2015 Pilot Discussion.
- Thread starter Eagle
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I quoted a news article, you dumba$$.Claxon said:
Do you have issues with freedom of the press?
luvthe9
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CactusPilot1 said:
http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2013/02/01/10-terrible-airline-pilots-hope-to-never-fly-with/
See number 5.
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Put up or shut up.luvthe9 said:
Post the memo.
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Phoenix is my home. I'm glad I'm not stuck in Philly.luvthe9 said:
The memo is out. Your PHX pilot mgt team has nicely asked you to take off the ties.CactusPilot1 said:
You have been afforded the new Unity Tie. AAL senior flight operations is sick and tired of the fanatics and their bastardization of the Statue of Liberty for the intention of a seniority land grab. The Leonidas Tie is now another discarded relic of america west.
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What don't you girls understand about posting the memo? I'm wearing the tie along with the others on this list:Claxon said:
http://www.cactuspilotcontributors.com/contributors.html
luvthe9
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Please do so cameras will be out, we do have Kennys contact information for those non compliant uniforms.CactusPilot1 said:
Those ties are no longer approved by American Airlines........what are you going to do now sue AA.
flyingskier
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CactusPilot1 said:
Where are you going to commute to when you get displaced? PHX is overstaffed by at least 600 pilots. That's 300 F/O's and 300 CAP's! Plus the number of LAA guys that commute from PHX that will be senior to you after the SLI, things could get pretty ugly in PHX. You may want to delay the SLI as long as possible. Just saying..
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I'm sure the Chiefs will get a good laugh at your "evidence" of a faux violation. You can't post a memo which does not exist. I win.luvthe9 said:
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That all depends on the seniority list. All this talk about being displaced prior to arbitration is moot.flyingskier said:
Maybe you will be the one concerned about displacement because you will not displace the APA to evade the arbitrated award.
snapthis
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Phoenix Domicile Update for April 25, 2015
ONE YEAR AGO LAST WEEK...
Your three PHX USAPA reps met with Managing Director Line Operations West, Captain Bob Johnson at the PHX Training Center. The meeting took place at the invitation of the VP of Flight Operations, Captain John Hale, who was also scheduled to attend but fell ill at the last moment. This was just two short weeks after Captain Hale invited former PHX representative David Braid to meet him in his office in DFW after David sent him an email regarding the disparate treatment of pilots within US Airways. David's meeting with Captain Hale reportedly went well and, we believe, led at least in part to the invitation extended to your then reps. It was a time of high hopes for our pilots who were looking for a positive cultural change in the wake of the newly consummated merger and the resumption of positive career progression (as opposed to regression) at the new carrier. It is no secret that we had long felt oppressed by the former management of US Airways who had largely taken over after the AWA/US Airways merger and who, as a result of their positions of responsibility, had to have helped facilitate the sudden stagnation of AWA pilots and near instant resurrection of US Airways pilot progression as soon as the AWA/US merger was announced.
Our new AA management, seeing through a disinterested and non-conflicted set of eyes, was directed toward our situation and, we believed, saw the inequities. We were told that, at American Airlines, Flight Operations runs the show, that the unfair treatment we complained of was readily apparent, and that the new management would take steps to right the ship. Hold tight, because change is coming we were told. After hanging on for six or so months while eagerly expecting an equipment bid, or over-water training, or some new-hire pilots to illustrate that the ship was indeed beginning to be righted (or even change course the tiniest bit), we began to question whether anything at all would change for our domicile within New American. The new and formerly enthusiastic managers who apparently saw the disparities and indicated a desire to fix them fell silent. Soon after that we were told by their underlings that no changes would be forthcoming to PHX until sometime after the integrated seniority list is issued and after operational integration occurs. As we discussed a few weeks ago, the company has now indicated this is unlikely to occur before the end of 2016. In the meantime, the LAA and LUS East pilots continue to experience tremendous career progress while PHX has again been outright deprived of the gains enjoyed by the rest of the company.
The inequities that we complained of to our new management which were previously quite freely acknowledged, apparently became taboo. We believe Captains Hale and Johnson were sincere in their desire to help us and eager to share the wealth (for the first time in almost a decade) among all pilots of the airline, but must have run into resistance from above. We are speculating here, but this became clear to us during a PHX domicile meeting attended by Captain Hale in July of 2014. Captain Hale spoke of all the wonderful things happening to our pilots; new-hires, upgrades, new equipment and routes, and tremendous profits. When reminded by a restless audience that the things he spoke of did not apply to PHX, he looked a bit puzzled and replied, you can be a victim of a victor and then reminded us that we were lucky not to be in the shoes of the former TWA pilots. After a few somewhat heated exchanges with the audience, things began to cool off when Captain Hale reminded all in attendance of his open door policy and encouraged our pilots to write or call with their concerns and request a meeting if they wished. Soon thereafter we learned of several of our pilots who accepted his open door invitation who not only received no meeting, but no email response (or even a returned phone call). We still believe he was well meaning and sincere, but have concluded that he ran into resistance from somewhere. Our guess is that New American is no longer run by Flight Operations but is instead run the old US Airways way, with senior management protected behind Labor Relations which in turn does little without consulting its phalanx of lawyers. Again we are speculating but we imagine that, for liabilitys sake, no lawyer would ever acknowledge there were any wrongs to be righted and try to shut down anyone who saw or agreed with the inequities PHX complained of.
On March 11, SVP Air Operations, Tim Campbell announced that Captain Hale had offered his resignation as the top pilot for the world's largest airline and would be returning to the line. We wish him well and regret that our expectations of his leadership were not realized while acknowledging that most things were well beyond his control (and perhaps even influence) at the new company and he could not yet have known this when he planned to meet with us.
Is Phoenix Unhappy Today?
