Railway Act Allows APA To Pursue Action Themselves

Asserting that asking a federal mediator to assist in contract talks would only bog the process down, on Monday American Airlines rejected last week's request from the Allied Pilots Association for both sides to seek such action.

"After considering the APA's offer to file a joint request for mediation, the company believes that remaining in joint control of the negotiation schedule and continuing direct bargaining with the APA is the best course to expeditiously reach an agreement," American official Denny Newgren said in a letter to the union's negotiating committee, reports The Dallas Morning News.

"We believe that in order to make substantial progress, it may make sense to consider using private facilitation and/or technical negotiating assistance offered by the National Mediation Board," Newgren added, "and we would like to discuss this idea further with the APA negotiating committee."

As ANN reported, APA asked American to join in its request for federal mediation, as allowed for under the Railway Labor Act. Union President Lloyd Hill said
mediation would be the best option "to bring our contract negotiations to a prompt conclusion" -- after months of heated, back-and-forth jabs between both sides.

In a message to pilots Monday, the APA called American's response "discouraging, " adding "no substantive progress has been made in a year and a half of negotiating. Management's tactics and failure to even remotely address key restoration priorities indicate that they are more interested in delays than in creating a contract that meets the needs of the pilots."

The union is allowed to make its case for mediation on its own... and APA spokesman Gregg Overman said that's precisely what he expects union leaders to do Tuesday.

"If anything, it indicates to us they would like to move forward slowly, if at all, and that's not in our pilots' best interests," Overman said of American's response. "Therefore, we will be trying a new approach. We're hopeful that the National Mediation Board involvement will help bring about a prompt resolution."

Though it sounds like a step toward diplomacy, in reality mediation would bring the two sides closer to a potential strike. Mediation is a necessary step towards such action, as a pilot strike may only be called legally if the NMB declares an impasse in mediated talks. That declaration would also free American to impose its own contract on pilots, similar to the action taken by the FAA against air traffic controllers in June 2006.

At the airline's request, both sides entered contract talks in September 2006, close to two years before the contract becomes amendable May 1. A change in APA leadership in 2007 resulted in pilots demanding much larger raises, and other benefits, than before.

APA says American needs to loosen the purse strings, as executives at the airline benefited financially over the past few years while pilots took a substantial pay hit.

FMI: www.aa.com, www.alliedpilots.org