To put it simply.....
When USAPA became the new bargaining agent, all sections of the yet to be completed JCBA were reviewed. Many sections, whether complete or not, were found to be lacking. The previously completed 'final and binding' proposal of the prior bargaining agent conscerning Section 22 was also found to be lacking. USAPA continues to bargain in negotiations with the company for a fair and equitable agreement in an effort to represent all US Airways pilots fairly. It is their right and their duty. When we are done, and the process is complete, if anyone (East or West) is unhappy with the result, and feel they were not FAIRLY represented, they will then be free to persue their claim in the courts. Not before then. Some ask why USAPA has opposed the companies motion for DJ and is asking for dismissal. The reason is to move the process along more quickly and efficiently. It will be far faster to get to a completed JCBA if the courts step aside (as they should) rather than go through all the processes and expense of a trial just to end up in the same place....NOT RIPE!
What is simple about that?
We all understand your thought process here, but there are two huge technicalities you are overlooking. First, what good is a completed illegal CBA, that is unusable and barred by injunction? Two, the company will not touch DOH (and open themselves to ripe litigation, that they barely escaped before), until a court tells them they can,(which likely will not happen).
usapa is opposed to the company's DJ suit because they fear that it is going to tell them what every lawyer to date except Seham has told them. The Nic is it. You are free to negotiate whatever you want, but seniority, as a precurser condition to the merger, has already been established. Rearrange it to favor the east at the West's expense, it just ain't gonna happen. No one is willing to abet usapa in their illegal quest. So no contract until the company"s DJ action is finished, and then no contract without the Nic.
But, while we are talking contract. In their rebuttal to the AOL mailing, usapa acknowledged exactly which sections were complete, and which were open, when the east left the negotiating table, including section 22. What do they say about it? Section 22 "closed", and they note it is prior to the Nic. Section 22 is governed by the TA, and therefore closed to negotiations.
oops....looks like Theur didn't catch that little tidbit in his prerelease censorship.
Anyway, still the same bottom line. usapa is not free to negotiate section 22, they have no one with which to negotiate, until the company gets the answere that usapa is trying desperately to avoid.
BTW, after the 9th ruled, I had to wait 3 days to post on this board. I then just posted I would wait another day or so to debunk all the hype the east posters were reading into the opinion. So, here we are, a substantial amount of time since the 9th ruled, and what has usapa gotten. Big, nada, nothing, zilch, zip, zero. usapa is no closer to closing a contract than they were the day they were elected. As a matter of fact and their own now published admission, they are further away, and quite a bit so, than we were the day the east had their Nic meltdown. usapa is simply incapable of delivering a CBA for this group. Much less a DOH contract that would get them sued.
So, what the east pilots are going to have to ask themselves is just as AOL asked, "Can you afford to retire under LOA 93?"
