In an interesting twist to USAPA’s pyrrhic victory, we learned that the west members of the USAPA merger committee proffered their thirty day resignation notices last Friday. We think this was a great move.
Let’s back up and and review USAPA’s dilemma following Judge Silver’s ruling last month.
First, USAPA will not have a seat at the table during the upcoming single list proceedings with American. In fact, as we wrote about in our last entry, USAPA will likely be removed as the bargaining agent for the US Airways pilots in the very near future. What might survive is a merger committee comprised of east pilots. The status of the former USAPA merger committee will be entirely up to the APA and whether their status can be agreed upon in the ongoing merger protocol negotiations. What is key here is that even if the former east pilots have their own merger committee, it will not exist under the auspices of USAPA. Why? Because USAPA will soon cease to exist.
Second, Judge Silver did not remove the DFR liability from any of the current bargaining agents or the company in her Order. All she did was rule that the MOU was not a breach of DFR because it is seniority neutral. Judge Silver ruled in line with the prior ripeness ruling from the 9th Circuit. This is key because USAPA, the APA, and the company are still subject to a DFR claim by the west pilots should the Nicolau Award not be used in the upcoming integration.
In its latest communication, USAPA declared that “At this time, nothing more has been decided beyond our conclusion that the unmodified Nicolau list is not an option.” In this statement USAPA is very clear that they intend to violate its DFR. In this context, we wholeheartedly agree with the resignation of the west merger committee members. There was no room for them to stay when the committee and the union loudly proclaimed their intent to use their majority to dictate seniority terms to the minority.
The irony is that USAPA is demanding a fair integration in the upcoming integration, yet they are using their current majority to dictate the terms of the last integration to the minority west group. It is no wonder that the APA filed for single carrier status immediately following Judge Silver’s Order. She clealy wrote that USAPA cannot and has no intention of fairly representing the west pilots.
The good news is that we are confident a fair process will be initiated once USAPA ceases to exist. Please note that we are not saying the east pilots will not have access to a fair process and a seat at the table. We are confident all parties will have a seat at the table once the APA is the bargaining agent.
In that context- bravo to the west merger committee members. They truly understand how the future is unfolding.