You bet we are and you may be wondering why any of this history is relevant now, or how it might be relevant to pilots outside of our PHX domicile. The answer is because, in the past, senior management clearly chose favorites and then used the resulting disparities to turn our pilots against one another. As written in our April 7 PHX Update, we believe the company may be laying the foundation (whether intentionally or not, we cannot be certain) to do this again at New American Airlines when it announced IT delays relating to a single crew tracking system which in turn could lead to an implementation delay of the ultimate single seniority list. It is our concern that, based upon a tortured interpretation of the MOU, the company may try to use these delays to trigger the expiration of the MOU protections (some of which are now found in Supplement D of the contract) without an integrated seniority list in place. Not everyone agrees with us, but we fear that if we arrive at a point where we are not yet integrated and the company seeks to eliminate the remaining protections for the subgroups within AA, we may all be exposed to the sort of whipsawing the LUS pilots have lived under for nearly a decade. We have been trying to raise awareness of this possibility among all AA pilots (and especially the APA leadership) and are beginning to gain some traction. APA must remain vigilant of the possible threat of short-term self-interest having a negative influence on sound decision making due to the general satisfaction of one's current carrier trajectory at domiciles other than PHX (and, we suppose, STL).
To make our point clear, we will again undertake a painstaking study of the history of the AWA/US Airways merger, deconstruct what occurred in that history, compare similarities with this new merger, and invite the reader to draw their own conclusion from the mountain of circumstantial evidence.
What They Said...
At the very beginning of the AWA/US Airways 2005 merger, management published its Joint Statement of Labor Principles (Exh. A, attached). Notice the overall reassuring tone and the use of the term fair and equitable. Keep in mind this was written many months before the actual consummation of the merger (and before it was a certainty) at a time when the signatories to the letter needed the support of employees to accomplish their goal of merging airlines. Most will recognize this tactic repeated when US Airways management courted the AA unions during bankruptcy. Here are a few excerpts [with emphasis added] from that letter:
The management teams at both US Airways and America West Airlines recognize the anxiety and uncertainty created among our valued employees since news of a potential merger surfaced in April, and we sincerely regret that legal constraints prevented us from providing you with more details about our discussions. Now that we have announced our planned merger, we can assure you that we have heard your requests to be kept informed and we will be as open as possible as this transaction progresses.
and;
For employees in work groups represented by unions, the question of what will happen to your jobs is even harder for us to answer because so much of what will happen is outside managements control. Our labor contracts contain different provisions governing how seniority lists will be integrated, and depending on your specific contract, provide for integration in accordance with a particular unions merger policy or certain Allegheny Mohawk seniority integration provisions. We will honor those contractual commitments, and the ultimate outcome of seniority integration will be determined by your collective bargaining representatives as dictated by your contracts.
Although the seniority integration process will be handled by your union representatives, we have every expectation that our unions will honor certain obviously fair and equitable protocols as they implement their merger policies or Allegheny Mohawk provisions. Specifically, we would expect that no employee who already had been furloughed prior to the merger would be permitted to bump an active employee out of a job.Likewise, we expect our unions will recognize a solution that simply staples all employees of one airline to the bottom of the others seniority list as unacceptable and unconscionable. To that end, because of seniority differences in some groups, straight seniority integration could have an effect similar to that of stapling employees to the bottom of a seniority list, an outcome that is inconsistent with a fair and equitable protocol.
and;
Lastly, although it is extremely important to go through the proper process of integrating seniority lists, dragging seniority integration out for an unnecessarily long period of time is not in anyones best interest.
Soon after the merger was announced, ALPA (the US Airways and America West MECs) and the two carriers began negotiations for a Transition Agreement (TA, attached as Exh. . The TA shared many similarities to the Memorandum of Understanding which helped accommodate the US Airways/AA merger. And, just like the MOU, the TA spelled out a number of provisions designed to protect jobs and assure pilots from both airlines that neither group would be favored at the expense of the other.
Notable excerpts from the Transition Agreement [with emphasis added] are reprinted below. Notice how many times the term fair and equitable is used:
The seniority lists of America West pilots and US Airways pilots will be integrated in accordance with ALPA Merger Policy and submitted to the Airline Parties for acceptance. The Airline Parties will accept such integrated seniority list...
and;
...should the Airline Parties acquire aircraft in excess of the number identified for that airline in Attachment B, such aircraft will operate as part of US Airways... [and] ...the Airline Parties will make every effort to establish a bridge training program as soon as possible to facilitate thefair and equitable distribution of flying between the two pilot groups. In the event that a bridge training program exists and the pilots from the carrier receiving the bridge training have completed training, or will complete training prior to the aircraft entering service, then the Parties will meet prior to the operation of any such aircraft in an effort to reach agreement as to which pilot group will operate those aircraft.
and;
The America West MEC and the US Airways MEC will agree internally as to which pilot group shall operate such aircraft or will implement a process, including binding arbitration if necessary, to determine the Associations position regarding the allocation of such flying. In the event that the Airline Parties do not agree with the Association position, then the dispute will be resolved in accordance with Section X. below. The standard to be applied by the Arbitrator in that proceeding will be the fair and equitable allocation of flying between the two pilot groups.
and;
America West will not hire new pilots if pilots on the US Airways seniority list remain on furlough, provided that America West may hire a new pilot if all pilots on furlough have been offered recall to US Airways or have been offered positions by America West in the order of seniority. Available positions at America West will be offered to furloughed US Airways pilots...
and;
A furloughed US Airways pilot who declines a position as an America West pilot retains the right to be offered the next position offered and also retains the right to be recalled to US Airways in accordance with his US Airways seniority. A US Airways pilot who accepts a position at America West...
The TA then contains eight sub-paragraphs outlining the conditions of employment for a furloughed US Airways pilot who accepts a position at America West. This is not at all surprising given the 33% furlough at US Airways at this time and the sustained hiring at AWA just prior to the merger. The language is virtually identical to that found in the MOU, except the MOU language avoided setting any expectations about who would be hiring whom:
America West may hire new pilots if all pilots on the US Airways seniority list have been offered recall to US Airways or have been offered a pilot position at America West. New pilots hired during the Separate Operations will be placed by their date of hire on a third seniority list entitled New Hire Seniority List, will be junior to all pilots on the pilot seniority lists of America West and US Airways on the effective date of this Letter of Agreement, and will continue to be junior to those pilots on the integrated seniority list of America West and US Airways pilots.
Concerning the reverse situation (which was virtually impossible to imagine given the disparate conditions of the two airlines at the time), the TA contained this one-sentence paragraph almost as an afterthought:
In the event of America West furloughs, furlough references in this Letter of Agreement will be modified to apply to both pilot groups.
