Yet again, I'm very thankful we were able to 'dodge the Doug Parker bullet':
Notice to all USAirways pilots:
As Council 41 S/T, I have been contacted by so many of you who believe that changing our collective bargaining agent (to Teamsters) is best. I have seen the petitions circulating. I have seen the crew room information flyers and business cards. I have seen the web sites set up for this purpose. And, indeed, I have had face time with the recruiting team for the Teamsters who are ready and willing to arrive in their 18 wheeler and set up camp.
Please listen carefully…..
No one feels the pain here more than I do. I am proud to say that I worked at MDA as a US Airways E-170 pilot. I have 19 years seniority at US Airways and now I am stapled to the bottom of the list by an arbitrator or failed to grasp the basic concepts of his very job and violated the rules by which he was instructed to comply. The result was a windfall of unprecedented magnitude and, as such, violates ALPA merger policy. The treatment of the US Airways pilots who flew at the MDA division is nothing less than an atrocity. It’s exactly like stapling MetroJet pilots to the bottom of the list. I’m surprised he didn’t do that too. Nicholau’s award can best be summed up in a single word – Incompetence.
But now you want to decertify ALPA as the result. I suggest that this is premature. I suggest that we give Jon Prater the opportunity to resolve this. After all, this whole disaster was just thrown in Jon Prater’s lap less than a week ago. Of course, we want it fixed immediately but life doesn’t work that way. Jon Prater has the authority to fix this because it is an in-house arbitration with both sides being ALPA. ALPA policy was violated during this arbitration in many ways. Jon Prater is formally receiving the information and I’m certain he is carefully evaluating it.
Let’s give the man a chance before anyone forces the next step. I know that sounds strange coming from someone who was so harmed by ALPA but I do believe we should allow Prater the opportunity to fix this. My writings today would be very different if Prater had not won the election. But he did and we need to give him the chance to prove his words and more than just words.
Before you simply condemn the AWA pilots you need to put yourself in their shoes for just a second or two. They won the lottery and even though most of them understand that award was a huge windfall (ALPA policy violation) they certainly don’t want to give back that winning lottery ticket. Can you blame them? Really?
So they will fight to have the award remain intact. You must expect that. But Jon Prater’s position puts him well above that emotional level and he will analyze this in terms of what is best for ALPA in general. I seriously doubt that he will rule this award is justified. After all, the award is so clearly flawed and in violation of rules and policy.
So, what can you do RIGHT NOW? Spend a little time writing to Prater. Do what you must to be able to attend the meeting at ALPA National on Monday, May 21st. One way or another, history will be made this week. I know there are a lot of ‘outsiders’ monitoring what Jon Prater does about this. It is therefore your responsibility to help Jon support your desires by voicing your thoughts in writing and in a show of unified strength on Monday. I know it is an inconvenience to get there. Believe me, I know. I have to spend 8 hours on the road on Monday to do this. But I will be there. I hope to see everyone there.
For the time being let’s put the entire disbandment idea on the back burner. Instead, let’s concentrate on some initiatives that have taken place this week. I’m not going to talk about the Teamsters even though I know you are sprung for action. I am going to talk about a powerful position taken by key personnel who have made contact (or will today) with Jon Prater and his legal staff.
Council 41, with the support of many on the MEC, is spearheading a remarkable effort on your behalf. Unfortunately, I am unable to provide details at this time as it is still confidential. I do, however, expect that the details will be released sometime today. I think you will be proud of what they are doing. By the way, if you’d like round trip transportation to the meeting from PHL send an email to ciaalpa@comcast.net. Put the word BUS in the subject line.
Another piece of confidential information that went public today is the letter I’ve copied below. Jon Prater will be receiving his copy through the formal channels. This letter is no longer confidential. Stand by for more information to be released soon. See you on May 21st
Jim Portale
MICHAEL S. HABER
Attorney At Law
225 Broadway, 39th floor
New York, New York 10007
_____________
(212) 791-6240
May 18, 2007
Captain John Prater
President
Air Line Pilots Association
1625 Massachusetts Avenue
Washington D.C. 20035
Dear Captain Prater:
Because this is my first communication with you, I wish to begin this letter, which outlines critically important issues, with a belated congratulations as to your election and the hope that you may make strides in unifying ALPA members and working to resolve difficulties that befuddled prior administrations.
I write today on behalf of many of my clients who are US Airways pilots (who previously flew the E-170 for US Airways at its MDA Division)[1] to address the May 1, 2007 Nicolau Award, which dealt with seniority integration of US Airways and America West pilots.
My clients –- as well as thousands of other US Airways pilots –- are shocked and disappointed by the arbitrator’s determination. I know that you have received a plethora of letters from US Airways pilots and it is not my intent to repeat the sentiments in those many letters. Rather, it is the intent of this letter to address a number of details concerning the award with the hope that the matter can be resolved in a manner that will serve the interests of all pilots without disenfranchising any strata of the two pilot groups.
ALPA merger policy, as you well know, has a number of goals. Among those goals are job preservation; avoidance of windfalls to either group at the expense of the other group; maintaining or improving pre-merger pilot status; and minimizing negative changes to career expectations.
I am no stranger to the effects of seniority integrations; when I first started representing pilots, in the late 1980’s, the effects of the 1980 Pan Am/National seniority integration still generated hostility. Today (15 years after Pan Am’s December 4, 1991 cessation of operations and a generation after the Gill Award integrated the two pilot groups), these long-retired pilots still refer to each other as “blue” and “orange,” denoting original Pan Am and National, respectively.
It would indeed be tragic if the Nicolau Award causes the same hostility, divisiveness, and enmity, such that a generation from now, pilots would refer to the award and the Prater administration as an exercise in discord and disruption. I know that you have spoken at length about the need to unify pilots and, equally, that you recognize the perils of hostility in the cockpit.
