The time has come for USAPA and the East Pilots to be fully and fairly informed about
the status of the Nicolau Award and the significant risk USAPA runs if it deviates from that
Award without legal justification. We understand that the leadership of USAPA and others,
perhaps even including yourself, have been telling the East Pilots that USAPA is now free to
either use or propose any seniority list it wants. Those statements are not true and it is time that
USAPA and the East Pilots fully understand this.
The parties to the Transition Agreement agreed in advance that the Nicolau Award would
be the final resolution of the seniority dispute. USAPA can deviate from the Nicolau Award if,
and only if, the deviation is “supported by a legitimate union purpose.” USAPA has now had
almost 50 months of litigation to propose a “legitimate union purpose” for deviating from the
Nicolau Award. The reasons proposed by USAPA in the Addington trial were rejected by a civil
jury. In the current US Airways, Inc. litigation, USAPA failed to come forward with an argument
that was acceptable to Judge Silver for deviating from the Nicolau Award. The reason for
USAPA’s failure is that there is no “legitimate union purpose” for deviating from the Nicolau
Award. There never has been and there never will be.
This in fact is the current state of affairs and USAPA and the East Pilots need to
understand that. This will pose grave problems for USAPA when it restarts negotiations with US
Airways pursuant to Section 6 of the RLA. It will also be a looming problem for USAPA if the
merger with American Airlines is concluded and the overall pilot seniority integration issue is
resolved through a McCaskill-Bond arbitration. In either scenario, USAPA must use the Nicolau
Award unless deviating from the Award is “supported by a legitimate union purpose.” That
appears to be an impossibility.