Will An ALPA Divided Continue To Stand At Airline?

Things may be coming to a head at US Airways, and within the Air Line Pilots Association... as pilots on both sides of the airlines's 2005 merger with America West, both represented by ALPA, continue to bicker over a single contract.

As ANN reported last month, a federal arbitrator ruled 1,800 furloughed pilots at US Airways would return to their jobs at the airline, now merged with America West, lower on the seniority-list totem pole than when they left. More recent pre-merger hires by America West would hold higher positions.

Many within the industry say that ruling was due to the generally stronger position America West maintained throughout the merger, as US Airways was in bankruptcy at the time. Though the combined airline carries the US Airways name, most of the carrier's senior management carried over from America West, including CEO Doug Parker. The airline is also based at AW's former headquarters in Tempe, AZ.

That is little consolation to US Airways pilots, of course, who convinced the ALPA executive council to delay in passing the arbitrator's seniority list to the company -- a move that could have been construed as de facto endorsement of the deal.

"A specific goal of the ALPA merger policy is to avoid windfalls to one group at the expense of the other, but this integration policy does not do that," says Arnie Gentile, spokesman for the US Airways chapter of ALPA, to TheStreet.com.

The arbitrator's proposed seniority formula bases pilot ratings on aircraft type, which 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 at the next level, when talking about first officer rankings. Some 1,000 US Airways first officers stand little chance of ever making captain under the proposal, as the current Age 60 rule would force them to retire before any left seats open up.

"Most of our first officers with 20-plus-years experience will not be on the property long enough to make captain because of six-year and seven-year first officers at America West," Gentile said.

The main sticking point with the arbitrator's decision, however, is the fact that under the plan US Airways pilots get no credit for time furloughed... or, for flying at now-defunct Mid-Atlantic Airways, once a US Air subsidiary. Gentile says that means the most senior Mid-Atlantic pilot, hired in 1998, is placed below the most junior America West pilot, hired in 2004, on the list.

What comes next for the carrier's pilots is even less clear than what has come before. To show their disdain for the new seniority list, US Airways pilots could vote to leave ALPA. It is more likely, however, the US Airways side would seek to delay a vote on a joint contract to unite the two pilots groups... which both sides have shot down to date.

In its most recent contract offering last month, US Airways offered to raise the America West pilots pay scale by three percent... while boosting pay for pilots from the pre-merger US Airways a staggering 17 percent to match their compatriots at America West.

Neither side likes that proposal, however. America West pilots say they are subsidizing raises for US Airways pilots, by giving up benefits; Gentile calls the deal "dead on arrival."

FMI: www.usairways.com, www.alpa.org