NEW YORK, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Allegiant Air’s pilots’ union is blocking the airline’s attempt to secure permanent residency for dozens of foreign pilots from Chile, Australia and Singapore, leaving their immigration status – and the company’s staffing – in limbo.
The union has refused to certify to the U.S. Department of Labor that the pilot positions, which start at about $50,000 a year, about half of what pilots at other regional airlines earn, meet “prevailing wage” standards. That certification is a crucial bureaucratic step and a requirement for the pilots’ green card applications.
Instead of hiring foreign pilots, the Teamsters Local 2118 has asked Allegiant to offer industry-standard compensation and improvements to scheduling to retain pilots who are leaving for rivals.
Allegiant said it, like most U.S. carriers, faced significant workforce challenges when travel surged after the pandemic. The carrier has also struggled to retain pilots in part due to low pay levels. To stabilize staffing, the carrier expanded recruitment to hire pilots under employment-based visa programs.
The union alleges the airline misrepresented its intentions to permanently hire these pilots and that there is no longer a shortage in the U.S., making the move to pursue permanent residency for the pilots unnecessary.
“They had such a hard time in 2023 finding pilots, they actually started hiring visa pilots out of Chile on an H-1B1 because they promised them citizenship, a green card verbally to come fly in America for 50,000 bucks a year,” Gregory Unterseher, director of the Airline Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, told Reuters.
“Because they’re having such a hard time keeping and maintaining pilots at such a low wage.”
Allegiant said it currently employs approximately 62 pilots from Chile, Australia, and Singapore through H-1B1 and E-3 visa programs, or about 4% of its overall pilot count of 1,345.
An Allegiant spokesperson said hiring pilots through visa programs is a small supplement to its broader workforce strategy, not a replacement for U.S. hires.
The union declined to provide the letter needed for the permanent labor certification application submitted by the airline. A Labor Department-issued permanent labor certification allows employers to hire foreign workers to work permanently in the U.S.
In a letter to pilots seen by Reuters, Allegiant wrote “as a result of the union’s failure to provide that information, we understand that the time to obtain your green card may be delayed.”
“The company condemns the union’s decision to harm you by refusing to provide the updated letter requested by the Department of Labor,” the letter said.
In a statement to Reuters, Allegiant said that “all of our hiring practices fully comply with federal labor laws, FAA regulations, and the collective bargaining agreements in place with our pilot union.”
The status of many of the foreign pilots hangs in limbo with some instructed not to leave the country as President Donald Trump cracks down on foreign-born workers, the union said.
“My heart goes out to them. They were told, I think recently that they shouldn’t even leave the country, right? Because they might not be able to get back in,” said Unterseher.
ATTRITION ON THE RISE
Attrition is on the rise at Allegiant, according to pilots, as some leave due to industry-low pay, frustrations with scheduling and a near-10-year-old labor contract.
“First officers at Allegiant in their first year in most cases are making less than flight attendants at other major airlines or TSA agents,” one pilot who recently left Allegiant told Reuters, on the condition of anonymity.
The carrier has expressed interest in expanding its operations, at one point discussing 1,400 more destinations it can add. But lack of staffing remains a sticky point, pilots told Reuters.
“For the last 18 months, there was nowhere to go. Now that people have options, you are seeing people leaving. I’ve got five or six friends just in my little small group of people that I know that are leaving,” the pilot added.
(Doyinsola Oladipo in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
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