Evergreen International Aviation pilots were joined by several pilots from other air cargo carriers, including ASTAR’s Bruce Johnsen, right, on Monday during a demonstration at JFK International Airport in New York.

Photo courtesy
ALPA

Evergreen International Aviation’s pilots, working without a new contract since 1999, haven’t yet reached the point of striking. But they showed what one might look like Monday at JFK International Airport in New York.

Nearly two dozen Evergreen pilots, sporting white short-sleeved shirts with black shoulder bars, marched at the airport for two hours, protesting what their union terms intransigence by the McMinnville-based airline in labor negotiations that have drug on for years.

“Crew members are fed up with the slow progress at the negotiating table with our management, and the time has come to draw a line in the sand,” said William Fink, who chairs the Evergreen unit of the national Air Line Pilots Association.

“We deserve a fair contract and have begun the stand against management to achieve it,” Fink said in a prepared statement. “It’s been four years too long.”

Despite the involvement of a mediator, pilots say they’ve seen little interest from management on terms of a new contract to replace one signed nine years ago.

The pilots operate a fleet of Boeing 747Fs, specializing in worldwide charter and contract freighter operations. They marched outside Evergreen’s operations building at the JFK Cargo Terminal.

Union representatives have accused Evergreen of proposing to cut pilot pay by as much as $3,000 a month. Members took particular offense, they said, when company founder Del Smith received a nearly $3 million bonus in the year their old contract expired without any immediate prospect of a replacement.

ALPA is now the bargaining representative for more than 250 pilots and flight engineers working for Evergreen. The Evergreen flight crews voted overwhelmingly last year to join ALPA, hoping that would strengthen their hand at the bargaining table.

Evergreen has a longstanding policy of not commenting on any aspect of contract talks. True to form, it has issued no statement.

Fink said that cargo is the best-performing segment of the airline industry, and that Evergreen has been more successful than most in attracting new business. The airline, he said, stands to gain millions of dollars in new revenue, and lower fuel prices figure to pad that further.

“There’s absolutely no reason why management can’t reach a fair and reasonable contract,” he said.

Union spokesman Rusty Ayers said in a telephone interview Monday that Evergreen employees were joined by pilots from other airlines, including ASTAR and Delta.

“It’s very upbeat,” he said. “The Evergreen pilots were very pleased that other pilots came out to support them.”

Ayers said more demonstrations are likely, but dates and locations haven’t been set yet. Negotiations are scheduled to resume Nov. 3-5 in Dallas, Texas.