Master Executive Council Asks Union To Remain Neutral In Dispute

The Washington, DC law firm of Baptiste & Wilder filed a complaint in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia Wednesday on behalf of US Airways pilots who want the Nicolau Seniority Arbitration Award discarded.

Arbitrator George Nicolau handed down his award last month, integrating both the US Airways pilots and the America West pilots onto a single seniority list. The arbitration was initiated following the 2005 merger of the carriers.

The leadership said they felt the action was necessary to protect the interests of their pilots under the rules and policies of Air Line Pilots Association International.

Both the US Airways and America West pilot groups are represented by the ALPA.

As ANN reported, Nicolau ruled 1,800 furloughed pilots at US Airways would return to their jobs at the airline, now merged with America West, lower on the seniority-list food chain than when they left. More recent pre-merger hires by America West would hold higher positions.

Under the plan US Airways pilots get no credit for time furloughed... or, for flying at the now-defunct Mid-Atlantic Airways, once a US Air subsidiary. Arnie Gentile, spokesman for the US Airways chapter of ALPA says that means the most senior Mid-Atlantic pilot, hired in 1998, is placed below the most junior America West pilot, hired in 2004, on the list.

Many within the industry say that ruling was due to the generally stronger position America West maintained throughout the merger, as US Airways was in bankruptcy at the time. Though the combined airline carries the US Airways name, most of the carrier's senior management carried over from America West, including CEO Doug Parker. The airline is also based at AW's former headquarters in Tempe, AZ.

The US Airways pilots' Master Executive Council (MEC) asked the ALPA to adhere to their stated policy and remain neutral in the seniority integration dispute. They also asked the union to deny any requests from the America West MEC to release the Nicolau award to US Airways. To do otherwise would constitute a serious breach of ALPA's neutrality, the US Airways MEC said.

"The US Airways Pilots' leadership can not and will not sit idly by and permit a seniority integration award, which was conceived outside our national union's merger policies, to devastate the careers of so many of our pilots. This is not a case of simply being dissatisfied with an arbitrator's award," said Captain Jack Stephan, US Airways MEC Chairman.

"When we [the US Airways pilots] signed on to arbitration, we fully expected the governing policies to be complied with. They were not, and as a result, the careers of many US Airways pilots are threatened with wholesale destruction."

The arbitrator's proposed seniority formula based pilot ratings on aircraft type, which pilots ranked by seniority within each group based on their time at their respective airline, and how many aircraft of that type are within the combined US Airways fleet.

As part of the award, the arbitrator transferred over 4,450 Captain flying years, of both narrow-body and wide-body aircraft, from US Airways pilots to America West pilots. That is in violation of ALPA Merger Policy, said the US Airways MEC, which directs an arbitrator to avoid granting windfalls to one group at the expense of the other group.

If allowed to stand, the precedent-setting ramifications will forever negatively affect the Air Line Pilots Association and quite possibly other national unions, warns the US Airways MEA.

The union leaders of the America West unit of the ALPA issued a terse response to the lawsuit Thursday, calling the US Airways pilots "arrogant" and "erroneous" in their collective thinking.

"While the "east" pilots characterized the award as "wholesale destruction," no US Airways pilot lost their position, base or pay," the AW union wrote. "Instead, the award slotted 517 US Airways pilots at the top of the new seniority list, protected their desired international flying and assured them access to all growth at the airline.

"Despite the fact that on the eve of the merger, the pilots of US Airways were in their second bankruptcy, had more than 1,500 pilots on furlough and were facing liquidation, they believe that they are entitled to a new seniority list that would place their pilots, even those that were laid off at the time of the merger, above all their peers at America West," said the group. "The US Airways pilots erroneously pride themselves on having more experience than their counterparts at America West without any regard for the diverse military, airline and corporate backgrounds of all America West pilots."

Pilots at America West added the lawsuit "is a giant step backwards for all US Airways pilots both "east" and "west." Instead of focusing their resources on contract negotiations with management to obtain better pay, work rules and retirement for their pilots, the leadership of the US Airways "east" pilots is spending limited resources to overturn an arbitrated award."

FMI: www.alpa.org, www.usairways.com