PROVO, Utah — As the busiest air travel week of the year kicks off, travelers are greeted at the Provo Airport by a line of pilots picketing their airline asking for better compensation.
"We show up day in day out and do an incredibly professional job," explained Captain Daniel Morgan of Allegiant Airlines. "We put safety above all else and we care about our passengers and we've been doing that work for much less than other pilots."
Three weeks ago, Allegiant Pilots Local 2118 authorized their union to call a strike with more than 97% of pilots voting in favor of picketing. There are around 50 Allegiant Airlines pilots based in Utah County.
Officials with the union say they have been in negotiations with the airline for four years now, but they won't be able to strike officially until an impasse is declared by the national mediation board.
"What we want to see is we want to see Allegiant care about all their stakeholders, not just their shareholders," expressed Captain Daniel Morgan. "That includes their customers, their employees."
Union representatives say they are looking for things like long-term disability, scheduling improvements, and pay raises to keep up with inflation.
“Teamsters pilots have had enough of Allegiant’s greedy executives who demand concessions while making billions of dollars off our members’ backs. If Allegiant thinks Teamsters are going to compromise on working conditions in exchange for overdue pay raises, they are dead wrong,” stated Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien.
FOX 13 News reached out to Allegiant Air, who claims they have offered a competitive package, including a 50% average increase in hourly wages, a 50% increase in direct contribution to retirement benefits, and more.
According to pilots that FOX 13 News spoke with, the concessions the airline is asking for include scheduling changes to make the airline's pilots have some of the longest federally allowed duty days.
In a statement, the airline says, "These are among the proposals that Allegiant has on the table on the issues that remain open between the parties. Allegiant has continued to try to engage with the union to close these issues, or at least narrow the gap, by making multiple comprehensive economic proposals. The union, however, has not responded or made counter proposals on the majority of the outstanding economic items in nearly two years. We remain hopeful that the union will choose to engage with us at the table over these key sections so we can meet our goal of reaching an agreement for our pilots."
Allegiant Airlines also stressed that the actions on Monday were not a strike but instead "informational picketing."
