Victory for Eagle pilots

[InclusiveScope]

APA Information Hotline


This is Gregg Overman, APA Communications Director, with the APA Information Hotline for Wednesday, August 13.

SUPPLEMENT W GRIEVANCES: A short time ago we received Arbitrator Kasher’s written award concerning the four outstanding Supplement W grievances that were arbitrated on March 18-22 and July 8-10, 2002. The four grievances were:

1) 3,000-hour flight time requirement for furloughees in order to receive a CJ Captain position at American Eagle. Arbitrator Kasher denied APA’s grievance on the 3,000-hour issue, thus denying American Airlines furloughees who were not given a CJ Captain position due to not having 3,000 hours any rights to any payment.


2) Withhold pay grievance for those pilots who were not allowed to displace pilots who were junior to them at American Eagle. Arbitrator Kasher denied APA’s grievance on the withhold pay issue, thus denying American Airlines furloughees any payment even though they had pilots junior to them at American Eagle while on furlough.


3) New Equipment grievance for violation of posting new Captain positions. Arbitrator Kasher sustained the American Eagle pilots’ grievance, entitling them to bid and be awarded new equipment based on their seniority prior to new Captain positions being awarded to American Airlines furloughees.


4) Recall rights to American Eagle for American Airlines furloughees. Arbitrator Kasher denied APA’s grievance on recall rights to American Eagle for American Airlines furloughees, thus prohibiting an American Airlines furloughee who was not employed at American Eagle from being recalled to American Eagle.


We will post the arbitrator’s ruling on the APA Web Site as soon as we can in the “Headliners” section accessible from the Members Home Page.


We will provide additional information about this ruling in future messages, and are also dedicating a portion of today’s APA Live beginning at 1 PM Central time to this subject.


That’s it for today. Thank you for calling.

 

[FLYnMONKEYS]

Just the battle.

 

[~~~^~~~]

Just the battle.

Probably so. Next move, jets for jobs at third party alter ego airline operations.

 

[Cleared Direct]

Just the battle.

If you think the war is about the CRJ-700, APA has already lost that one too.

 

[surplus1]

Good News! This is a small victory but a victory nonetheless.

I say small because it does not address the underlying problem, which is the idea, on the part of mainline pilots, that they have the right to use the careers of regional pilots as bargaining chips in their own negotiations and to steal the seniority and jobs of airmen employed by so-called regional carriers.

The Eagle pilots, as well as all other regional pilots, are struggling for their very survival. The time for us all to join hands and resist the predatory behavior of labor unions controlled and manipulated by the pilots of major airlines, who would destroy our careers and take our jobs to advance their own interests, is long overdue. We should not foster animosity or invent disputes, but we should vigorously defend our rights and our jobs buy all legally available means.

The behavior of the ALPA, which allegedly sponsors predatory scope clauses, creates and sanctions alter ego airlines, supports the abrogation of regional pilot's seniority (Jets for Jobs), descriminates against its "regional" membership and fails to adequately represent their interests, is perhaps even more onerous than the APA, which has no legal obligation to protect Eagle pilots. This must change.

 

[Cleared Direct]

Arbitrator sides with Eagle in job dispute with American

09:48 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 13, 2003

By ERIC TORBENSON / The Dallas Morning News

American Eagle pilots won a ruling Wednesday that prevents their best-paying new jobs from being filled by laid-off American Airlines Inc. pilots.

Arbitrator Richard Kasher, for the most part, sided with Eagle pilots who complained they weren't consulted when American and its pilots union negotiated a deal that would give furloughed American pilots first dibs on Eagle captains' jobs. Both airlines are owned by Fort Worth-based AMR Corp.

That deal was arranged this spring as part of American's concessions agreement with its pilots union, the Allied Pilots Association.

American's cost-cutting measures are expected to cost thousands of its pilots their jobs. Those furloughed pilots would then have been in line to work for Eagle.

Mr. Kasher's 18-page ruling essentially blocks the deal, although details about who will get new Eagle jobs must be worked out among American, Eagle and the two airlines' pilots groups. It's likely that a limited number of Eagle jobs will still go to American pilots.

"If this had not gone our way, every single jet captain position in the future would have gone to American pilots for the foreseeable future," said Dave Ryter, vice chairman for the Air Line Pilots Association's Eagle chapter.

"There's a tremendous amount of relief here," he said. "We really do feel for the American guys who are furloughed, but what APA had originally proposed would have killed the careers of about 1,000 of our first officers who would have waited a decade or more to move up."

Eagle management said they were pleased that some of the job issues had been clarified by Mr. Kasher's ruling. "But the actual implementation is still a question," said Eagle spokeswoman Lisa Bailey. "We're still studying the ruling."

American spokesman Gus Whitcomb said his carrier also was still analyzing the ruling and would meet with its pilots union to discuss where to go from here.

John Darrah, president of American's pilots union, said Mr. Kasher's ruling was not a setback for his 12,000 members. It simply changes how many American pilots will eventually fly for Eagle and how soon, he said.

"It's just going to present a different methodology for us," Mr. Darrah said. "We're still going to get some jobs."

Mr. Darrah's group said it believes it will get "several hundred" of the Eagle pilot positions for its furloughed members, but not the 1,000 or more that were promised in the concession talks.