In addition, the non-bankrupt AWA pilots also agreed to these terms because the process of integration embodied in the TA could not be delayed:
the airline operations of America West and US Airways, with respect to pilots, shall be merged no later than twelve (12) months following the later of (i) completion of the integrated pilot seniority list and (ii) negotiation of the Single Agreement provided that if by that date a single FAA operating certificate has not been issued, the airline operations, with respect to pilots, will be merged effective with the first bid period following thirty (30) days after the issuance of such certificate.
The integrated seniority list was issued on May 1, 2007, and the single operating certificate was issued on September 26, 2007. Based on the language above, the airline had every right (and perhaps obligation) to force integration of the two pilot groups and, as you will see, even emphasized this fact after the merger deal was complete by reserving the right to impose one of the contracts on both groups to facilitate a rapid integration. Yet it decided not to do so to the detriment of all US Airways pilots, with the AWA pilots bearing the tremendous brunt.
What They Did...
Now that we've set the stage and compared a few similarities between our past and current agreements, let's review what actually transpired historically under these agreements while led by substantially the same senior management team. We think you will come to the same conclusion: In spite of assurances to the contrary and clear language asserting fair and equitable treatment among pre-merger subgroups, fairness cannot be relied upon. Until such time as we are a truly integrated and homogeneous group, management can pick the winners and losers at its whim while keeping our pilot groups, and thus our union, divided.
At the time of the merger, US Airways had well over 1500 pilots furloughed, while AWA had none and was in a sustained hiring mode with several additional new-hire classes scheduled. But these classes were delayed, then delayed indefinitely, and eventually canceled once the merger was announced. Soon thereafter the company began recalling furloughed US Airways pilots in 2006. We don't begrudge the company for recalling furloughed US Airways pilots, but the language of the TA clearly leads everyone to believe that those pilots would be offered employment at AWA in the period of separate operations, thus maintaining some pre-merger career trajectory. While all hiring at AWA ceased once the merger was announced, pilot recalls began on the US Airways side and continued to the point where the company began hiring pilots off of the street in August 2007. As discussed in that April 7 PHX update, the first pilots hired at US Airways since February 2000 came from the defunct MidAtlantic Airlines and continued once that source was exhausted ending with the addition of 86 new hires before the downturn of 2008-2009.
In July 2008, US Airways management announced a reduction-in-force which included 175 pre-merger AWA pilots (approximately 10%) and 125 East pilots (approximately 5%). The former AWA pilots sought to stop the furloughs in federal court, since all AWA pilots brought an active flying job to the merger, while none of the US Airways pilots scheduled for furlough did. We believed this was inequitable and flew in the face of the reassuring language found in the TA and the joint statement of labor principles referenced above. After having been lulled into supporting Doug Parker and his 2005 merger with US Airways, West pilots felt utterly betrayed when these inequitable furloughs were announced, especially after having seen their careers instantly stagnate (contrary to the representations made to them and their pre-merger expectations) and watching LUS East pilots experience an unprecedented rebound (including the addition of a new fleet type and new flying West pilots were supposed to share fairly and equitably yet are still deprived of). What's more (and also discussed in the April 7 PHX update), many of the pilots who kept their job during this downturn never flew for US Airways before, in spite of assurance that all new hire pilots would be furloughed on the East (which management somehow thought would be comforting to the West pilots who were being furloughed).
It is crucial to note a few other things that transpired between the merger in 2005 and the furloughs which began near the end of 2008:
Negotiations for a US Airways/AWA combined agreement had begun soon after the merger and were going poorly. This is not surprising given the position the not-so-labor-friendly company took in those negotiations merely seven weeks after the merger deal closed: US airways plainly stated that it could and would (if necessary) impose the twice-bankrupt LUS East contract on all pilots (see Hemenway letter, attached as Exh. C). It's almost hard to comprehend how starkly that contrasted with prior statements and agreements made which were designed to reassure reluctant labor groups. It looked like a classic bait and switch to all US Airways pilots, and should have been a harbinger of inequitable treatment from management to come. By early 2007 the two ALPA MECs began holding Coast-to-Coast picketing events and even advertised the lack of progress toward a joint agreement on billboards.
Seniority list integration proceedings began in late 2005 and ended with the publication of the Nicolau Award in the first week of May 2007. A Coast-to-Coast Unity march was scheduled in LAS the next week (and the whole point of these events was to display unity and resolve in reaching a JCBA among ALL US Airways pilots), but the East pilots pulled out of their participation after the integrated list was published.
Very soon after the seniority list was published, the East pilots sought to have ALPA set aside the award but it declined. By July 2007, East pilot Stephen Bradford (yes, the same man who just took office as USAPA's president for the second time) was underway forming a union to displace ALPA for all US Airways pilots in order to block implementation of the otherwise final and binding award.
During the campaign to replace ALPA, USAPA made it clear that it planned to convince the company to exchange the requirement to use the Nicolau seniority list embodied in the Transition Agreement in return for labor peace and a low-cost contract. Many East pilots pledged to toil under LOA 93 forever rather than live one single day under the Nicolau Award. It was at this point that USAPA's strategy aligned with management's goal of extremely low costs.
In April 2008, because East pilots outnumbered the West pilots two-to-one, USAPA won the representational election over ALPA and became the collective bargaining agent for all US Airways pilots.
It was against this backdrop that furloughs were announced and USAPA first presented its proposed Date-of-Hire seniority list to US Airways (on September 30, 2008). You will see why we believe management, in accommodating USAPA, did away with any notion of fairness or equity toward the AWA pilots and assisted the East pilots in accomplishing their stated goal while also playing the groups against each other and claiming neutrality as cover. This, of course, resulted in a significant savings to the company as it allocated most of the flying to the lowest-cost contract.
