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MEC Summary of Nicolau Remedy

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beagle pilot

Airline Pilot
Joined
Oct 11, 2003
Posts
110
Fellow American Eagle Pilots:

As you are all now aware, this morning we received Arbitrator Nicolau’s remedy award. We have spent the better part of today reviewing the award. While we strongly encourage you to read the award for
yourselves, we are now able to provide for you this initial bullet point summary:

1. 244 American Eagle pilots will transfer to AA with the following:
a. In determining their initial equipment, the Arbitrator’s opinion requires that their initial equipment be determined no differently than the transfers that had previously occurred under Letter 3.

b. Their initial pay scale will be determined by when they should have flowed to AA under Arbitrator Nicolau’s initial award (October 2009). For example, if the pilot should have transferred to AA in June of 2007 and actually transfers to AA in June of 2010, he will be placed on the 4th
pay step upon his arrival at AA.

c. Their A‐Fund vesting will begin based on when they should have transferred to AA under Arbitrator Nicolau’s initial award but their “time of service” for A‐Fund calculations won’t begin until they actually arrive at AA. When a pilot retires from AA, his A‐Fund benefit is determined by a calculation that includes his ‘final averaged earnings’ and his time of
service. There is also a vesting requirement in order to participate in the A‐Fund. Under the award, these pilots will receive retroactive credit for vesting, but not for time of service.

d. Upon transfer to AA, pilots will have their B‐Plan fund retroactively credited at 11% of 73 hours per month at MD‐80 First Officer rates of pay. The applicable rate of pay will begin at first step based on the date pilots would have transferred to AA under Arbitrator Nicolau’s original award and increase one pay step for each year thereafter.

e. Their sick bank will be adjusted to reflect AA’s higher accrual and higher cap. Therefore, pilots transferring to AA will transfer their sick bank hours and have additional hours to reflect the appropriate level of the sick bank had the pilot transferred to AA under Arbitrator Nicolau’s initial award.

f. Their vacation bank will be adjusted to reflect any higher accrual rate at AA had the pilot transferred to AA under Arbitrator Nicolau’s initial award.

2. To determine the 244 pilots who will receive the items listed in paragraph 1 above, the most senior 286 flow‐through pilots will be asked to decide whether or not they are willing to transfer to AA under these provisions. Once 244 out of the 286 have been identified, that will constitute the maximum number of pilots who will receive the transfer benefits listed in paragraph 1 above.

3. Once the 244 pilots from paragraph 2 have been identified, the most senior 35 will transfer to AA in June of 2010. AA may accomplish this transfer in one or two training classes, but must complete the transfer in the month of June.

4. Following the June transfer of the 35 most senior flow‐through pilots who accept transfer, AA will offer recall to all of the pilots furloughed on February 28, 2010.

5. Once the most junior AA pilot furloughed on February 28, 2010 has been offered recall, all flow‐through pilots will be permitted to transfer to AA in strict AA pilot seniority order, but only the most senior 244 who accept this transfer will be provided with the additional benefits identified
in paragraph 1 above.

6. Once AA has offered recall/transfer to all pilots on the AA pilot seniority list, including all Eagle flow‐through pilots, 1 out of every 2 new hire positions will be offered first to American Eagle pilots. American Eagle will not be required to release more than 20 pilots per month but is
required to make every effort to meet this ratio.

7. Once 824 Eagle pilots have transferred to AA under the provisions of paragraph 6 above, AA will not be obligated to transfer any additional pilots to AA.

8. The Arbitrator has ordered the affected parties to negotiate the specifics associated with accomplishing the transfer of 824 Eagle pilots to AA, noted in paragraph 6 above. We are fully aware that there are additional questions surrounding this award and we are diligently working to provide answers. We will post this bullet point letter on the ALPA.org website and update it with a working Q&A as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience as we analyze this award and determine the answers to your questions.

Fraternally,

EGL‐MEC Vice Chairman
__________________
 
Am I reading this correctly? The 824 slots will be filled AFTER everyone goes back to AA who is currently on the street (1989 as I understand it), and after all the AE pilots with AA numbers (roughly 560) flow up.

So in other words, a total of nearly 1400 slots (824 + appox 560 AE guys with AA numbers already) at American will eventually be filled by current pilots from Eagle?

Some cursory math makes it look like this could potentially run downhill to AE pilots as junior as DOH around 2005-2006. I can't imagine lots of senior captains at AE going for this...I'd imagine more than a few of those slots might run downhill...

If I am in any way wrong please correct me!
 
Nah!! This is a crap remedy! We should flow more than 35 initially.. Where does this number come from..

It's an arbitration, not a negotiation. Agreed more should have been allowed to flow, but it's not a matter of choice or even negotiation.

Arbitrators often rule either by using "industry average", playing Solomon by splitting the baby or some combination thereof. Several Eagle pilots, myself included, speculated there'd be a token flow-through class as compensation for the breach of contract, but that most of the 244 would have to wait (again, with compensation) for their turn. Any remedy involving trading pain from one group to another was unlikely so it followed that there would be no furlough of AA pilots to make room for the 244 or that the company would have to "suffer" taking all 244 when they were in the midst of furloughing.

How he came up with 35 isn't known to me at this time, but the speculation of 25-50 token flow-thru's almost immediately with the rest to follow puts the number 35 in the proper ballpark.

One thing we must remember is that arbitrators (and other judges) don't just consider the one point of view. They must consider all points of view. In this case, Eagle's, AA's and the APA's in addition to ours. His job was to find a settlement which followed the contract and was in the best interests of all involved. It seems he accomplished his mission.

In some ways, determining whether a negotiation or arbitration was fair or not is like determining if a merger is fair or not. If one side is really happy and the other side is not, it wasn't done fairly. If all sides are a bit miffed, then it was done fairly. :beer:
 

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