They Pushed, We Talked ... and Said What Needed to be Said

On Wednesday afternoon, Senior Vice President of Flight Operations JonCarlo Gulbranson and Vice President of Flight Operations CA Alan Johnson addressed your Board of Directors and National Officers. This visit from management was precipitated by a request from CA Johnson and was not part of the Board’s original agenda. Additionally, CA Johnson did not disclose the subject nor intent of the requested time in front of your Board. 

As their appearance came at their request, your Board provided Mr. Gulbranson and CA Johnson with an uninterrupted opportunity to offer whatever thoughts prompted their desire to address the assembled group. 

Mr. Gulbranson spent several minutes discussing the recent events surrounding Winter Storm Fern and the multi-day operational failures that followed, to include unvarnished reviews of areas of management misjudgments and overestimation of recovery abilities. 

APA Vice President CA Chris Torres and several members of your Board then took the opportunity to address Mr. Gulbranson and CA Johnson directly about many of the issues, concerns, and disturbing trends our members are facing on a daily basis. 

The issues raised by your representatives included not only the unacceptable recovery events but myriad issues that our pilots report to APA daily – issues that create a toxic work environment and negatively impact our pilots’ ability to balance family life with work life. They focused on our frustration with management’s efforts to obstruct our pilots’ ability to serve as frontline leaders and to do our jobs. The issues relayed to Mr. Gulbranson and CA Johnson not only undermine American Airlines’ reputation but also make it challenging for pilots to be proud of the airline to which we have committed our professional lives.

Each of the APA Officers spoke with candor, passion, and a genuine desire to have Mr. Gulbranson and CA Johnson not only hear, but truly understand, what our pilots believe about their jobs and our airline. None of the speakers invited a response to their remarks from Mr. Gulbranson or CA Johnson. Rather, they simply took the opportunity to relay what so many of you would like to say directly to management if given the same chance. The gathering concluded shortly after the speakers completed voicing their concerns. 

The decision to limit the number of speakers on behalf of the Association and the selection of those speakers was a product of much discussion and collaboration among Board members, the National Officers, and various SMEs. The byproduct of that work resulted in one of the best displays of leadership that I have seen at APA in many years. Your entire Board of Directors, even those who did not actively participate in offering remarks, acted as the professionals that they are and represented each and every member of our Association in expressing the very real problems that exist at our airline. They made all of us proud.

I am pleased to say that you don’t have to take my word for how well your Board of Directors represented the pilots of American Airlines on Wednesday; you can hear them yourselves. I encourage you all to take the time to listen to each of these clips and appreciate how your representatives took the opportunity to speak truth to power. After all, the truth only hurts if it should.

“Our pilots are angry. They are demoralized. And their faith in American Airlines leadership is exhausted.”

APA Vice President CA Chris Torres (Hear his full remarks)

“You have young pilots here, young captains who are hungry for success, and you’re putting 30 years of poison in the soil. They will be your frontline leaders. Challenge them to do the right thing by showing them you care for them.”

DFW Domicile Vice Chair FO Jason Gustin (Hear his full remarks)

“You know who the weakest pilots are on the contract? Flight. The Chief Pilots. They don’t know the contract worth a hill of beans. And that’s unfortunate because it’s our contract – the company and the pilots.”

DCA Domicile Chair CA Chris Wachter (Hear his full remarks)

“I’m talking about a very disturbing trend that’s emerged over the last few months. A very clear pattern of harassment at the direction of Flight Department senior leaders who apparently believe we should fire more pilots. Chief Pilots being instructed to crack down on minor infractions and aggressively track sick calls.”

LGA Domicile Vice Chair CA Jim Scanlan (Hear his full remarks)

“I think this body has been left wondering if you’re ever going to make the same leap of faith to put some trust in your pilots that they made years ago when they decided to take that leap of faith and come and hitch their wagon to American Airlines.”

DFW Domicile Chair CA Brian Smith (Hear his full remarks)