Mesa Air Group’s designs for a new non-union subsidiary to fly its planned fleet of 64- and 84-seat jets continues to face stiff resistance from the powers that be within the Air Line Pilots Association, starting with none other than ALPA president Duane Woerth. The union’s top official traveled to Farmington, N.M., in late September to “educate” pilots training at Mesa’s ab-initio flight academy about the perceived evils of Freedom Airlines, scheduled to start service from Phoenix to Los Angeles International Airport and Long Beach, Calif., late last month. Although Woerth denied that ALPA would “blackball” pilots who choose to fly for Freedom Airlines, the ALPA president left little doubt about the union’s attitude toward those who do.
“As a pilot you can either lower the standard or raise it,” said Woerth, according to a report in the Farmington Daily Times. “You don’t reward bad behavior. Are we going to blacklist? No. But this is a small community.” Student attitudes ranged from staunchly pro-union to what many within the established pilot fraternity consider purely mercenary. But with little opportunity to find work within the traditional union track, the guarantee of 300 flying hours at Freedom Airlines has drawn interest from hungry pilots who, during better times, wouldn’t dare risk the consequences of wearing the “scab” label.
