DOT Action Threatens to Undermine Historical Labor Rights

“… because the Department [of Transportation] desires the Latin American airline to be able to grow faster than the U.S. airline.”  —excerpt from ALPA’s 18 JULY 2022 DOT filing.

Delta Airlines and LATAM, a Chilean/Brazilian group of air carriers headquartered in Chile, are undertaking a joint venture that will see the two entities' plan, price, and share revenues and costs of a route structure encompassing the whole of the North and South American continents. Such an endeavor requires governmental approval insomuch as the combined metal, manpower, and financial resources of its member parties may well constitute a monopoly.

To Wit:

The Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) has called upon the Department of Transportation (DOT) to reinstate a key labor provision that would protect U.S. pilot jobs before approving the joint-venture agreement between Delta Air Lines and LATAM.

Earlier this month, the DOT struck a key provision from the proposed joint-venture agreement—a provision that would have ensured Delta pilots perform a fair and equitable share of the growth in flying generated by the endeavor. By omitting the subject provision—which was agreed upon by both airlines and supported by U.S. labor—the Department of Transportation facilitates—perhaps knowingly, perhaps unwittingly—the outsourcing of U.S. pilot jobs to a foreign carrier.

ALPA president Captain Joe DePete asserted: “The Department’s action is contrary to the interests of U.S. workers—and contrary to the pro-labor policy objectives of the Biden Administration. We urge the DOT to reverse course and reinstate the strong pro-labor provisions originally negotiated in this deal to protect U.S. workers and stop the outsourcing of American jobs.”

In its filing, ALPA encouraged the DOT to support the use of such growth-allocation clauses in joint venture agreements, particularly where future foreign partners will come from developing countries, the wage and work rule disparities of which are apt to discourage the hiring of and/or retention of U.S. employees.

Capt. DePete added: “The elimination of this important labor provision is completely inexplicable given that agreement had been reached by all parties to include it. DOT is prioritizing the interests of foreign workers over U.S. pilots. That is unacceptable”

Founded in 1931, and representing more than 65,000 pilots at forty U.S. and Canadian airlines, ALPA is the world’s largest pilot union.

FMI: www.ALPA.org