Pilots for SkyWest Airlines have failed again to affiliate with a union after only a third of the carrier's aviators voted to join the Air Line Pilots Association.
In voting that ended Tuesday, 911 of 2,600 eligible pilots cast ballots for collective-bargaining representation by a union, well short of the needed majority. All but seven votes were in favor of uniting with ALPA. It was the third time since 1999 that SkyWest pilots have rejected organizing attempts.
ALPA spokesman Rick Bernskoetter said the union was surprised by the low pilot turnout and the resounding defeat tallied by the National Mediation Board.
"Two years of meets-and-greets and telephone solicitations and flying all over the country, meeting with SkyWest pilots, trying to spread the word - we put a lot of effort into this," Bernskoetter said Tuesday.
SkyWest spokeswoman Marissa Snow said the airline was heartened by the results of the telephone voting, which began Oct. 8. She said the outcome was a vote of confidence in the company.
"We are pleased with our pilots' decision to reject outside representation and to maintain our current open-door relationship," Snow said.
"The long-term interests of all SkyWest Airlines employees are best served with open and direct communication, and our ability to work with our pilots is a key factor to our future success."
Bernskoetter acknowledged that SkyWest's nonunion culture built up over the fast-growing regional airline's 35-year history was difficult to overcome.
"You are dealing with a company that came into being on kind of a grass-roots level, and their management has always maintained that doctrine, that we are a . . . family-oriented company. They've sold that notion to the pilots group for a long time," Bernskoetter said.
Bernskoetter said the low number of votes cast suggested a level of apathy among many pilots who he said failed to grasp that the organizing drive would fail unless they voted. He said SkyWest officials sent messages urging pilots not to even pick up the phone to vote if they opposed the drive because they might inadvertently cast ballots for collective bargaining.
"They may not have gotten the message clearly enough that this was not a time when you could just profess to be a supporter. This was clearly a case in which you had to be proactive," Bernskoetter said.
Snow acknowledged that messages sent to the pilots did include information about how to express their preference.
"If their decision was to vote no, the best way to do it was not to call," Snow said.
SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines are subsidiaries of holding company SkyWest Inc. Through SkyWest Airlines and ASA, SkyWest is the largest regional airline in the United States.
SkyWest Airlines flies for Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Midwest Airlines.
