2014 Pilot Discussion

[luvthe9]

West scabs call your reps ask to join in on the growth, Ferguson and Koontz have screwed you over.

 

[Phoenix]

There's just no satisfying you big city boys.
 
The rocking chairs work OK most of the time.

The moving sidewalks at CLT are pitiful enough to be comical, but what confuses me is the stench near the burger joint on "C" concourse. I can't tell if the health department is overlooking a stopped up drain at the kitchen or a toilet that doesn't flush in the restrooms.

 

[traderjake]

I can't tell if the health department is overlooking a stopped up drain at the kitchen or a toilet that doesn't flush in the restrooms.

 
Some of us appreciate the fact that we have indoor plumbing, flush or no flush. 😀
 
Like I said, big city boys.

 

[mrbreeze]

Removed -- Requested. 

 

[Claxon]

June 23, 2014 article by Terry Maxon, Dallas News Business.
 
"American Airlines flight attendants who came from Trans World Airlines are suing American Airlines and their current union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, over seniority.
 
The ex-TWA flight attendants asked a U.S. District Court in Brooklyn last week to require APFA and American to give them seniority numbers based on when the flight attendants were hired at TWA.
 
This is a revival of a 13-year-old dispute. After American bought TWA assets in 2001 and later absorbed that airline, APFA “stapled” all TWA flight attendants to the bottom of the American seniority list. As a result, all TWA flight attendants were junior to any American flight attendants hired before April 10, 2001.
 
 
The issue of seniority is arising again following the Dec. 9 merger of American and US Airways.
 
 
APFA and the union representing US Airways flight attendants, the Association of Flight Attendants, have agreed that they’ll combine their lists based on dates in their current seniority lists.
For APFA, that would come from its current seniority list: first, American flight attendants based on date of hire before April 10, 2001; second, TWA flight attendants, based on date of hire; and third, American flight attendants hired after April 10, 2001."
 
http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2014/06/ex-twa-flight-attendants-sue-american-airlines-association-of-professional-flight-attendants-over-seniority.html/

 

[Claxon]

 


McCaskill-Bond Injunction Action – Update
Details Created on Friday, 13 June 2014 17:55
Judge Howell held a conference call with counsel in the McCaskill-Bond Injunction Action at 11:30 am this morning, Friday, June 13, 2014.   The reason for the call was to address the request of APA and the Company to delay discovery until the Court decided the pending motions to require USAPA to arbitrate MTA Dispute #5.
 
As background: in late February, USAPA filed a complaint in the United States District Court in the District of Columbia asking the Court to issue an injunction requiring  APA and the Company to follow the requirements of the McCaskill-Bond Amendment and promptly submit the seniority integration dispute involving the pilots of American Airlines and US Airways, to arbitration (the “McCaskill-Bond Injunction Action”).  APA and the Company filed answers which called for denying USAPA’s claim and also filed various counterclaims alleging, among other things, that APA would be in complete control of the Seniority List Integration (SLI) process once it became the certified representative for the combined group of AA and US pilots.  APA and the Company later filed a grievance (MTA Dispute #5) under the Merger Transition Agreement (the MOU) alleging that USAPA was violating the MOU by insisting that the parties follow the McCaskill-Bond Amendment.  USAPA refused to participate in arbitrating MTA Dispute #5 because the issue was already before the District Court.  APA and the Company then filed motions asking the District Court to require USAPA to arbitrate MTA Dispute #5.  Those motions have been briefed and are pending before the District Court. 
 
APA and the Company subsequently asked the Court to delay discovery in the McCaskill-Bond Injunction Action until those motions were decided, presenting the request in the form a dispute over discovery, which is a more informal and abbreviated process that applies to regular motions.  It was that discovery dispute request that was before the District Court on this morning’s call.
 
After hearing from the lawyers for the parties, Judge Howell instructed APA and the Company to file their request to delay discovery as a regular formal motion and indicated that she would address it along with the motions to require USAPA to arbitrate MTA Dispute #5.
 
We expect that APA and the Company will file formal motions to delay discovery next week.  Under the applicable rules, USAPA then has up to 17 days to respond.  There is no fixed deadline for the District Court to rule on either the motions to delay discovery or the pending motions to require USAPA to arbitrate MTA Dispute #5.  It is also possible that the District Court will hold oral argument on the motions, but the Court is not required to do so, and the motions could be decided without argument.  Judge Howell is generally prompt in resolving matters pending before her.
 
USAPA Communications

The company is not remaining neutral, as they have promised and are required to do so by federal law. 
 
You are not in Arizona any more Mr. Siegel, you must pay attention to the Judge behind the robes. 

