ALPA DCA Reps. Update on Today's MEC Meeting

[USA320Pilot]

[email addresses deleted by mod]
Subject: Special MEC Meeting
Date: Sun, 6 May 2007 22:53:06 -0400

May 6, 2007

Dear Fellow Pilots,

We remain in session this evening at 11pm at the Special MEC meeting in Herndon. The MEC met today in mostly closed session to discuss our options in response to the devastating seniority integration we received last week.

We started the meeting by questioning Captain Jim Brucia (the Continental pilot who was selected by our committee's the pilot neutral on the Merger Arbitration Panel) on the decision making process that was followed for constructing the final list. He is the pilot who wrote the dissenting opinion of the award. He objected to placing our furloughed pilots on the bottom of the merged list and that the placement of this group of our pilots negatively affected every pilot throughout the entire list.

He stressed to us that the arbitrator had the final say and neither he or the other pilot neutral had any "vote" in the outcome on the decision, it was determined solely by the arbitrator George Nicolau.

Later in the afternoon, every member of the MEC took the opportunity to articulate passionately to ALPA President John Prater our outrage at this unprecedented award and implored Captain Prater to exercise whatever means possible as the leader of ALPA to right this wrong.

We met again in closed session with our merger counsel to discuss what legal options are available to us and will continue to meet again on Monday.

Fraternally,

Bob Sauer
Chairman

Don Baier
Vice Chairman

Steve Boveri
Sec/Treasuer

 

[aquagreen73s]

We met again in closed session with our merger counsel to discuss what legal options are available to us and will continue to meet again on Monday.

Of which, there are no legal options.

 

[ussnark]

Of which, there are no legal options.

Actually, there are.

 

[Phoenix]

Of which, there are no legal options.

Then you are waisting your time on the board. You could spend your time better by counting how mandy months it will be until you can fly as IRO to London and Rome.

 

[pilot]

Aquagreen73:

Of course there are legal options. There always are. Your ignorance and arrogance are incredible as well as foolish. I doubt you know what an IRO is if you go around flying aquagreen 737's.

This list will not stand. Make no mistake about it. There will be no pilot integration of the two groups with the kind of nonsense found in that document.

The question is how the company will respond and how ALPA national will remedy the situation.

pilot

 

[CV580ETOPS]

Actually, there are.

and they are.... ??????

 

[Charlie_Tuna]

Actually, there are.

And they are what?

 

[pilot]

Be patient. Legal will let us know soon.

Prater would not be researching it if it was a forgone conclusion there were no legal options.

If there is a precedent it will be found. If there is no precedent one will be established.

The list will not stand folks. If the integration of these two pilot groups ever occurs it will not be with the list Nicloau provide.

That much I can guarantee you.

pilot

 

[ClueByFour]

Sure it will. Because absent that, the current HP pilots will own ALPA itself following the DFR lawsuit.

 

[U 737 PILOT]

Let's put it this way.

If the list stands as it is, we can all kiss USAirways goodbye.

The resentment and anger will sink this ship.

Better polish up those resumes just in case.

Sure it will. Because absent that, the current HP pilots will own ALPA itself following the DFR lawsuit.

 

[nycbusdriver]

Sure it will. Because absent that, the current HP pilots will own ALPA itself following the DFR lawsuit.

Actually, there are others already in line to bankrupt ALPA whose lawsuits have been winding their way through the federal court system for quite some time.

By the time the HP pilots get to that point (federal lawsuits take years to be completed), there will be no ALPA to own.

 

[ab320driver]

Let's put it this way.

If the list stands as it is, we can all kiss USAirways goodbye.

The resentment and anger will sink this ship.

Better polish up those resumes just in case.

Never integrate the two groups. Vote NO on all contract proposals= NO INTEGRATION. "teal book" AWA, and "blue book"-Real US Airways. Going to make the NWA, Republic merger look like a cake walk...

 

[PHL]

Not to say that this integration is fair or attractive to anyone(well, most anyone)....my question is how did the two groups finally come to decide on arbitration, and wasn't this laid out as one option that an arbitrator could come up with?

 

[safety stud]

Never integrate the two groups. Vote NO on all contract proposals= NO INTEGRATION. "teal book" AWA, and "blue book"-Real US Airways. Going to make the NWA, Republic merger look like a cake walk...

Amen brother...
Just vote no...
U East outnumbers U West...
Just vote NO...

 

[767jetz]

Herein lies the problem with a merger between USAirways(east) and ANY other pilot group in the industry. Unfortunately, the pre-HP-merger US pilot list was created by a plethora of previous mergers. Then, due to no fault of their own, circumstances led to years of stagnation and hiring trends at US that created a very senior pilot group. By senior I mean years of service versus position, relative to peers at other airlines.

The result was guys with 20 years of service barely holding 737 captain, 737 first officers with 10-15 years not being able to hold a line (block), and the final tragedy of furloughs going all the way back to pilots hired in the mid '80s. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, every current FO still flying was a captain at some point. That means every FO flying before the furloughs started is now furloughed.

So now the debate on whether 20 years of service at one company entitles a pilot to 20 years of recognition at another airline. Let's face it... The company may be called USAirways, but it is no longer the old USAirways. It could just as easily have been renamed XYZ Airlines. There are people who will debate this for eternity. But the fact remains that there is no national seniority list. We’ve always known that in this business you are married to your airline for better or worse. Is that right? Maybe not. But until there is a national list with standard pay for years of service, it is what it is.

As harsh as it is, there is no career expectation for a pilot furloughed from a twice bankrupt airline. The reality is HP MAY or may not have had problems in its future. That is speculative. But USAirways WAS insolvent and close to liquidation. And I’m sure this weighed on Nicolau’s decision. To say that putting furloughed pilots on the bottom is a windfall for HP is ridiculous. DOH is the only result that would have pleased US east. Anything short of that would have resulted in the same cry of foul we have today. Interestingly, for years there were US pilots preaching DOH and citing Nicolau’s past rulings when it benefited them to do so. Now that (in their opinion) a decision went against them they are beside themselves with anger.

US east MEC shot themselves by being unreasonable and wrapping all their expectations on DOH, which in any pilot’s opinion in this industry (except US pilots) is a non-starter. That was their decision, and now that their butts have been handed to them, they are talking about burning the place to the ground. Sounds like sour grapes to me.

For the record, this is the same attitude some had during previous merger attempts with UAL. US east doesn’t seem to have a problem fencing off the west guys from widebody flying. But in 2000 the US pilots were furious that UAL pilots wanted to fence them out of our widebody flying. When HP and US first announce their intent to merge, some of us warned the HP guys to be careful of the intent of the historically self-serving US pilots. This is exactly why.

IMO some of this ruling certainly could have been better. Widebody FO’s should have been given the same consideration as Widebody captains, for example. Some furloughees could have been slotted in or given a 3 to 1 ratio for their years of service. But by being unreasonable and stubborn, the US east negotiators left no incentive for Nicolau to be reasonable with them. IMO, although this ruling is very hard on junior US pilots, is a good precedent for future consolidation.