engineers.”

The authorization from ALPA’s president does not mean that a strike or other legal job action is imminent, but authorizes the ATA union leadership to poll its membership on whether to strike. A date for a vote has not been set.

“Capt. Woerth has given our pilot group a powerful tool to use in our ongoing negotiations with ATA,” Anderson said. “We are certain that we will prevail with the help and support of ALPA and its unparalleled legal, financial and economic resources.” 

Founded in 1931, ALPA is the world’s largest pilot union representing more than 64,000 cockpit crewmembers at 41 airlines in the U.S. and Canada. Visit the ALPA website at www.alpa.org.

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ALPA Contact: Rusty Ayers, 773-284-4910, 847-323-9519 (cell)