 

[Claxon]

 
Via Electronic Mail:
 
Maria Kate Dowling
Associate General Counsel
National Mediation Board
1301 K Street, NW, Suite 250E
Washington, DC 20572
Re: CR-7110 (US Airways/American Airlines/APA/USAPA)
 
Dear Ms. Dowling:
 
The Board’s investigation of the existence of a single transportation system covering a craft or class is guided by the criteria established in TWA/Ozark, 14 NMB 218 (1987). In TWA/Ozark, the criteria primarily identified by the Board as supporting a “single carrier” finding are those showing the carriers are held out to the public as a combined entity and that the separate existence of the carriers has been extinguished,
 
[W]hether a combined schedule is published; how the carrier advertises its services; whether reservation systems are combined; whether tickets are issued on one carrier’s stock; if signs, logos and other publicly visible indicia have been changed to indicate only one carrier’s existence; whether personnel with public contact were held out as employees of one carrier; and whether the process of repainting planes and other equipment, to eliminate indications of separate existence, has been progressed.
TWA/Ozark, 14 NMB 218, 236 (1987).
 
USAPA submits yet further evidence in this supplemental submission showing that American Airlines and US Airways have not “progressed” at all on these primary public indicia of a single transportation system, much less to the substantial degree necessary to support a finding of a single transportation system. The continued separation of the Carriers has been consistently shown by USAPA’s filings in this matter. By contrast, American, US Airways and APA peddle to the Board the fiction that American and US Airways have combined based on nothing more than changing the titles of management employees and their future plans to combine operations, unsupported even by firm timetables, much less the actual integration of the Carriers.
 
 
1. American and US Airways continue to have separate flight schedules, advertisement, reservation systems, ticketing and other visible indicia to public
As USAPA demonstrated in its May 28, 2014 supplemental filing, American and US Airways continue to maintain separate flight schedules, ticketing and reservation systems resulting in wholly different fare pricing to the traveling public. A June 24, 2014 analysis published by the Charlotte Observer also shows that the Carriers ticketing and reservation operations continue as they did premerger, save only a codeshare agreement that permits them to sell tickets of each other. USAPA Exh. 33. But just as shown by the May 16, 2014 analysis of the Wall Street Journal (USAPA Exh. 31), American and US Airways price and sell even their codeshare flight separately using different inventories of seats, leading to fare price differences in the hundreds of dollars. The Charlotte Observer concluded,
 
Because of lags in the computer systems used to display ticket prices, the same flight can appear for hundreds of dollars more or less, depending on whether you search USAirways.com or AA.com…In the Observer’s random fare survey, price differences popped up on long-haul flights, hub-to-hub travel and flights to smaller markets, even when booking the exact same flights.
USAPA Exh. 33. The Observer went on to note that these significant differences in fare price are caused by the fact that American and US Airways continue to operate as separate airlines and price their tickets differently, including looking at different inventories of seats.
 
But the airlines still have separate reservation systems, and they will effectively operate as separate airlines until those systems are combined. That won’t happen until sometime next year.
 
So for now, American and US Airways are treated in computer systems as separate airlines selling seats on each other’s planes. The inventory of code-share tickets for each airline isn’t updated in real-time, said American’s Casey. If you’re looking at a US Airways flight on American’s website, you might see a different price compared to the same tickets on US Airways’ site, because the computer systems are looking at different inventory levels and seeing different levels of demand and availability.
USAPA Exh. 33 (emphasis added).
 
It should be noted that the Charlotte Observer interviewed Don Casey, American Airlines Vice-President, of Revenue Management, for its article and Casey conceded the Carriers’ separation as the cause of this dramatic difference in fare pricing. The newspaper noted these admissions by Casey, “’The inventory of code-share tickets for each airline isn’t updated in real-time, said American’s Casey’ … ‘You’re always going to find discrepancies driven by this [different] estimated availability,’ Casey said.”
 
In short, the primary indicia of combined operations required by TWA/Ozark are wholly absent in this case and will not be present until late 2015 at the earliest. Once again, the actual facts of the Carriers’ continued separation, which the Carriers concede to everyone else except the Board, show that the NMB cannot now conclude that American and US Airways constitute a single transportation system in the craft or class of pilots.
 
2. Only an insignificant number of US Airways aircraft have been repainted into American Airlines livery
 
As shown in USAPA Exhibit 34, the Carriers have only painted eight US Airways aircraft into American livery. And six of those eight aircraft are undoubtedly the former Star Alliance liveried aircraft of US Airways that had to be repainted in order to avoid being parked after US Airways left the Star Alliance March 31, 2014. So, in truth, only two US Airways liveried aircraft have been repainted into American livery out of an almost 300 aircraft fleet. And even the repainting schedule shown in USAPA Exhibit 34, projecting just 13 percent of the fleet repainted by Q2 2015, is fanciful given how few aircraft have been repainted to date. Under the current rate of four aircraft per quarter, even the 40 aircraft identified in USAPA Exhibit 34 to be completed by Q2 2015 will take into 2017 or later to be repainted. The rest of the schedule will similarly slide out for years. The Carriers’ unrealistic repainting schedule projections will no doubt be promptly revised if they succeed in obtaining their desired premature single carrier finding by the NMB.
 