As mentioned previously, US Airway announced furloughs in the summer of 2008 and soon refined the number of furloughs to 175 LUS West and 125 LUS East. In order to mitigate the impact of these furloughs, the company offered voluntary leaves of absence. It is important to note that not all requests for leave were granted and in the end, the company actually furloughed 141 West and only 86 of the new-hire LUS East pilots. The ultimate impact was that less than 3% of East pilots were furloughed and those only included pilots hired after the AWA/US Airways merger with the exception of the CEL pilots discussed at length in our April 7 update. While the company testified in court that it would indeed furlough all new hire pilots, it didn't, and instead chose to retain some pilots by recognizing fictitious 2004 US Airways dates-of-hire for this special group. 2004 was actually their year of hire at MidAtlantic and not US Airways mainline because a 2004 date of hire would be impossible at a company that had over 1500 pilots on furlough at that time. We don't think it was any accident that when the dust settled on who was actually furloughed, all of these fictitious 2004 hires kept their jobs while AWA pilots were furloughed to the within the same week of hire. In other words, while US Airways claimed neutrality, it furloughed just enough pilots to almost precisely align the East and West seniority lists in accordance with USAPA's date-of-hire proposal. We just cannot imagine this was mere happenstance.
Admittedly, the company overshot the number of West pilots required to align the East and West in accordance with USAPA's proposed list by 12, but we think this might have been due to confusion about what exact fictitious DOH's were going to be recognized by the company for some East pilots at USAPA's request. After all, a grievance and lawsuit (both discussed in our April 7 PHX update) already existed at the time regarding the treatment of longevity for the MidAtlantic pilots. It is curious then, that the bottom few CEL pilots first appeared at US Airways in Bid Award 09-02 in May 2009 (attached as Exh. D). Was it an accident that somehow these pilots, about whom the company was actively taking the position did not work for US Airways mainline, found a job at US Airways for the first time during areduction bid? So while US Airways furloughed pre-merger West pilots and new hire pilots (also known as third list pilots) it somehow made room on its list for these pilots that it didn't hire in 2004 with the net result that it furloughed additional pilots to accommodate them. Relevant portions of USAPA's date-of-hire proposed list (Exh. E), the LUS West displacement bid (Exh. F), and the LUS East bid award (Exh. D), are attached. Note that the West displacement Bid was later revised (Exh. G), which brought the two lists into even closer alignment with USAPA's DOH proposal. Compare and see for yourself: Whether intentional or not, this is what transpired.
As mentioned in our last update, after every MDA CEL pilot was brought onto the US Airways list, they have remained employed ever since. And, as if to punish West pilots for having been hired at AWA before the merger, when the company did begin recalling those furloughed new hire pilots to the East operation in 2010, it agreed with USAPA to bring them back before offering employment to the furloughed West pilots (in violation of the TA). It then treated those furloughed West pilots who accepted a job offer out East as junior to those new hire East pilots until finally correcting that situation in February 2013.
To further illustrate how stunningly different US Airways management treated the two pre-merger groups, the senior-most remaining CEL pilot with an actual US Airways DOH in early 2008 (but who is shown on the LUS East seniority list with an August 2, 2004 hire date) was number 2787 out of 3642 as of January 2015. This pilot has 855 others beneath him and has advanced over 23 percent. By contrast, the most junior and actively employed LUS West pilot at the time of the AWA/US Airways merger, Dave Odell, is number 1546 out of 1589. Ten years after the merger Odell has only 43 pilots beneath him (28 of which were just brought on last year), and has advanced barely 2 percent on a list which has contracted by more than 16 percent since 2005 (from 1894 to 1589).
Finally, it is worth noting how the LUS East progression began in earnest about the time the prospective AA/US Airways merger first came to light and really took off in the summer of 2012 when negotiations for the MOU were taking place. Near the crest of this wave of new hires is the son of a high-level US Airways flight operations executive. This fortunate pilot has advanced almost 16 percent in less than three years while the LUS West operation has remained flat or contracted.
Why Didn't the West Pilots Protest?
Under collective bargaining as part of the RLA, the only remedy to this unfair treatment of West pilots was to complain to the union in effort to get its support, or to file a grievance under the auspices of that association- in this case, USAPA. Since USAPA was created for the express purpose of avoiding the implementation of the arbitrated seniority list and imposing a seniority order which was expressly denied in that arbitration (and which management said would be inequitable in the Joint Statement of Labor Principles) the reality was that West pilots were left entirely exposed and without recourse. Whenever assistance was sought from the union, it was summarily denied. Management was not ignorant to any of these facts and the situation could have been different had it exercised leadership or enforced the plain language of the agreements, or any notion of fair and equitable in its post-merger decision making. Instead, and as clearly shown above, it chose and continues to choose to facilitate the goals of one group at the expense of the other with ongoing claims of neutrality. It has always had the power to avoid this lopsided situation, yet it has done nothing to fix it.
You Be the Judge...
We think it was only a few of these facts which enlightened Captain Hale and caused him to make those statements about righting the ship. How could anyone not see the unfairness? Ultimately it appears he could not (or would not) do anything about it. We're sure his bosses would paint PHX as merely disgruntled due to our unfortunate circumstances and they would claim those circumstances are simply the result of rational business decisions. Frankly, West pilot feel entirely betrayed by our former AWA corporate leaders who have risen to the top of the industry while allowing their faithful employees to sink to the bottom, having never enjoyed any benefit from the prior merger.
Too bad for PHX, but the more important point for all pilots is to note the reason for the West pilots' situation is because senior management had the sole discretion to make it that way: On one hand it claimed to have the unilateral power to impose the East's bankruptcy contract on all US Airways pilots (thus triggering integrated operations under the arbitrated seniority list), but on the other hand it could choose to delay implementation by explaining to West pilots and several federal judges that implementation of the arbitrated seniority list first required the negotiation of a single contract- with USAPA- that would cover all pilots. In the interim, management made those choices which led to total stagnation for the West, yet also resulted in all new flying, pilots, and progress flowing East while the company saved money with the rock-bottom wages of those pilots. The only terms that saved the West from outright elimination were the concrete fleet and block-hour minimums contained in the Transition Agreement (though the company violated the block-hour minimums anyway). Overlay our current situation on the background above and you can see why our concern over the possibility that management could be maneuvering itself into the exact same position to again pit pilots against each other (only this time with three groups) and be able to pick the winners and losers to its advantage and beyond control of the APA should be your concern too.
