Please explain how pay played a role in the construction of the DAL/NWA list or the AWA/US list.
From the arbitrated decision of DAL/NWA -
"20 It is also
appropriate to consider gains that flow from the merger. While it is true that both pilot forces are compensated relatively well, by comparison with the average U.S. airline, it is also the case that, on a
stand-alone basis, Northwest Pilots were paid less than their counterparts at Delta. Due to the success of the parties in bargaining a new Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (“JCBA”) effective October 30,
2008, (October 30, 2008, is the date of corporate closing of the merger.) Northwest Pilots enjoyed immediate benefits averaging
9.51% across the group. Delta characterizes this as equivalent to the value of one to two-and-one-half upgrades, depending on the equipment type, for each pre-merger pilot. (See DX-21 at 11-13; DX-37 at 2; Tr., 2549-55.)"
But wait, there's more. From the arbitrated decision in the AWA/USA dispatchers, in accordance with Allegheny-Mohawk -
" Most meaningful are the gains realized by West Dispatchers when operating under the US Airways labor agreement. It is, by most measures, the more generous document of the two. According to the record, AWA Dispatchers, prior to the merger, were the lowest paid among major carriers and worked the greatest number of annual hours.23 Following implementation of a transition agreement, work hours for AWA Dispatchers will be cut by 133 hours per year. Work days will be reduced from 10 to 8 hours.24 The East contract includes a profit sharing plan in addition to the 401(K) profit sharing; the West agreement has none. Wage rates under the U.S. Airways cba are more generous;AWA Dispatchers
will reach top of scale in eleven years instead of fifteen and
will enjoy wage gains ranging from 16% to 52%. 25
On the average, AWA Dispatchers will gain a 36% salary increase.
26 The West claim that similar gains might have been realized in renegotiating the AWA contract is speculative and ultimately unconvincing.
Finally, one must consider, in terms of fairness and equity, the resulting shape and impact of the merged seniority list. The equities, in this regard, favor the East group. As indicated earlier, the U.S. Airways Dispatchers are considerably more senior then their West counterparts. The arithmetic placement proposed by Local 542 would devitalize the existing Airways seniority list by granting substantial, and in some cases
monumental seniority leaps that cannot be justified by the record in this case. For example, senior-most AWA Dispatcher Brenda Cozzen has an A.D. (occupational) date of January 1985. By the West proposal, she would be slotted directly above an East employee with almost six years greater seniority. This pattern is repeated down through position #81, where Dispatcher Lopez would gain more than ten years’ advantage over his counterpart, and so it continues through to the end of the list, with West employees receiving twelve, thirteen and fourteen year advantages. 28 As the East notes, 29 the junior-most West employee did not begin work as an AWA Dispatcher until November of 2005, after both execution and approval of the merger agreement.
In summary, based on these findings, the conclusion is that fairness and equity in this case militates strongly toward a date of hire list. On the one hand, this outcome may consign certain West employees to furlough and will, of course, make them more vulnerable, based on their relative seniority, to later displacements. But that is, after all, the essence of
length-of-tenure based seniority, which, in this particular case, heavily favors the older U.S. Airways work force."
As I have always said, the totality of the situation will be considered, including the pre-acquisition pay and benefits and the subsequent 35% - 90% compensation increases for the AAI pilots.
Fraternally,
PapaWoody