3. Employees will not have a combined uniform until at least Fall 2015
In its June 25, 2014 supplemental submission, USAPA noted that the Carriers have not implemented a common uniform for employees or even common accessories to create the appearance of a common uniform. Attached as USAPA Exhibit 35 is further information from the Carriers showing they do not even anticipate implementing a common uniform until Fall 2015. And that “anticipation” is of course subject to change.
*****
The record before the Board does not support a finding that the Carriers have substantially integrated as a single transportation system under the indicia of TWA/Ozark. Accordingly, the Board must continue its investigation until the record is further developed. TWA/Ozark, 14 NMB at 237 (“These are broad areas of inquiry and frequently the facts involved in a particular merger require more specific investigation.”) USAPA renews its request for a hearing allowing it to put the Carriers and APA to their proof on their unsubstantiated allegations that a single transportation system exists between American and US Airways in the pilot craft or class.
 
Respectfully submitted,
 
William R. Wilder
 
cc: B. O’Dwyer
M. Bradley
R. Siegel
C. Hollinger
P. Jones

 

[nycbusdriver]

 

 
Via Electronic Mail:
 
Maria Kate Dowling
Associate General Counsel
National Mediation Board
1301 K Street, NW, Suite 250E
Washington, DC 20572
Re: CR-7110 (US Airways/American Airlines/APA/USAPA)
 
Dear Ms. Dowling:
 
(yada yada yada)
 
*****
The record before the Board does not support a finding that the Carriers have substantially integrated as a single transportation system under the indicia of TWA/Ozark. Accordingly, the Board must continue its investigation until the record is further developed. TWA/Ozark, 14 NMB at 237 (“These are broad areas of inquiry and frequently the facts involved in a particular merger require more specific investigation.”) USAPA renews its request for a hearing allowing it to put the Carriers and APA to their proof on their unsubstantiated allegations that a single transportation system exists between American and US Airways in the pilot craft or class.
 
Respectfully submitted,
 
William R. Wilder
 
cc: B. O’Dwyer
M. Bradley
R. Siegel
C. Hollinger
P. Jones

 

 
None of this matters, really.  If the appropriate and effective palms are properly greased, the Board will find Single Carrier status tout-de-suite.
 
(I threw in the French to piss off the PHX reactionaries and watch their mouths begin to foam.)

 

[EastUS1]

A few weeks ago I had an incident while riding the JS home, as you all know.
 
The FO went on the AOL forum and posted all of my personal information, everything he could think of...... my name, employee number, DOH, my commuting route, the aircraft I fly, and a description of me........so I was pretty upset.
 
After a couple of drinks one evening, I released my anger on this board. I put out a bluff that I had recorded some of his actions in the cockpit, hoping he would think twice about doing that sort of thing in the future. It was a stupid thing for me to post, but at the time, I didn't care. I wanted revenge, and the alcohol was my fuel.
 
I assure you that I DID NOT record anything in the cockpit, and never have. I hope this will clear the air a bit and help defuse the issue.
 
I apologize to you all for my behavior.
breeze 

 
Bravo! It takes character for a man to admit his errors in judgement Breeze...and frankly; there's never any need to stoop to "spartan" levels anyway, if even momentarily, unless one's angling for an "heroic" T-shirt or tie I suppose, and that's hardly your situation. 😉

 

[EastUS1]

Yeah...about your credibility issue.

 
About your "credibility issue", mighty "spartan"...wizard, "lords and ladies"..."battle"-tested-"knights", etc, ad nauseum, and thanks for all the hearty laughs over the years. 😉
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7lgU3J5seA&list=PL21C1C7D32B996827
 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT8H9smpK3U&list=PL5DCDEE4D2ADA2659

 

[EastUS1]

I've had more than enough Chicago, DC, NY, CA, etc. politics. I've also grown tried of 60 straight years of having the national debt increase to a level greater than the annual GDP. I've grown tired of a nanny state telling us the kinds of toilets and light bulbs I can use in my home. I've grown tired of a government that spies on private, law abiding citizens. I've grown tired politicians ignoring the limits of power the Constitution and the people constrained them with. And I've grown tired of these things happening no matter which party has control of any of the three branches of government.

 
 
That's very well (if-all-too-tragically) summed up Callaway....

 

[EastUS1]

 
It would be possible  after the 4th of July because by then the corn is taller than myself and I wouldn't be seen. Any hit before the 4th of July would have to be considered intentional!
 
Happy upcoming 4th to all,
 
Bob

 
I'd submit that "the corn is taller than myself" hallmarks a decent life Bob, and methinks you've no worries over any "commie" tractor ever daring to affront a man of Finnish heritage. The very best to you and yours for the 4th sir. 😉

 

[EastUS1]

 
Some of us appreciate the fact that we have indoor plumbing, flush or no flush. 😀
 
Like I said, big city boys.

 
Perhaps you'll someday then equip yourself with electricity and a TV?..."big city boy"?  😉

 

[traderjake]

I'm waitng for the technology to prove itself before I commit.

 

[Phoenix]

Perhaps you'll someday then equip yourself with electricity and a TV?..."big city boy"?  😉

You have good intentions but we are going about it the wrong way.

Electricity and TV is good enough for Alex Jones.... So it's good enough for us. He also brought his outhouse indoors, and functional plumbing is also good enough for Alex...