The pilots of New American are beginning realize who they are really dealing with when the new company declined to negotiate a contract that was truly equal to or better than Delta's (with our lack of profit sharing, calendar day duty rigs, our higher medical costs, and inferior sick and LTD programs). In addition, the company's slowness to implement many of the more beneficial terms of the JCBA across the entire system has already resulted in multiple grievances. The company's recent and unilateral interpretation of FAR 117 (over the protest of APA and in violation of our contract) in which it asserts the right to convert you from a scheduled deadhead to a live leg at its discretion is the latest example of reality as contrasted with what APA thought it signed up for in supporting this merger and senior management team. The real point is this: You cannot depend on any assurances that you will be treated fairly or equitably and APA must make every effort to ensure the sort of whipsawing tacitly approved by USAPA while it represented West pilots is never allowed to happen within our ranks. APA cannot be too guarded or demanding of fair and equitable treatment for all pilots it represents and, we believe, demand full implementation of the integrated seniority list concurrent with the first bid following its issuance in order to protect against the sort of disparate treatment this management team has taken advantage of over the last decade.
Sincerely,
John and Eric
ONE YEAR AGO LAST WEEK...
Your three PHX USAPA reps met with Managing Director Line Operations West, Captain Bob Johnson at the PHX Training Center. The meeting took place at the invitation of the VP of Flight Operations, Captain John Hale, who was also scheduled to attend but fell ill at the last moment. This was just two short weeks after Captain Hale invited former PHX representative David Braid to meet him in his office in DFW after David sent him an email regarding the disparate treatment of pilots within US Airways. David's meeting with Captain Hale reportedly went well and, we believe, led at least in part to the invitation extended to your then reps. It was a time of high hopes for our pilots who were looking for a positive cultural change in the wake of the newly consummated merger and the resumption of positive career progression (as opposed to regression) at the new carrier. It is no secret that we had long felt oppressed by the former management of US Airways who had largely taken over after the AWA/US Airways merger and who, as a result of their positions of responsibility, had to have helped facilitate the sudden stagnation of AWA pilots and near instant resurrection of US Airways pilot progression as soon as the AWA/US merger was announced.
Our new AA management, seeing through a disinterested and non-conflicted set of eyes, was directed toward our situation and, we believed, saw the inequities. We were told that, at American Airlines, Flight Operations runs the show, that the unfair treatment we complained of was readily apparent, and that the new management would take steps to right the ship. Hold tight, because change is coming we were told. After hanging on for six or so months while eagerly expecting an equipment bid, or over-water training, or some new-hire pilots to illustrate that the ship was indeed beginning to be righted (or even change course the tiniest bit), we began to question whether anything at all would change for our domicile within New American. The new and formerly enthusiastic managers who apparently saw the disparities and indicated a desire to fix them fell silent. Soon after that we were told by their underlings that no changes would be forthcoming to PHX until sometime after the integrated seniority list is issued and after operational integration occurs. As we discussed a few weeks ago, the company has now indicated this is unlikely to occur before the end of 2016. In the meantime, the LAA and LUS East pilots continue to experience tremendous career progress while PHX has again been outright deprived of the gains enjoyed by the rest of the company.
The inequities that we complained of to our new management which were previously quite freely acknowledged, apparently became taboo. We believe Captains Hale and Johnson were sincere in their desire to help us and eager to share the wealth (for the first time in almost a decade) among all pilots of the airline, but must have run into resistance from above. We are speculating here, but this became clear to us during a PHX domicile meeting attended by Captain Hale in July of 2014. Captain Hale spoke of all the wonderful things happening to our pilots; new-hires, upgrades, new equipment and routes, and tremendous profits. When reminded by a restless audience that the things he spoke of did not apply to PHX, he looked a bit puzzled and replied, you can be a victim of a victor and then reminded us that we were lucky not to be in the shoes of the former TWA pilots. After a few somewhat heated exchanges with the audience, things began to cool off when Captain Hale reminded all in attendance of his open door policy and encouraged our pilots to write or call with their concerns and request a meeting if they wished. Soon thereafter we learned of several of our pilots who accepted his open door invitation who not only received no meeting, but no email response (or even a returned phone call). We still believe he was well meaning and sincere, but have concluded that he ran into resistance from somewhere. Our guess is that New American is no longer run by Flight Operations but is instead run the old US Airways way, with senior management protected behind Labor Relations which in turn does little without consulting its phalanx of lawyers. Again we are speculating but we imagine that, for liabilitys sake, no lawyer would ever acknowledge there were any wrongs to be righted and try to shut down anyone who saw or agreed with the inequities PHX complained of.
On March 11, SVP Air Operations, Tim Campbell announced that Captain Hale had offered his resignation as the top pilot for the world's largest airline and would be returning to the line. We wish him well and regret that our expectations of his leadership were not realized while acknowledging that most things were well beyond his control (and perhaps even influence) at the new company and he could not yet have known this when he planned to meet with us.
Is Phoenix Unhappy Today?
You bet we are and you may be wondering why any of this history is relevant now, or how it might be relevant to pilots outside of our PHX domicile. The answer is because, in the past, senior management clearly chose favorites and then used the resulting disparities to turn our pilots against one another. As written in our April 7 PHX Update, we believe the company may be laying the foundation (whether intentionally or not, we cannot be certain) to do this again at New American Airlines when it announced IT delays relating to a single crew tracking system which in turn could lead to an implementation delay of the ultimate single seniority list. It is our concern that, based upon a tortured interpretation of the MOU, the company may try to use these delays to trigger the expiration of the MOU protections (some of which are now found in Supplement D of the contract) without an integrated seniority list in place. Not everyone agrees with us, but we fear that if we arrive at a point where we are not yet integrated and the company seeks to eliminate the remaining protections for the subgroups within AA, we may all be exposed to the sort of whipsawing the LUS pilots have lived under for nearly a decade. We have been trying to raise awareness of this possibility among all AA pilots (and especially the APA leadership) and are beginning to gain some traction. APA must remain vigilant of the possible threat of short-term self-interest having a negative influence on sound decision making due to the general satisfaction of one's current carrier trajectory at domiciles other than PHX (and, we suppose, STL).
To make our point clear, we will again undertake a painstaking study of the history of the AWA/US Airways merger, deconstruct what occurred in that history, compare similarities with this new merger, and invite the reader to draw their own conclusion from the mountain of circumstantial evidence.
