Railway Act Allows APA To Pursue Action Themselves
Asserting that asking a federal
mediator to assist in contract talks would only bog the process
down, on Monday American Airlines rejected last week's request from
the Allied Pilots Association for both sides to seek such
action.
"After considering the APA's offer to file a joint request for
mediation, the company believes that remaining in joint control of
the negotiation schedule and continuing direct bargaining with the
APA is the best course to expeditiously reach an agreement,"
American official Denny Newgren said in a letter to the union's
negotiating committee, reports The Dallas Morning News.
"We believe that in order to make substantial progress, it may
make sense to consider using private facilitation and/or technical
negotiating assistance offered by the National Mediation Board,"
Newgren added, "and we would like to discuss this idea further with
the APA negotiating committee."
As ANN reported, APA asked
American to join in its request for federal mediation, as allowed
for under the Railway Labor Act. Union President Lloyd Hill
said
mediation would be the best option "to bring our contract
negotiations to a prompt conclusion" -- after months of heated,
back-and-forth jabs between both sides.
In a message to pilots Monday, the APA called American's
response "discouraging, " adding "no substantive progress has been
made in a year and a half of negotiating. Management's tactics and
failure to even remotely address key restoration priorities
indicate that they are more interested in delays than in creating a
contract that meets the needs of the pilots."
The union is allowed to make its case for mediation on its
own... and APA spokesman Gregg Overman said that's precisely what
he expects union leaders to do Tuesday.
"If anything, it indicates to us they would like to move forward
slowly, if at all, and that's not in our pilots' best interests,"
Overman said of American's response. "Therefore, we will be trying
a new approach. We're hopeful that the National Mediation Board
involvement will help bring about a prompt resolution."
Though it sounds like a step toward diplomacy, in reality
mediation would bring the two sides closer to a potential strike.
Mediation is a necessary step towards such action, as a pilot
strike may only be called legally if the NMB declares an impasse in
mediated talks. That declaration would also free American to impose
its own contract on pilots, similar to the action taken by the FAA
against air traffic controllers in June 2006.
At the airline's request, both sides entered contract talks in
September 2006, close to two years before the contract becomes
amendable May 1. A change in APA leadership in 2007 resulted in
pilots demanding much larger raises, and other benefits, than
before.
APA says American needs to loosen the purse strings, as
executives at the airline benefited financially over the past few
years while pilots took a substantial pay hit.