Lampshade
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2002
- Posts
- 485
December 2, 2011
Captain Michael Cleary
President
US Airlines Pilots Association
200 East Woodlawn Road, Suite 250
Charlotte, NC 28217
Captain Cleary,
I am sending this letter to follow up on a phone conversation we had on November 18 regarding the communication piece you sent to your USAPA membership on November 6th. While your choice of legal counsel for USAPA is your business, I find it both inappropriate and unprofessional for you to publicly speak about other unions’ relationships with said counsel. In this case, such public correspondence is particularly problematic because your information is both misleading and inaccurate.
In your November 6th letter, you stated that SWAPA “terminated their relationship with Seham just this year for "incompetence and billing irregularities". It should be noted that SWAPA did not have a long-standing relationship with Seham, Seham, Meltz & Petersen, so there was no relationship to be “terminated”. We hired Mr. Seham’s firm for a single System Board of Adjustment/Arbitration in Spring of 2010 in which we were attempting to get a pilot reinstated after a termination. The firm had been recommended to SWAPA by another Southwest union that uses the firm regularly. SWAPA chose to hire outside counsel for that arbitration because the subject-matter relating to the pilot’s termination was specialized, and Mr. Seham’s firm had done extensive work in that field. That single arbitration is the only experience SWAPA had with Mr. Seham’s firm. When that arbitration concluded, our relationship with the firm also ended. They were not “terminated” by SWAPA for either incompetence or billing irregularities. We elected to not use them going forward at that time.
Because your letter to the USAPA membership is misleading and inaccurate, I again request (this time in writing) that you retract the statements made to your membership and issue a correction about SWAPA’s past business dealings with Seham, Seham, Meltz & Petersen.
Sincerely,
Steve Chase
President
Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association
Captain Michael Cleary
President
US Airlines Pilots Association
200 East Woodlawn Road, Suite 250
Charlotte, NC 28217
Captain Cleary,
I am sending this letter to follow up on a phone conversation we had on November 18 regarding the communication piece you sent to your USAPA membership on November 6th. While your choice of legal counsel for USAPA is your business, I find it both inappropriate and unprofessional for you to publicly speak about other unions’ relationships with said counsel. In this case, such public correspondence is particularly problematic because your information is both misleading and inaccurate.
In your November 6th letter, you stated that SWAPA “terminated their relationship with Seham just this year for "incompetence and billing irregularities". It should be noted that SWAPA did not have a long-standing relationship with Seham, Seham, Meltz & Petersen, so there was no relationship to be “terminated”. We hired Mr. Seham’s firm for a single System Board of Adjustment/Arbitration in Spring of 2010 in which we were attempting to get a pilot reinstated after a termination. The firm had been recommended to SWAPA by another Southwest union that uses the firm regularly. SWAPA chose to hire outside counsel for that arbitration because the subject-matter relating to the pilot’s termination was specialized, and Mr. Seham’s firm had done extensive work in that field. That single arbitration is the only experience SWAPA had with Mr. Seham’s firm. When that arbitration concluded, our relationship with the firm also ended. They were not “terminated” by SWAPA for either incompetence or billing irregularities. We elected to not use them going forward at that time.
Because your letter to the USAPA membership is misleading and inaccurate, I again request (this time in writing) that you retract the statements made to your membership and issue a correction about SWAPA’s past business dealings with Seham, Seham, Meltz & Petersen.
Sincerely,
Steve Chase
President
Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association
