ALPA Sues Mesa Air Group, Seeks Court Order for Good Faith Bargaining
PHOENIX, July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), filed suit on July 17 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona against Mesa Airlines, Mesa Air Group, and Jonathan Ornstein, the CEO of Mesa Airlines and Mesa Air Group.
In the suit, ALPA asks the Court to compel the Mesa defendants to bargain in good faith as outlined by the Railway Labor Act (RLA), and cease all efforts to undermine the organizational rights of Mesa Airlines pilots. It also requests that the Court enjoin the Mesa defendants from operating Freedom Airlines, a non-union start-up carrier, which they have threatened to use to divert work from the Mesa Airlines pilots.
"The lack of good faith bargaining at Mesa and the continued use of whipsaw tactics between pilots within the Mesa Air Group system are indicative of Mesa Air Group's lack of interest in securing a labor agreement that meets the needs of the carrier's pilots," said ALPA President Duane Woerth.
This week's filing cites Mesa Airline's continued tactics to stall contract negotiations, as well as the Mesa defendants' efforts to secure certification for Freedom Airlines, and their use of intimidation and threats related to the transfer of work opportunities to the start-up airline, as a means of dictating pilot pay and working conditions. In a recent letter to Ornstein, Woerth stated, "You have made no secret that you are attempting to use Freedom to avoid ALPA pay rates and its bargaining goals in the present bargaining process with Mesa pilots."
Pilot contract negotiations are presently in mediation under the auspices of the National Mediation Board (NMB). In a recent victory for ALPA, the NMB announced on July 2, 2002, that Mesa Air Group's subsidiaries (Mesa Airlines, Inc., Air Midwest, Inc. and CCAir, Inc.) constitute a single transportation system, acknowledging what ALPA has alleged for some time -- that all labor relations for these wholly-owned subsidiaries of Mesa Air Group are managed and coordinated by Ornstein and Mesa Air Group.
The Air Line Pilots Association, International, represents 66,000 pilots at 43 airlines in the United States and Canada. Visit the ALPA Web site at
http://www.alpa.org.