If the deal is approved by the 11-member board of the U.S. Airline Pilots Association, which will meet Thursday and Friday, USAPA would rapidly cease to collect dues but it would not cease to exist.
Rather, USAPA and a merger committee responsible to the USAPA board would continue to represent US Airways pilots on seniority issues.
Dues would be collected by the Allied Pilots Association, which would become the sole representative of American and US Airways pilots for bargaining and all other collective issues, pending the approval of the National Mediation Board.
The NMB is expected to decide as soon as next week whether to declare APA the bargaining agent for the combined pilot group. The board would also have the option to schedule a union election, in which the options would be APA representation or no union representation at all.
A key provision of the protocol agreement specifies that the McCaskill-Bond legislation will apply.
The legislation protects employee rights when two unions combine. Under its guidelines, a panel of three arbitrators will compile the seniority integration list. Merger committees from USAPA and APA will select the arbitrators.
On the crucial question of what happens to the America West pilots' battle for implementation of the controversial Nicolau seniority award, the tentative protocol agreement would establish a preliminary panel of three arbitrators to consider whether America West pilots could be separately represented in merger discussions. US Airways merged with America West in 2005.
In binding arbitration conducted under Air Line Pilots Association protocol, arbitrator George Nicolau devised a seniority list that tended to favor America West pilots over pilots from US Airways, known as "the east." In reaction, the east pilots left ALPA and formed USAPA as the merged airline's pilot representative, dragging along the west pilots, who composed only about a third of the pilot group. Since then, the conflict has played out in court.
In a January decision, U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver said she didn't care much for USAPA's courtroom tactics, but she nevertheless ruled that USAPA had not breached its duty of fair representation, as the west pilots had claimed, and that the west pilots need not be separately represented in seniority list discussions with the APA.
Since Silver is the only judge to have ruled on the impact of the Nicolau ruling, east pilots generally believe that her decision should prevail in the seniority debate at the new American. However, a former America West pilot, who asked not to be named, said the three arbitrators who decide on separate representation for west pilots likely "abhor it when willful and voluntary parties to a final and binding arbitration subsequently snub the result."
Under the tentative protocol agreement, the status quo at the start of the seniority list integration process consists of three lists: the US Airways list and the America West list, both still in place, because no merged list was ever implemented, as well as the American list. The Nicolau award is not reflected in any of the three lists.
A key provision of the protocol agreement specifies that the McCaskill-Bond legislation will apply.
The legislation protects employee rights when two unions combine. Under its guidelines, a panel of three arbitrators will compile the seniority integration list. Merger committees from USAPA and APA will select the arbitrators.
On the crucial question of what happens to the America West pilots' battle for implementation of the controversial Nicolau seniority award, the tentative protocol agreement would establish a preliminary panel of three arbitrators to consider whether America West pilots could be separately represented in merger discussions. US Airways merged with America West in 2005.
In binding arbitration conducted under Air Line Pilots Association protocol, arbitrator George Nicolau devised a seniority list that tended to favor America West pilots over pilots from US Airways, known as "the east." In reaction, the east pilots left ALPA and formed USAPA as the merged airline's pilot representative, dragging along the west pilots, who composed only about a third of the pilot group. Since then, the conflict has played out in court.
In a January decision, U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver said she didn't care much for USAPA's courtroom tactics, but she nevertheless ruled that USAPA had not breached its duty of fair representation, as the west pilots had claimed, and that the west pilots need not be separately represented in seniority list discussions with the APA.
Since Silver is the only judge to have ruled on the impact of the Nicolau ruling, east pilots generally believe that her decision should prevail in the seniority debate at the new American. However, a former America West pilot, who asked not to be named, said the three arbitrators who decide on separate representation for west pilots likely "abhor it when willful and voluntary parties to a final and binding arbitration subsequently snub the result."
Under the tentative protocol agreement, the status quo at the start of the seniority list integration process consists of three lists: the US Airways list and the America West list, both still in place, because no merged list was ever implemented, as well as the American list. The Nicolau award is not reflected in any of the three lists.
(Ted Reed - The Street)
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