Take 'em to Court
Couple of things about XJ management attempting to enforce the training contract. First, I am a furloughed XJ pilot and, in my previous life, was an attorney. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve practiced, but just to throw a couple things out here. Is the contract enforceable? Maybe and maybe not. Yes, you signed the training contract. Therefore, looking only within the “four corners” of the contract, and at nothing else, there could be an argument for enforcement. But, to me, that’s as far as it goes. When you fill the voids of black letter contract law with case law, public policy, etc., you see there’s a lot more than just those four corners of the contract. That’s where the “you signed on the dotted line so you’re screwed” argument ends.
There is some sort of underlying expectation in a contract. Here, it can be argued that by signing the training contract and exposing yourself to potential monetary liability if you didn’t keep up your end of the bargain, you had a reasonable expectation, in return for that risk, of gainful employment. What is gainful employment? I don’t know, as I’m just sort of riffing here, but it could be employment providing reasonable wages, health benefits, and all for a reasonable period of time. Or, even just what they told you it was going to be when you got hired. My point is, there’s a lot of room for argument here. Further, what is the underlying policy reason for this training contract? It’s simple. The Company doesn’t want to pay 20 grand for a pilot to stick around for one week after OE and leave them on the hook for the cost. They want to recoup at least some portion of that investment. Why is this stuff important? Because it’s what judges look at when you’re arguing before the court. They consider the contract in a context, not just the black and white letter of the law.
So, the context here is that Mesaba told you when you got hired (as they told me) that they would be going gangbusters and hiring a gazillion guys and the company’s finances were better than GE’s, etc. etc; they led you to believe your future there would certainly be longer than one year; you were offered the job and accepted; you signed all the relevant docs, including the dreaded training contract; you called all your other potential employers and told them thanks but no thanks. Then the walls came down and everyone on the furlough list scrambled to find other flying jobs so they could take care of their families, keep their careers going, whatever. The ones that were lucky enough to find something before losing employment resigned their numbers.
Well, when you signed the training contract just under a year prior, you didn’t sign the contract with the intention of breaching it. You signed the contract with the expectation of some reasonable term of gainful employment from Mesaba. You signed with the expectation of what they told you at the interview. You didn’t get any of that. (And, by the way, you didn’t sign under coercion or duress, but for the above reasons.) And, yes, some will argue it’s the airline industry and you never know what’s going to happen. And, no, you don’t. But it’s a two-way street. Management gets something from your signing the contract and you get something in return. If they don’t give, you don’t give.
Taking all this into consideration, if I had the case, I’d be chomping at the bit to get at these guys, because I think the case is as close to a slam dunk as you can get in front of a judge (if there is such a thing), and especially if you can get it in front of a jury. I hope ALPA is doing something, but one idea is to get a list of all the XJ guys that got the letter, get them together, get a recommendation from ALPA for a good local attorney (private not ALPA) and see if you can pool your funds together or work out a contingency with the guy. You want to act fast, though, because you want to be able to file a complaint against Mesaba Airlines and every individual that has touched, signed, or sniffed that agreement. Once Mesaba flips the debt to a collection agency, you’ll have to deal with them as well. An attorney can get a complaint filed pretty quickly and that puts you on the offensive, as well as requires Mesaba to respond. Not only that, it’d be great just to see those SOBs squirm. Just a little rant from my part, but maybe some of this will help.
