Green Banana
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- Dec 16, 2001
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US Airways Group Inc. said it brought suit Friday against the US Airline Pilots Association in a bid to block what the company alleges is an illegal job-action campaign by the union that represents its 5,200 pilots.
The Tempe, Ariz., carrier, which has been dealing with severe pilot frictions since a 2005 merger that combined the old US Airways with America West Airlines, said it has "overwhelming evidence of illegal activity" by the union. US Airways asked a federal court in Charlotte, N.C., where the airline has a hub and the union is based, to grant an injunction to block the alleged work slowdown.
A spokesman for the US Airline Pilots Association said late Friday that the union was studying the lawsuit and had no immediate reaction. The union has publicly alleged that the carrier is forcing its pilots to fly in unsafe aircraft and has called for flight safety executives at the airline to be removed.
In a memo to employees on Friday, Doug Parker, US Airways's chief executive, alleged that the union leadership is encouraging its members to taxi slowly at airports to arrive 16 minutes late, thus missing the government's 15-minute window for on-time arrivals and causing passenger and baggage misconnections. Mr. Park also said the union is encouraging members to slow down their online training so that flights will be canceled and to write up non-critical maintenance items just before departure to cause flight delays.
Further, he said, the union leadership is intimidating and retaliating against members who don't cooperate with the slowdown. He said the lawsuit isn't aimed at individual pilots but at the union and its leadership.
Wildcat job activities are illegal under federal laws. If the union is found to be encouraging the alleged behavior, the court could enter an injunction. If the alleged activities continued, the union could be found liable for damages.
The pilots from the old US Airways and old America West have been fighting for years over a way to merge their seniority list, and many are unhappy with the method selected by an arbitrator.
Many US Airways pilots, a larger and more senior group, felt the fewer and junior America West pilots were going to gain at their expense if that seniority method was put into place. The two groups have been fighting ever since, and thus have never been able to jointly negotiate a new labor contract with US Airways. The US Airways pilots were numerous enough to boot out the former union and install the independent USAPA, leaving the American West pilots feeling relatively disenfranchised.
US Airways at one point offered the warring groups a single contract that would raise its costs by $120 million a year. But the pilots' dispute has stalled contract negotiations for years while the seniority-integration issue remained center stage. Meantime, both groups are working under concessionary labor contracts struck early in the last decade after 9/11 sunk the industry into severe financial distress.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904800304576476700198310690.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
The Tempe, Ariz., carrier, which has been dealing with severe pilot frictions since a 2005 merger that combined the old US Airways with America West Airlines, said it has "overwhelming evidence of illegal activity" by the union. US Airways asked a federal court in Charlotte, N.C., where the airline has a hub and the union is based, to grant an injunction to block the alleged work slowdown.
A spokesman for the US Airline Pilots Association said late Friday that the union was studying the lawsuit and had no immediate reaction. The union has publicly alleged that the carrier is forcing its pilots to fly in unsafe aircraft and has called for flight safety executives at the airline to be removed.
In a memo to employees on Friday, Doug Parker, US Airways's chief executive, alleged that the union leadership is encouraging its members to taxi slowly at airports to arrive 16 minutes late, thus missing the government's 15-minute window for on-time arrivals and causing passenger and baggage misconnections. Mr. Park also said the union is encouraging members to slow down their online training so that flights will be canceled and to write up non-critical maintenance items just before departure to cause flight delays.
Further, he said, the union leadership is intimidating and retaliating against members who don't cooperate with the slowdown. He said the lawsuit isn't aimed at individual pilots but at the union and its leadership.
Wildcat job activities are illegal under federal laws. If the union is found to be encouraging the alleged behavior, the court could enter an injunction. If the alleged activities continued, the union could be found liable for damages.
The pilots from the old US Airways and old America West have been fighting for years over a way to merge their seniority list, and many are unhappy with the method selected by an arbitrator.
Many US Airways pilots, a larger and more senior group, felt the fewer and junior America West pilots were going to gain at their expense if that seniority method was put into place. The two groups have been fighting ever since, and thus have never been able to jointly negotiate a new labor contract with US Airways. The US Airways pilots were numerous enough to boot out the former union and install the independent USAPA, leaving the American West pilots feeling relatively disenfranchised.
US Airways at one point offered the warring groups a single contract that would raise its costs by $120 million a year. But the pilots' dispute has stalled contract negotiations for years while the seniority-integration issue remained center stage. Meantime, both groups are working under concessionary labor contracts struck early in the last decade after 9/11 sunk the industry into severe financial distress.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904800304576476700198310690.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
