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DFR lawsuits against a union fail 93% of the time. In the unlikely event USAPA loses the DFR case they may be required to negotiate a seniority solution with the West pilots instead of the company. USAPA and a West merger committee may be ordered back to Wye river type negotiations if they lose the DFR case.
Damages are almost never won in DFR cases and there wouldn't be any as long as operations remain separate or fenced as USAPA has proposed. To win cash damages the West would have to prove that the East pilots would have voted to use the Nicolau award in a joint contract. They would also have to prove that the Nicolau award is inequitable meaning they would have received a windfall if Nicolau had been implemented. Trying to collect cash damages is trying to collect the windfall which the West claims does not exist and was not allowed anyway by ALPA merger policy. The West pilots are not any worse off now than if AWA had remained independent. The correlation is not 100% but close since the West operation has remained a separate operation since the merger and has mirrored the performance of PHX and LAS.
I doubt the court would be foolish enough to try to force use of the Nicolau list as settling the seniority dispute. That would just start World War III and eliminate any chance for a single contract or integrated operations. USAPA is trying to find a seniority solution that is fair to both sides. That may be impossible if the court places restrictions on USAPA's bargaining authority. The West could very well end up much worse off if they win the DFR lawsuit. The East pilots already have date of hire seniority and a fence and will have higher pay rates when the LOA 93 pay freeze ends on 12/31/09.
Underpants.
Captain,DFR lawsuits against a union fail 93% of the time. In the unlikely event USAPA loses the DFR case they may be required to negotiate a seniority solution with the West pilots instead of the company. USAPA and a West merger committee may be ordered back to Wye river type negotiations if they lose the DFR case.
That is the entire point of this exercise. Because the east has delayed and demanded separate ops the west has been hurt. If the east had accepted the list and bargained in good faith back in June 2007 we would most likely have a contract and integrated ops. Therefore the furloughs and downgrades would have gone by the arbitrated list. So the east demand for separate ops is what is going to cost the east.Damages are almost never won in DFR cases and there wouldn't be any as long as operations remain separate or fenced as USAPA has proposed. To win cash damages the West would have to prove that the East pilots would have voted to use the Nicolau award in a joint contract. They would also have to prove that the Nicolau award is inequitable meaning they would have received a windfall if Nicolau had been implemented. Trying to collect cash damages is trying to collect the windfall which the West claims does not exist and was not allowed anyway by ALPA merger policy. The West pilots are not any worse off now than if AWA had remained independent. The correlation is not 100% but close since the West operation has remained a separate operation since the merger and has mirrored the performance of PHX and LAS.
THE COURT: Isn't the proof of the futility what I just received last night, which is USAPA's September 30
proposed seniority list, which is a 100 percent victory for the East Pilots and a 100 percent defeat for the West Pilots? What more futility do you need than that proof that they have been negotiating as they campaigned to defeat the ALPA merger policy as implemented and have a different priority system that
entirely favors the East Pilot to the complete detriment of the West Pilots?
I doubt the court would be foolish enough to try to force use of the Nicolau list as settling the seniority dispute. That would just start World War III and eliminate any chance for a single contract or integrated operations. USAPA is trying to find a seniority solution that is fair to both sides. That may be impossible if the court places restrictions on USAPA's bargaining authority. The West could very well end up much worse off if they win the DFR lawsuit. The East pilots already have date of hire seniority and a fence and will have higher pay rates when the LOA 93 pay freeze ends on 12/31/09.
Underpants.
The rates of pay specified in Section 3 of the Agreement, as
modified by the Restructuring Agreement, will be revised as
follows:
1. Freeze current rates effective 5/01/04 through 12/3 1/09.
2. Reduce rates as frozen by 18.0%
3. Reduce International pay override, as stated in Section
3(F) and Section 18©, by 18.0% for transoceanic trips;
eliminate international override for non-transoceanic trips.
4. Pay all flying at day rate.
Date of hire of pilot in editorial, August 16, 2004. This pilot was in ground school when the wheels were in motion on this merger.
And that has what to do with the truthfulness and accuracy of the story how?
Separate ops have been a windfall for the east. That will be fairly easy to prove.
Hmmm. Well if separate ops has been a windfall for the east, why are you guys constantly haranguing us about "how's life on LOA 93"? Most east pilots have been compensated far less than their west counterparts under separate ops, and with all the posting that has gone on here, it will be quite easy to show that as a group the east has not enjoyed any windfall thus far. Thank you all for poking the LOA 93 stick in our eye so consistently and so often.
You have a job. Absent the meger AAA would have been liquidated. That was the plan that SWA, DAL, JBLU and others were all counting on.
That the date of hire approach has been adopted by other unionized groups in both companies is, in and of itself, by no means dispositive ; the facts and relative equities of each of the affected groups ultimately are what will determine a given outcome.
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
October 29, 2008 - Preliminary Injunction Hearing
MR. SEHAM
If you look at every other major employee group on this property, the dispatchers, the flight attendants, the mechanics, the stock employees, they are all going through a
pure date of hire.
THE COURT: That's irrelevant. I mean, things are different from pilots than other groups.
Most meaningful are the gains realized by West Dispatchers when operating under the US Airways labor agreement. It is, by most measures, the more generous document of the two. According to the record, AWA Dispatchers, prior to the merger, were the lowest paid among major carriers and worked the greatest number of annual hours Following implementation of a transition agreement, work hours for AWA Dispatchers will be cut by 133 hours per year. Work days will be reduced from 10 to 8 hours.24 The East contract includes a profit sharing plan in addition to the 401(K) profit sharing; the West agreement has none. Wage rates under the U.S. Airways cba are more generous.