THERE ARE CURRENTLY
44 AMERICA WEST PILOTS
ON FURLOUGH
Fellow pilots,
USAPA released an update yesterday morning announcing that their Merger Committee has passed a date-of-hire seniority list to the Company. As of today, we have received no word from the Company about their plans to either accept or reject this list. Although it is possible that the Company may continue to refrain from commenting on the issue, they cannot do so forever. At some point, Mr. Parker is going to need to decide to either honor his legal and ethical obligations, or placate those who continuously seek to sabotage anything and everything that stands in the way of their overreaching expectations.
USAPA also recently disseminated a press release that apparently seeks to draw attention to the fact that the Company has yet to complete operational integration. Although this press release received almost no traction in the media, USAPA obviously hoped that this release would compel the Company to accept the date-of-hire list, and complete a contract in relatively short order. We do find it ironic that USAPA would make an issue of separate operations when it is USAPA who encouraged the pull down of joint contract talks 16 months ago and it is USAPA who is attempting to deviate from the integration "blue-prints" defined in the Transition Agreement (which includes the Nicolau Award).
Make no mistake - this "date of hire" seniority list is nothing but a blatant, greedy, and underhanded maneuver by other pilots to advance their own careers at the expense of each and every America West pilot. This list was created without the benefit of a hearing, evidence, testimony, facts, or a neutral third party. It was created without any reference to principles of equality, fairness, or due process. Rather, this list was created by one (and only one) side of the integration who intends to spare no cost in it's quest to unilaterally impose it on the other, in defiance of anything and everything legal, ethical, moral, and just.
Yesterday's news has prompted us to begin ramping up our legal efforts. As we promised both Mr. Parker and Mr. Bradford on April 17th, if either party modifies the Nicolau Award, we will immediately seek both injunctive relief and damages against both parties in the court system. Mr. Parker now has a small window of opportunity to steer this merger back on track before he and Mr. Bradford find themselves in court (again).
Finally, it is with much regret that we remind everybody that yesterday, Dave Odell and 44 other America West pilots who brought jobs to the merger, were furloughed out of seniority order. Also, the Company recently sent another 50 (approximately) furlough notices to America West pilots who are now slated to lose their jobs effective November 1st. No America West pilot should ever forget this injustice, nor should we ever yield in our lawful efforts to see that this injustice is corrected and restitution is made. Please keep our furloughed brothers and sisters in your thoughts and prayers.
In solidarity,
AWAPPA
SENIORITY INTEGRATION QUOTES
"...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 other's 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."
-Doug Parker (America West CEO) and Bruce Lakefield (US Airways CEO), "Joint Statement of Labor Principles", May 2005
"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..."
-Transition Agreement, September 2005
"The company, along with the East and West ALPA MEC's, agreed in the September 2005 Transition Agreement that the integrated seniority list would be accomplished under the ALPA Merger Policy and would be accepted by the company..."
"...the company will accept the submitted [Nicolau] list."
-Doug Parker, letter to all US Airways pilots, December 20 2007
ALPA Merger Policy specifies 5 goals for seniority list integration. They are, in
no particular order:
Preserve jobs.
Avoid windfalls to either group at the expense of the other.
Maintain or improve pre-merger pay and standard of living.
Maintain or improve pre-merger pilot status.
Minimize detrimental changes to career expectations.
ALPA Merger Policy makes no mention of date of hire or any other method of achieving these goals. The Merger Representatives must determine which method or combinations of methods best meet the goals. The goals all address what your seniority will buy upon integration and into the future. This is the yardstick of fairness by which any proposed method of integration must be judged.
When you meet America West pilots, be as welcoming as you can. Remember that the seniority list integration will not be accomplished in the jumpseat, the crewroom, web boards or the hotel van. Trust the process and trust your merger team to do the very best job we can in protecting the best interests of all US Airways pilots.
-US Airways MEC, July 2005
CHAIRMAN NICOLAU: You aren't telling me, Mr. Hershey, that when you were hired back in '89 you took a look at the seniority list and then over the course of time kept looking at it to make sure you were going to be 19 in your retirement, you aren't telling me that are you?
THE WITNESS: No, they actually --
CHAIRMAN NICOLAU: No, that is all I have.
-Nicolau arbitration transcripts, December 13, 2006, pages 1081-1082
[Mr. Hershey, an East pilot who had been on furlough almost four (4) years at the time of the arbitration, testified on behalf of the AAA MEC about the career expectations of East pilots. Mr. Hershey, who has since been recalled, now has nearly 700 pilots active pilots junior to him on the East while West pilots working at the time of the merger are now furloughed.]
"In the US Airways-America West case, the pilots who are most unhappy with the decision undoubtedly are asking themselves whether a little more flexibility in the earlier stages of the proceedings might have served them better."
-United Airlines MEC Merger Committee, July 2007
"This is not to say one could not construct some sort of mid-ground that would attempt to incorporate a methodology utilizing both a mechanical and a date of hire approach. Several factors militate against this. First, these are relatively small units. The West group is comprised of 37 individuals. The East local has 120 active employees with 32 currently on furlough (as of the date of the hearing.) It is logistically difficult to mold a hybrid list, given this small a unit. Moreover, unlike pilot mergers, which often involve companion considerations including aircraft types, differing status and categories and a variety of additional distinctions, the instant case is considerably more basic. These employees, on the other hand, perform the same functions, in essentially the same manner and will operate under a combined agreement that features no fence or any of the other arcane elements peculiar to pilot cases."
-Arbitrator Richard Bloch, America West / US Airways Dispatchers Seniority Award, April 2007
[The quoted text is from a footnote in the Award in which the arbitrator explains why date-of-hire is appropriate in that case, and why a mechanical (ratio) integration would be more likely for a pilot integration.]
