From ALPA National:
USAPA: Rules Are Meant to Be Broken
The rules of a representational election under the Railway Labor Act are established and administered by the National Mediation Board (NMB). These rules define who is eligible to vote in a representational election. In response to an NMB inquiry, ALPA took the position that the eligibility rules should be applied evenly across the board. If USAPA had its way, it would pick and choose which rules would best help its cause and who would get to vote. But neither ALPA nor any other reputable union can take this approach to long-standing rules. Consider the following:
1. The NMB’s eligibility rules were established long ago, not just for this election. These rules have long included a principle known as the “cutoff dateâ€â€”a date the NMB sets to determine which employees are eligible to vote in the class and craft. This rule was designed to protect the integrity of elections by preventing manipulation of the eligibility roster through the timing of hirings and recalls. Every responsible union should favor this rule as an important protection for labor.
2. Contrary to USAPA’s claims, ALPA has never petitioned the NMB to exclude pilots working for affiliates and subsidiaries of US Airways, nor has it sought to exclude pilots from voting who are eligible within the long-standing rules of the NMB. The NMB raised the issues involving voter eligibility concerning pilots working at subsidiaries and affiliates of US Airways. These issues are between the company and the NMB.
This is made clear by USAPA’s general counsel in a April 10 letter in which he argues: “… no party to this proceeding ever raised these issues, with respect to the individual pilots now identified, to any stage of the representation dispute.†Indeed, ALPA has commented on this matter only because the NMB, in response to a demand made by USAPA, requested that ALPA do so.
3. USAPA hypocritically attempted to deny the right to vote to a number of eligible pilots within our class and craft—such as senior check airmen, those on medical leave, and those who have termination grievances pending. The NMB properly rejected these efforts and ruled that these pilots should retain their right to vote.
4. USAPA is attempting to do exactly what the NMB’s rules were intended to prevent:
· It is pushing for a last-minute change to the rules that will selectively add some pilots to the eligibility roster who are on the seniority lists, but were not flying for the airline at the cutoff date.
· It is lobbying to leave out other pilots who are in a similar situation.
· It is asking the Board to selectively enforce these rules in USAPA’s favor in a way that has never been done before for any NMB election.
5. USAPA’s general counsel is talking out of both sides of his mouth when he acknowledges that pilots working for other carriers are ineligible under long-established and consistently applied NMB election rules. He references the NMB Representational Manual (§9.207) in an April 10 letter: “We recognize that employees ‘working for another carrier other than the carrier involved in the dispute are ineligible.’†This statement is completely inconsistent with USAPA’s efforts to circumvent the rules of eligibility in order to include only pilots who it thinks will vote for USAPA.
6. If, however, the NMB should decide to change the long-standing cutoff date rules for this election, ALPA has made it clear that the change needs to be applied fairly and consistently across the board, and not selectively. There are a number of pilots on the seniority lists who are now working at US Airways but were not working for the carrier on the November 13 cutoff date, and were therefore not included on the eligibility list. If USAPA gets its way, those individuals would not get to vote while those similarly situated, who USAPA believes would support them, would get to vote. An example would be new hires brought aboard after the November 13 cutoff date.
The bottom line is that ALPA, in response to the NMB’s request, called for a straightforward application of a Board rule that has been applied without exception in every NMB election. ALPA also added that if the Board decides to change this long-standing rule it should do so fairly and consistently so that no one gets an unfair advantage in this election and in elections to come. Throughout this matter ALPA has supported the right of every pilot on the property as of the cutoff date to vote.
USAPA is only permitting you to see half of what you need to know. This hardly bodes well for any future under the USAPA banner.
ALPA Legal Department
