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."