How anyone at AWA can say that they rightfully have more seniority than most USAir pilots just baffles me.
No one here said that we should have "more" seniority than you. What we said is that we shouldn't lose our seniority so your 50 year old FOs can get back into the left seat...at our expense.
I get the impression that you don't understand the difference between
Longevity and
Seniority so let me explain it to you.
Longevity is how long you've been at your company.
Seniority is your bidding position on the list of currently employed pilots.
Seniority is completely independent of
Longevity. The reward of
Seniority is bidding power while the reward of
Longevity is pay rates, vacation accrual, etc...
Let's look at a senario. If XYZ Airlines starts up and hires 1000 pilots today they will probably award seniority based on age (or the last 4 of your SSN). Now we have pilots #1-1000. Each on of those 1000 pilots has the same exact longevity but totally different seniority.
Now let's say that XYZ airlines doesn't hire again for 20 years. Then they hire 1000 more pilots. Now pilot #1000 is 1 number senior to pilot #1001...not 20 years senior. Pilot #1 has been there 5 years longer than both pilots #1001 and #2000. He is not 5 years senior to #2000. He is 1999 numbers senior.
Do you see how equating seniority to years of service doesn't make sense?
At US Airways, for example, your most junior pilot, at the time of the merger, had 18 years of
longevity. His pay rate, vacation accrual, etc... reflected his longevity. He did not have 18 years of
seniority. In fact, he had
ZERO seniority. How could he have any seniority? He was at the bottom of the list. The fact that the bottom pilot may have once been a captain means absolutely nothing. He is the bottom pilot.
What we AWA pilots wanted, and what the NMB panel decided, was to integrate based on where you stood at the time the merger was announced. If you were at the top of one list you merged at the top of the new list. If you were in the middle you merged in at the middle. If you were at the bottom you merged in at the bottom. This is completely fair. (The #1 AWA pilot merged in 500 numbers down the list, BTW)
I'm glad I could clear this up for you. If there's anything else you need explained to you, like how babies are made, I'll be glad to let you know.
You may not like the fact that some of our 30 year old pilots had relatively more seniority than some of your 50 year old "veterans" but our 30 year old pilots shouldn't lose their seniority so that your junior FOs can relive the glory days of being in the left seat.
Here we go again. We never said it Nic said it. We tried to negotiate. You guys would not have it. So, now we have the Nic.
I don't know. I do know that the AAA guys would not budge on DOH.