Thanks for again demonstrating to all professional pilots on the Hangar the intelligence level of the East side of the house and USAPA's commitment to binding arbitration.
While not a professional pilot (only a part timer), I would have to say this statement is largely true. What I've come away with from the few posts I've read on this subject ...
- USAir was on it's last legs and had furloughed all the way back to the mid or late 80s.
- AWA was a relatively healthy airline and had been hiring for quite some time due to growth.
- Someone bought someone else and during merger talks all hell broke loose. USAir pilots wanted straight date-of-hire, AWA wanted a logical integration based on career expectations and considering the relative health of their airline. Both sides agreed to binding arbitration.
- Arbitrator came up with an integration plan that considered career expectations of each airline and ensured everyone was equally screwed.
- USAir decided they really didn't want binding arbitration after all, decertified their own union, refused to abide by a (legal?) binding agreement, and have been crying, sueing, and slinging $h!t ever since.
Is that about it? I don't fly for the airlines and only rarely read the Majors forum, but this is what I got so far. So yes, I'd have to say USAir pilots come off look'n kinda' bad in all this. And all this nonsense has even reached the fare paying public. The situation is so well known, in fact, that even nonaviation-type passengers have heard bits and pieces of it and one remarked on a recent US Express flight outa CLT that ... "I hope they don't start fighting in the cockpit and crash this
d@mn thing!"
(The passenger didn't know that the regional jet wasn't USAir mainline.)
That's getting bad.
