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.
