Contract Negotiations Will Go To Arbitration

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters' Airline Division announced Tuesday that negotiations with Atlas Air Worldwide (AAWW), the holding company of Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo Worldwide, have ended without a collective bargaining agreement. The Teamsters and AAWW have been in negotiations to merge the carrier's existing contracts for nearly two years.

"Instead of reaching an agreement with its pilots, AAWW management has decided to let an arbitrator determine the core provisions in the pilots' contract," Capt. David Bourne, Teamsters' Airline Division Director, said in a news release. "Consequently, an arbitrator will impose contract terms affecting the rules for airline acquisitions, mergers, asset disposition, marketing agreements, joint ventures, foreign operations, subcontracting, salary, health insurance, retirement, profit sharing and contract duration."

Approximately 800 Teamsters-represented pilots employed by Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo Worldwide operate the world's largest fleet of modern Boeing 747 all-cargo aircraft serving clients in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The express unit of German-based DHL has a 49 percent stake in Polar Air Cargo Worldwide.

Bourne asserts that pilot morale is at an all time low at Atlas and Polar. "The company is one of the most profitable airlines in the world, in part, because of lucrative government contracts," he said, "but management is putting its past success at risk by refusing to enter into a fair contract with their hardworking pilots who are unified in their demands."

Under the terms of an agreement between the Teamsters and AAWW management, all unresolved contract sections must be resolved by final and binding arbitration with no judicial review. The arbitration hearing is scheduled to begin in October.

FMI: www.atlasair.com, www.polaraircargo.com, www.teamsters.org