What They Said...
At the very beginning of the AWA/US Airways 2005 merger, management published its Joint Statement of Labor Principles (Exh. A, attached). Notice the overall reassuring tone and the use of the term fair and equitable. Keep in mind this was written many months before the actual consummation of the merger (and before it was a certainty) at a time when the signatories to the letter needed the support of employees to accomplish their goal of merging airlines. Most will recognize this tactic repeated when US Airways management courted the AA unions during bankruptcy. Here are a few excerpts [with emphasis added] from that letter:
The management teams at both US Airways and America West Airlines recognize the anxiety and uncertainty created among our valued employees since news of a potential merger surfaced in April, and we sincerely regret that legal constraints prevented us from providing you with more details about our discussions. Now that we have announced our planned merger, we can assure you that we have heard your requests to be kept informed and we will be as open as possible as this transaction progresses.
and;
For employees in work groups represented by unions, the question of what will happen to your jobs is even harder for us to answer because so much of what will happen is outside managements control. Our labor contracts contain different provisions governing how seniority lists will be integrated, and depending on your specific contract, provide for integration in accordance with a particular unions merger policy or certain Allegheny Mohawk seniority integration provisions. We will honor those contractual commitments, and the ultimate outcome of seniority integration will be determined by your collective bargaining representatives as dictated by your contracts.
Although the seniority integration process will be handled by your union representatives, we have every expectation that our unions will honor certain obviously fair and equitable protocols as they implement their merger policies or Allegheny Mohawk provisions. Specifically, we would expect that no employee who already had been furloughed prior to the merger would be permitted to bump an active employee out of a job.Likewise, we expect our unions will recognize a solution that simply staples all employees of one airline to the bottom of the others seniority list as unacceptable and unconscionable. To that end, because of seniority differences in some groups, straight seniority integration could have an effect similar to that of stapling employees to the bottom of a seniority list, an outcome that is inconsistent with a fair and equitable protocol.
and;
Lastly, although it is extremely important to go through the proper process of integrating seniority lists, dragging seniority integration out for an unnecessarily long period of time is not in anyones best interest.
Soon after the merger was announced, ALPA (the US Airways and America West MECs) and the two carriers began negotiations for a Transition Agreement (TA, attached as Exh. . The TA shared many similarities to the Memorandum of Understanding which helped accommodate the US Airways/AA merger. And, just like the MOU, the TA spelled out a number of provisions designed to protect jobs and assure pilots from both airlines that neither group would be favored at the expense of the other.
Notable excerpts from the Transition Agreement [with emphasis added] are reprinted below. Notice how many times the term fair and equitable is used:
The seniority lists of America West pilots and US Airways pilots will be integrated in accordance with ALPA Merger Policy and submitted to the Airline Parties for acceptance. The Airline Parties will accept such integrated seniority list...
and;
...should the Airline Parties acquire aircraft in excess of the number identified for that airline in Attachment B, such aircraft will operate as part of US Airways... [and] ...the Airline Parties will make every effort to establish a bridge training program as soon as possible to facilitate thefair and equitable distribution of flying between the two pilot groups. In the event that a bridge training program exists and the pilots from the carrier receiving the bridge training have completed training, or will complete training prior to the aircraft entering service, then the Parties will meet prior to the operation of any such aircraft in an effort to reach agreement as to which pilot group will operate those aircraft.
and;
The America West MEC and the US Airways MEC will agree internally as to which pilot group shall operate such aircraft or will implement a process, including binding arbitration if necessary, to determine the Associations position regarding the allocation of such flying. In the event that the Airline Parties do not agree with the Association position, then the dispute will be resolved in accordance with Section X. below. The standard to be applied by the Arbitrator in that proceeding will be the fair and equitable allocation of flying between the two pilot groups.
and;
America West will not hire new pilots if pilots on the US Airways seniority list remain on furlough, provided that America West may hire a new pilot if all pilots on furlough have been offered recall to US Airways or have been offered positions by America West in the order of seniority. Available positions at America West will be offered to furloughed US Airways pilots...
and;
A furloughed US Airways pilot who declines a position as an America West pilot retains the right to be offered the next position offered and also retains the right to be recalled to US Airways in accordance with his US Airways seniority. A US Airways pilot who accepts a position at America West...
The TA then contains eight sub-paragraphs outlining the conditions of employment for a furloughed US Airways pilot who accepts a position at America West. This is not at all surprising given the 33% furlough at US Airways at this time and the sustained hiring at AWA just prior to the merger. The language is virtually identical to that found in the MOU, except the MOU language avoided setting any expectations about who would be hiring whom:
America West may hire new pilots if all pilots on the US Airways seniority list have been offered recall to US Airways or have been offered a pilot position at America West. New pilots hired during the Separate Operations will be placed by their date of hire on a third seniority list entitled New Hire Seniority List, will be junior to all pilots on the pilot seniority lists of America West and US Airways on the effective date of this Letter of Agreement, and will continue to be junior to those pilots on the integrated seniority list of America West and US Airways pilots.
Concerning the reverse situation (which was virtually impossible to imagine given the disparate conditions of the two airlines at the time), the TA contained this one-sentence paragraph almost as an afterthought:
In the event of America West furloughs, furlough references in this Letter of Agreement will be modified to apply to both pilot groups.
In addition, the non-bankrupt AWA pilots also agreed to these terms because the process of integration embodied in the TA could not be delayed:
the airline operations of America West and US Airways, with respect to pilots, shall be merged no later than twelve (12) months following the later of (i) completion of the integrated pilot seniority list and (ii) negotiation of the Single Agreement provided that if by that date a single FAA operating certificate has not been issued, the airline operations, with respect to pilots, will be merged effective with the first bid period following thirty (30) days after the issuance of such certificate.
The integrated seniority list was issued on May 1, 2007, and the single operating certificate was issued on September 26, 2007. Based on the language above, the airline had every right (and perhaps obligation) to force integration of the two pilot groups and, as you will see, even emphasized this fact after the merger deal was complete by reserving the right to impose one of the contracts on both groups to facilitate a rapid integration. Yet it decided not to do so to the detriment of all US Airways pilots, with the AWA pilots bearing the tremendous brunt.