Mr. Kasher's ruling does not interfere with separate contract language that allows a limited number of laid-off American pilots to take jobs already held by Eagle pilots.

The hiring issues, some brewing since 1997, remain important to AMR. While American is cutting its schedule and eliminating jobs, Eagle is growing quickly and taking delivery of several new jets each month.

Several dozen Eagle first officers and captains have resigned in the last three months because of uncertainty about the arbitration's outcome, said James Magee, a spokesman for Eagle's 2,300 pilots.

The layoff picture for American pilots is improving slightly, Mr. Darrah said.

The airline projected as many as 3,200 American pilots would lose their jobs after the concessions were put in place in May. "We're not going to be anywhere close to that number," Mr. Darrah said, though the total won't be known until September.

American also told investors this month that it's tentatively going to increase its 2004 flying schedule by about 4 percent, which would mean more pilot jobs. That growth figure, Mr. Darrah said, could change.

Shares of AMR rose a penny to close at $9.13 Wednesday.

E-mail [email protected]

 

[rjcap]

American also told investors this month that it's tentatively going to increase its 2004 flying schedule by about 4 percent, which would mean more pilot jobs.

4% increase for eagle or mainline flying ?

More jobs for who ? Eagle or mainline.

 

[Av8trxx]

Thank Goodness!

This is Herb Mark with the Chairman’s union hotline for Thursday, August 14th.

The events of the last 24 hours have been encouraging to say the least. Not only did the pilots of American Eagle receive a clear, decisive victory in the Letter 3 dispute but late yesterday evening, we received a letter from President Peter Bowler stating that the August 18th Embraer class will no longer be filled by American furloughed pilots but instead, these same vacancies will be posted later today in an Eagle pilot vacancy bid. In addition, we had a conversation yesterday with senior management who stated that Eagle has no desire to fight the award but instead is ready to move forward with building American Eagle Airlines into the industry leader that it should be. We are pleased that management has taken this position and we look forward to settling the remedy portion of this dispute and moving forward. As per yesterday’s hotline, the following is a more detailed explanation of the Kasher award written by our legal staff. Please give it your time and attention.

On August 13 the Association received the decision of Arbitrator Richard Kasher (the “Kasher Award”) in the four Letter 3/Supplement W grievances filed in 2001. This decision is a major victory for the pilots of American Eagle.

The history of this case is that the Allied Pilots Association (“APA”) filed three grievances with American Airlines, Inc. (“American”) and American Eagle Airlines (Eagle) concerning alleged violations by American and Eagle of the “Flow-Down procedures” (Grievance Number FLO-0401), the company’s failure to pay withholding pay to certain AA pilots (Grievance Number FLO-0201), and the company’s imposition of a 3,000 hour minimum qualifications requirement (Grievance Number FLO-0301).

The three APA grievances alleged that American had improperly applied the terms and conditions of Letter 3/Supplement W which governs the manner in which furloughed American pilots can elect to displace Eagle pilots in commuter jet captain positions and the manner in which Eagle pilots can acquire American seniority and “flow up” to American.

ALPA also filed a grievance under Letter 3 (Grievance Number FLO-0501). That grievance alleged that Eagle violated “Letter 3/Supplement W, Section IV” when Eagle “failed to post for system-wide bid at American Eagle the new EMB captain positions created by the introduction of EMB equipment at LAX, and by the delivery of new turboprop equipment at other domiciles, and instead designated pilots furloughed from AA to fill those new positions.” The vacancies originally at issue were 8 Boston Embraer captain positions, 6 LAX Embraer captain positions and 2 DFW CRJ captain positions. However, in view of subsequent furloughs at AA and the April 2003 concessionary deal between AA and the APA, the significance of the original grievance grew exponentially.

The grievance filed by ALPA understandably had the most direct impact on American Eagle pilots. The Arbitrator, in clear, succinct and unequivocal terms ruled:

“Accordingly, it is this Arbitrator’s finding that Eagle pilots were entitled to bid and be awarded, based upon their seniority, CJ Captain positions on new equipment. Therefore the grievance is sustained.”

As a result of this ruling, it is clear that American Eagle pilots are entitled to relief for the improper denial of their right to bid and be awarded jet captain vacancies in 2001. This ruling also precludes the Company’s plan to begin training American furloughed pilots for Eagle vacancies later this month, and entitles Eagle pilots to bid for and be awarded all Eagle vacancies going forward.

Following our receipt of the Kasher Award, the American Eagle MEC Chairman immediately sent the attached letter to Peter Bowler and we subsequently received written confirmation that the American Eagle Embraer training class for AA pilots set to begin on Monday, August 18 will no longer be filled by American furloughed pilots.

The remainder of the Kasher Award is equally clear. The APA’s snapshot, withholding pay and 3,000 hour grievances were each denied for the reasons stated in the Award. The full text of the Kasher Award is available on the ALPA-EGL webpage.

As stated in our letter to Mr. Bowler, ALPA expects that our Company, and all of the other parties to Letter 3, will fully comply with the Award and with our agreements. We expect to meet with the Company within the next few days to identify a remedy for the harm to Eagle pilots that resulted from the company’s failure to allow Eagle pilots to bid for and be awarded jet captain vacancies.

 

[dispatchguy]

Congratulations to the Eagle pilots!

As a former Executive dispatcher, its about time that something went your way...