Helicopter Pilots Face Choppy Waters in Contract Talks

by Mike Hall, Sep 22, 2006

More than 500 helicopter pilots who transport workers, equipment and supplies to offshore Gulf Coast oil rigs grounded their choppers and hit the picket lines this week after two and a half years of negotiations failed to produce a fair contract with employer PHI Inc.

The pilots are members of Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 108. Says Local 108 President Steve Ragin:

Because PHI has not bargained in good faith with OPEIU and Local 108, we have been unable to reach a fair agreement we, as professional pilots, deserve for our families and ourselves.

Because PHI will not bargain in good faith, we have no other option than to exercise our legal right to conduct a work stoppage until PHI begins bargaining in good faith and we reach a fair agreement. PHI has forced disrespectful and inadequate conditions of employment upon us and we must take action.

On Wednesday, some 50 pilots marched near the company’s Lafayette, La., headquarters. Ed Bandy, a 16-year veteran pilot, says.

Nobody here wants to go on strike…not one of us. But sometimes you get forced to stand up for what you believe in and we’ve been forced to do that.

He told the Lafayette Daily Advertiser the main issues in the dispute centers on pay and the company’s policies on mandatory overtime and leave that keep pilots away from their homes and families.

According to the local’s website, PHI has threatened to permanently replace the pilots:

Intimidation and unlawful threats continue from PHI.

In letters from PHI delivered by FedEx, pilots are being told by PHI that they are “permanently replaced”…. As we stated in a letter to PHI, it is unlawful to terminate a pilot for striking and the OPEIU is determined to protect any pilot that PHI treats in an unlawful manner.

Negotiations for a new contract began in May 2004 and included federal mediation in August that failed to solve the dispute.

Find out the latest from OPEIU Local 108’s website.

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