What They Did...
Now that we've set the stage and compared a few similarities between our past and current agreements, let's review what actually transpired historically under these agreements while led by substantially the same senior management team. We think you will come to the same conclusion: In spite of assurances to the contrary and clear language asserting fair and equitable treatment among pre-merger subgroups, fairness cannot be relied upon. Until such time as we are a truly integrated and homogeneous group, management can pick the winners and losers at its whim while keeping our pilot groups, and thus our union, divided.
At the time of the merger, US Airways had well over 1500 pilots furloughed, while AWA had none and was in a sustained hiring mode with several additional new-hire classes scheduled. But these classes were delayed, then delayed indefinitely, and eventually canceled once the merger was announced. Soon thereafter the company began recalling furloughed US Airways pilots in 2006. We don't begrudge the company for recalling furloughed US Airways pilots, but the language of the TA clearly leads everyone to believe that those pilots would be offered employment at AWA in the period of separate operations, thus maintaining some pre-merger career trajectory. While all hiring at AWA ceased once the merger was announced, pilot recalls began on the US Airways side and continued to the point where the company began hiring pilots off of the street in August 2007. As discussed in that April 7 PHX update, the first pilots hired at US Airways since February 2000 came from the defunct MidAtlantic Airlines and continued once that source was exhausted ending with the addition of 86 new hires before the downturn of 2008-2009.
In July 2008, US Airways management announced a reduction-in-force which included 175 pre-merger AWA pilots (approximately 10%) and 125 East pilots (approximately 5%). The former AWA pilots sought to stop the furloughs in federal court, since all AWA pilots brought an active flying job to the merger, while none of the US Airways pilots scheduled for furlough did. We believed this was inequitable and flew in the face of the reassuring language found in the TA and the joint statement of labor principles referenced above. After having been lulled into supporting Doug Parker and his 2005 merger with US Airways, West pilots felt utterly betrayed when these inequitable furloughs were announced, especially after having seen their careers instantly stagnate (contrary to the representations made to them and their pre-merger expectations) and watching LUS East pilots experience an unprecedented rebound (including the addition of a new fleet type and new flying West pilots were supposed to share fairly and equitably yet are still deprived of). What's more (and also discussed in the April 7 PHX update), many of the pilots who kept their job during this downturn never flew for US Airways before, in spite of assurance that all new hire pilots would be furloughed on the East (which management somehow thought would be comforting to the West pilots who were being furloughed).
It is crucial to note a few other things that transpired between the merger in 2005 and the furloughs which began near the end of 2008:
Negotiations for a US Airways/AWA combined agreement had begun soon after the merger and were going poorly. This is not surprising given the position the not-so-labor-friendly company took in those negotiations merely seven weeks after the merger deal closed: US airways plainly stated that it could and would (if necessary) impose the twice-bankrupt LUS East contract on all pilots (see Hemenway letter, attached as Exh. C). It's almost hard to comprehend how starkly that contrasted with prior statements and agreements made which were designed to reassure reluctant labor groups. It looked like a classic bait and switch to all US Airways pilots, and should have been a harbinger of inequitable treatment from management to come. By early 2007 the two ALPA MECs began holding Coast-to-Coast picketing events and even advertised the lack of progress toward a joint agreement on billboards.
Seniority list integration proceedings began in late 2005 and ended with the publication of the Nicolau Award in the first week of May 2007. A Coast-to-Coast Unity march was scheduled in LAS the next week (and the whole point of these events was to display unity and resolve in reaching a JCBA among ALL US Airways pilots), but the East pilots pulled out of their participation after the integrated list was published.
Very soon after the seniority list was published, the East pilots sought to have ALPA set aside the award but it declined. By July 2007, East pilot Stephen Bradford (yes, the same man who just took office as USAPA's president for the second time) was underway forming a union to displace ALPA for all US Airways pilots in order to block implementation of the otherwise final and binding award.
During the campaign to replace ALPA, USAPA made it clear that it planned to convince the company to exchange the requirement to use the Nicolau seniority list embodied in the Transition Agreement in return for labor peace and a low-cost contract. Many East pilots pledged to toil under LOA 93 forever rather than live one single day under the Nicolau Award. It was at this point that USAPA's strategy aligned with management's goal of extremely low costs.
In April 2008, because East pilots outnumbered the West pilots two-to-one, USAPA won the representational election over ALPA and became the collective bargaining agent for all US Airways pilots.
It was against this backdrop that furloughs were announced and USAPA first presented its proposed Date-of-Hire seniority list to US Airways (on September 30, 2008). You will see why we believe management, in accommodating USAPA, did away with any notion of fairness or equity toward the AWA pilots and assisted the East pilots in accomplishing their stated goal while also playing the groups against each other and claiming neutrality as cover. This, of course, resulted in a significant savings to the company as it allocated most of the flying to the lowest-cost contract.
As mentioned previously, US Airway announced furloughs in the summer of 2008 and soon refined the number of furloughs to 175 LUS West and 125 LUS East. In order to mitigate the impact of these furloughs, the company offered voluntary leaves of absence. It is important to note that not all requests for leave were granted and in the end, the company actually furloughed 141 West and only 86 of the new-hire LUS East pilots. The ultimate impact was that less than 3% of East pilots were furloughed and those only included pilots hired after the AWA/US Airways merger with the exception of the CEL pilots discussed at length in our April 7 update. While the company testified in court that it would indeed furlough all new hire pilots, it didn't, and instead chose to retain some pilots by recognizing fictitious 2004 US Airways dates-of-hire for this special group. 2004 was actually their year of hire at MidAtlantic and not US Airways mainline because a 2004 date of hire would be impossible at a company that had over 1500 pilots on furlough at that time. We don't think it was any accident that when the dust settled on who was actually furloughed, all of these fictitious 2004 hires kept their jobs while AWA pilots were furloughed to the within the same week of hire. In other words, while US Airways claimed neutrality, it furloughed just enough pilots to almost precisely align the East and West seniority lists in accordance with USAPA's date-of-hire proposal. We just cannot imagine this was mere happenstance.
