Release # 01.89
September 5, 2001

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Uniformed pilots of Emery Worldwide Airlines will conduct informational picketing at the company’s headquarters in Redwood City, CA, and at the Dayton, OH, City Hall building on September 6, 2001, to voice their concern over their management’s abrogation of their union contract and its lack of safety accountability.

"The management of parent companies CNF and Emery Worldwide as well as at Emery Worldwide Airlines have completely deserted the families of nearly 500 dedicated Emery crewmembers by abrogating our union agreement – an agreement in which management explicitly promised the Emery crewmembers to run a safe and growing airline and provide a real airline career, said Capt. Mark Luthi, chairman of the Emery unit of the Air Line Pilots Association. "Management has also jeopardized the lives of its employees and the general public by their unwillingness to operate airplanes safely," said Luthi. "The only way to be safe is to have accountability. Emery Worldwide has shed itself of its airline in order to shed its obligations under our agreement and to avoid its accountability and safety responsibility".

Luthi added "The FAA has characterized the company as unwilling to maintain its aircraft safely". He noted that the FAA has run four special inspections of the airline since January 2000, which uncovered over 100 violations resulting in nearly $700,000 in fines. Prior to ceasing operations, the FAA had Emery under a heightened state of oversight for safety and maintenance violations.

The airline shut its doors on August 13, 2001, and is now subcontracting its freight movement work to other carriers. As a result of the shutdown over 800 employees, including nearly 500 pilots, were laid off their jobs without notice and without any pay. "Management has attempted to put a good face on this situation but so far the only solution they have come up with is to violate union contracts and to relegate the safe operations of freight-carrying airplanes to the lowest bidder." Luthi said. "Emery is unwilling to address the safety issue themselves. Safety has a price and it is a price management is unwilling to pay." He added.

ALPA is the union representing most commercial airline pilots in North America, and is the industry’s leading safety advocate. It represents 66,000 pilots at 47 carriers in the U.S. and Canada. Visit the ALPA website at http://cf.alpa.org.

EVENT: Emery Worldwide Pilots’ Informational Picketing

DATE: September 6, 2001

LOCATIONS AND TIMES:
       Front of Company Headquarters, Redwood City, CA, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT
        Front of City Hall Building, Dayton, OH 11a.m. to 2 p.m. CDT

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ALPA Contacts: John Mazor, Anya Piazza (703) 481-4440