It goes without saying that a seniority integration, almost by definition, yields dissension. It is neither my intention to press for the world’s most perfect seniority integration nor to insist on the complete satisfaction of every pilot. However, when a new hire who started working for America West two months before the merger ends up higher on the list than a pilot hired by US Airways in 1988, there is something radically wrong. Indeed, my understanding is that many America West probationary pilots would have greater seniority than some pilots first hired by US Airways nearly 20 years ago.
The award notes at 5 n.1 that US Airways’ 5,098 pilots were hired between April 20, 1966 and June 19, 2000, and that 1691 pilots were on furlough at the time of the merger. The list of furloughed pilots included, according to the award, 105 Combined Eligibility List [“CEL”] pilots along with “212 other Mid-Atlantic Division” pilots. “Though listed as active in a US Airways summary sheet,” the award states, “they are carried as furloughed on the US Airways Certified 5/1/05 List.” The Nicolau Award does not credit those who flew MidAtlantic equipment with time served while doing so, although they were without doubt US Airways pilots; similarly, his treatment of those pilots as furloughed at the time of the merger is baseless.
The America West representatives had urged that the CEL pilots (who accounted for 105 of the “MidAtlantic” slots) be left off of the list. Mr. Nicolau disagreed with that assertion; nonetheless, however, the standard he invoked in order to determine the placement of these pilots was whether it would “adversely affect America West pilots.” Inasmuch as ALPA’s Merger Policy is expressly designed to assure a “fair and equitable resolution consistent with ALPA policy,” such a standard, as expressed by the America West representatives, is incompatible with ALPA policy.
It bears noting too that in light of this, it may be said that “the award does not conform, nor confine itself, to the stipulations of the agreement to arbitrate,” see Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. sec.
159 Third(b), and thus may be impeached. In that regard, it also appears that for these and other reasons, the award may be impeached as violative of due process.
The most senior furloughed pilot (Colello) was hired in 1988 and at the time of his 2003 furlough, he had 16.4 years of service. Nicolau found that in contrast to the seniority of the US Airways pilots, America West’s most senior pilot was hired on June 1, 1983 and its most junior pilot was hired on April 4, 2005, almost five years after US Airways hired its least senior furloughee and only one month before the merger.
The inequity inherent in the Nicolau Award can best be seen by way of illustration. Taking one pilot at random, Captain James Portale[2], who flew the EMB 170 at US Airways’ MDA division, the effect on that pilot is at once astonishing and severe: Captain Portale was hired on August 1, 1988 (less than five years after America West’s most senior pilot), was furloughed on June 3, 2003, and was hired to fly the EMB 170 aircraft at US Airways’ MidAtlantic division less than six months later, on December 29, 2003. During the almost four years since his furlough, his seniority improved from number 3724 to number 2957. The Nicolau Award would place an America West pilot who was hired and in training during the arbitration to be more senior than Captain Portale. In other words, more than 18 years of active service is washed away with a single strike of the pen.
Even besides the obvious inequities that are extant in any circumstance in which many years of a pilot’s service are rendered meaningless and his career expectations thwarted, the traveling public is hardly advantaged by a situation in which pilots are filled with resentment, indignation, and frustration. If their own union will not value the pilots’ sweat equity, it is hard to imagine who would value the contributions of these pilots.
In addition, it should go without saying that, even prior to the Nicolau Award, the US Airways pilots have not had an easy time of it these past five years -- there were many furloughs, there were two pension plans that were terminated, and wages and benefits were slashed by more than 50 percent. They, like many other ALPA members at a myriad of carriers, had kept their spirits up, had kept their nose to the grindstone, and had longed for the day when their jobs would again be stable and secure. Sadly, if the Nicolau Award is allowed to stand, many of these pilots (particularly those who flew MidAtlantic equipment) will never again know a day when they feel any stability at all – they will always be an inch away from furlough.
Please understand, there are special considerations at work here. In February 2005, ALPA listed the total number of furloughees as 1879, but reduced that number to 1574 as of July 2005, the difference between those two numbers being almost the exact number of “MidAtlantic” pilots (both APL and CEL combined). ALPA took no steps to see to it that pilots were recalled from the APL. There were 203 APL pilots flying at “the MidAtlantic division,” emanating from all seniority levels among the APL. Presumably recognizing that APL pilots who did not accept a “MidAtlantic” position would likely have decided otherwise if they had been aware that MidAtlantic was in fact a US Airways position, ALPA did not know how to treat those pilots.
When you were elected to be President of ALPA, there were certain things you said that I believe went a long way to rebuilding members’ trust in ALPA. One of the things you had said was, “Many pilots expressed that they were upset with the state of our profession and our contracts. I want to restore their confidence, trust, and support.” On behalf of hundreds of my clients as well as many other US Airways pilots, I applaud that thinking and hope that you will find a way in which to effectively address the plight of those pilots who have been, in effect, disenfranchised by the Nicolau Award.
You have also said, on more than one occasion, “If one ALPA pilot has a problem, all ALPA pilots have a problem.” Today, Captain Prater, all ALPA pilots have a problem. I am hopeful that you can help resolve that problem.
Very truly yours,
Michael S. Haber
cc: Michael E. Abram, Esq.
MSH/el
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[1] Although I represent many of those same pilots in a pending litigation against ALPA (Naugler v. ALPA), I am not writing concerning that lawsuit or the subject of that representation. This letter deals exclusively with the May 1, 2007 arbitration award authored by George Nicolau. Nonetheless, I have sent a copy of this letter to Michael E. Abram, Esq.
[2] I focus on Captain Portale not because his circumstances are more egregious than the other US Airways pilots who were part of the “MidAtlantic” operation, but because I happen to have his data at hand.