Admittedly, the company overshot the number of West pilots required to align the East and West in accordance with USAPA's proposed list by 12, but we think this might have been due to confusion about what exact fictitious DOH's were going to be recognized by the company for some East pilots at USAPA's request. After all, a grievance and lawsuit (both discussed in our April 7 PHX update) already existed at the time regarding the treatment of longevity for the MidAtlantic pilots. It is curious then, that the bottom few CEL pilots first appeared at US Airways in Bid Award 09-02 in May 2009 (attached as Exh. D). Was it an accident that somehow these pilots, about whom the company was actively taking the position did not work for US Airways mainline, found a job at US Airways for the first time during areduction bid? So while US Airways furloughed pre-merger West pilots and new hire pilots (also known as third list pilots) it somehow made room on its list for these pilots that it didn't hire in 2004 with the net result that it furloughed additional pilots to accommodate them. Relevant portions of USAPA's date-of-hire proposed list (Exh. E), the LUS West displacement bid (Exh. F), and the LUS East bid award (Exh. D), are attached. Note that the West displacement Bid was later revised (Exh. G), which brought the two lists into even closer alignment with USAPA's DOH proposal. Compare and see for yourself: Whether intentional or not, this is what transpired.
As mentioned in our last update, after every MDA CEL pilot was brought onto the US Airways list, they have remained employed ever since. And, as if to punish West pilots for having been hired at AWA before the merger, when the company did begin recalling those furloughed new hire pilots to the East operation in 2010, it agreed with USAPA to bring them back before offering employment to the furloughed West pilots (in violation of the TA). It then treated those furloughed West pilots who accepted a job offer out East as junior to those new hire East pilots until finally correcting that situation in February 2013.
To further illustrate how stunningly different US Airways management treated the two pre-merger groups, the senior-most remaining CEL pilot with an actual US Airways DOH in early 2008 (but who is shown on the LUS East seniority list with an August 2, 2004 hire date) was number 2787 out of 3642 as of January 2015. This pilot has 855 others beneath him and has advanced over 23 percent. By contrast, the most junior and actively employed LUS West pilot at the time of the AWA/US Airways merger, Dave Odell, is number 1546 out of 1589. Ten years after the merger Odell has only 43 pilots beneath him (28 of which were just brought on last year), and has advanced barely 2 percent on a list which has contracted by more than 16 percent since 2005 (from 1894 to 1589).
Finally, it is worth noting how the LUS East progression began in earnest about the time the prospective AA/US Airways merger first came to light and really took off in the summer of 2012 when negotiations for the MOU were taking place. Near the crest of this wave of new hires is the son of a high-level US Airways flight operations executive. This fortunate pilot has advanced almost 16 percent in less than three years while the LUS West operation has remained flat or contracted.
Why Didn't the West Pilots Protest?
Under collective bargaining as part of the RLA, the only remedy to this unfair treatment of West pilots was to complain to the union in effort to get its support, or to file a grievance under the auspices of that association- in this case, USAPA. Since USAPA was created for the express purpose of avoiding the implementation of the arbitrated seniority list and imposing a seniority order which was expressly denied in that arbitration (and which management said would be inequitable in the Joint Statement of Labor Principles) the reality was that West pilots were left entirely exposed and without recourse. Whenever assistance was sought from the union, it was summarily denied. Management was not ignorant to any of these facts and the situation could have been different had it exercised leadership or enforced the plain language of the agreements, or any notion of fair and equitable in its post-merger decision making. Instead, and as clearly shown above, it chose and continues to choose to facilitate the goals of one group at the expense of the other with ongoing claims of neutrality. It has always had the power to avoid this lopsided situation, yet it has done nothing to fix it.
You Be the Judge...
We think it was only a few of these facts which enlightened Captain Hale and caused him to make those statements about righting the ship. How could anyone not see the unfairness? Ultimately it appears he could not (or would not) do anything about it. We're sure his bosses would paint PHX as merely disgruntled due to our unfortunate circumstances and they would claim those circumstances are simply the result of rational business decisions. Frankly, West pilot feel entirely betrayed by our former AWA corporate leaders who have risen to the top of the industry while allowing their faithful employees to sink to the bottom, having never enjoyed any benefit from the prior merger.
Too bad for PHX, but the more important point for all pilots is to note the reason for the West pilots' situation is because senior management had the sole discretion to make it that way: On one hand it claimed to have the unilateral power to impose the East's bankruptcy contract on all US Airways pilots (thus triggering integrated operations under the arbitrated seniority list), but on the other hand it could choose to delay implementation by explaining to West pilots and several federal judges that implementation of the arbitrated seniority list first required the negotiation of a single contract- with USAPA- that would cover all pilots. In the interim, management made those choices which led to total stagnation for the West, yet also resulted in all new flying, pilots, and progress flowing East while the company saved money with the rock-bottom wages of those pilots. The only terms that saved the West from outright elimination were the concrete fleet and block-hour minimums contained in the Transition Agreement (though the company violated the block-hour minimums anyway). Overlay our current situation on the background above and you can see why our concern over the possibility that management could be maneuvering itself into the exact same position to again pit pilots against each other (only this time with three groups) and be able to pick the winners and losers to its advantage and beyond control of the APA should be your concern too.
The pilots of New American are beginning realize who they are really dealing with when the new company declined to negotiate a contract that was truly equal to or better than Delta's (with our lack of profit sharing, calendar day duty rigs, our higher medical costs, and inferior sick and LTD programs). In addition, the company's slowness to implement many of the more beneficial terms of the JCBA across the entire system has already resulted in multiple grievances. The company's recent and unilateral interpretation of FAR 117 (over the protest of APA and in violation of our contract) in which it asserts the right to convert you from a scheduled deadhead to a live leg at its discretion is the latest example of reality as contrasted with what APA thought it signed up for in supporting this merger and senior management team. The real point is this: You cannot depend on any assurances that you will be treated fairly or equitably and APA must make every effort to ensure the sort of whipsawing tacitly approved by USAPA while it represented West pilots is never allowed to happen within our ranks. APA cannot be too guarded or demanding of fair and equitable treatment for all pilots it represents and, we believe, demand full implementation of the integrated seniority list concurrent with the first bid following its issuance in order to protect against the sort of disparate treatment this management team has taken advantage of over the last decade.
Sincerely,
John and Eric
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