Hope For Single Contract For US Air, America West Flight Crews

Two months after the National Mediation Board certified the US Airline Pilots Association (USAPA) to represent US Airways pilots, on Wednesday the union initiated pilot contract talks with US Airways Management that, if successful, will remove the major obstacle in bringing the two airlines together.

No one denies that's a big "if." As ANN reported, in April pilots at the merged airline voted to leave the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) and form a separate union as their collective bargaining representative.

The move to form a new union came after a federal arbitrator presented a seniority formula in June 2007 that based pilot ratings on aircraft type, with pilots ranked by seniority within each group based on their time at their respective airline, and how many aircraft of that type are within the combined US Airways fleet. Under the proposal, the top 517 pilots come from US Airways... but the trouble lies when talking about first officer rankings, which US Airways pilots said favored their younger counterparts coming from America West.

The issue of pilot representation has been one of the most contentious issues of the three-year-old merger. Bickering between both sides over a single contract and merging seniority lists began almost immediately after the May 2005 announcement.

The resulting dispute -- and accusations ALPA hadn't done enough to protect the interests of US Air pilots -- resulted in the formation of the US Airline Pilots Association, or USAPA, and the call for decertification of ALPA at US Airways. Pilots petitioned the NMB for a vote last November; the board signed off on the election in February 2008.

Pilot negotiations broke off 10 months ago due to the disparate pay and working conditions between the two pilot groups, which the former bargaining agent could not resolve.

"We believe it's time for Management to complete the job it started three years ago and conclude the merger of US Airways and America West," said USAPA President Steve Bradford. "Although we are hopeful, we will wait and see what Management does -- not what they say."

USAPA represents over 5,000 US Airways pilots in seven domiciles across the United States.

FMI: www.usairlinepilots.org, www.usapa.org