Discussions Drawn-Out Yet Compensation Still Below Market

The Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) released a statement noting that June 20, 2025, is the fifth anniversary since opening proposals were exchanged between the pilots of Air Transport International (ATI) and airline management, with no results but mounting pilot displeasure at still operating with a below-market-based contract signed in 2018.

Capt. Mike Sterling, Chair of the ATI ALPA Master Executive Council (MEC) said, “The pilots of ATI have heavily invested in growing the airline since Amazon operations began in 2015. While ATI is the largest Amazon air carrier in the world, our pilots receive the lowest pay rates and retirement benefits of any other pilot flying a Boeing 767 for Amazon. We deliver unmatched reliability, yet we receive less-than-stellar compensation for our performance.”

“The goal of the ongoing bargaining efforts is “to solidify a market-based contract that meets our members’ focused priorities of enhanced retirement benefits and pay rates with targeted quality-of-life improvements.

“In January 2024, ATI pilots formally requested that the National Mediation Board release them to self-help, which for pilots means a legal strike. In November 2023, 99.7 percent of ATI pilots voted in favor of authorizing a strike when legally permitted.”

However, before a strike can take place, the National Mediation Board must decide that further mediation efforts would not be productive and offer the parties an opportunity to arbitrate the dispute. If either side declines arbitration, the parties enter a 30-day “cooling off” period. After that, either party may engage in self-help, meaning either a strike by the union or a lockout by management.

The ALPA was founded in 1931 and is the largest airline pilot union in the world representing more than 79,000 pilots flying for 42 airlines in Canada and the United States.

FMI:  www.alpa.org/