USAPA MISLEADING THEIR FOLLOWERS JUST LIKE THE EAST MEC DID! LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES DON'T REPEAT THEM. DOH IS GONE FOR GOOD NEVER TO EVER BEEN USED AGAIN. THE ONLY LOSS WILL BE YOUR CAREER NOW DO YOU REALLY WANT THAT?
ALPA-Backed Seniority Integration Legislation Protects Pilots, Contracts and ALPA Merger Policy. It Does Not Provide or Require a Date of Hire Integration.
ALPA, along with the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) and the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, recently worked closely with Labor’s allies on Capitol Hill to enact seniority integration legislation that protects ALPA pilots’ career interests and the Association’s merger policies and labor agreements in future merger integrations.
This legislation, which was signed by the President into law in late December, ensures that if an ALPA pilot group merges with an ALPA pilot group, the Association’s internal merger policies and the pilots’ collectively-bargained merger integration provisions will continue to govern as before. If an ALPA pilot group merges with a non-ALPA pilot group, the ALPA pilots involved will also retain the hard-won labor protective merger provisions of their collective bargaining agreements.
However, the legislation also guarantees such pilots, and all unionized employees under the Railway Labor Act, at least a minimum standard of merger protection in future transactions by ensuring a “fair and equitable†seniority integration process under the Allegheny-Mohawk merger provisions. These provisions, like ALPA Merger Policy, provide a process that includes negotiation, and if necessary, arbitration concerning seniority integration.
Contrary to the unfounded claims made by the US Airline Pilots Association (USAPA), this new law does NOT provide for, or guarantee, “date of hire†or any other longevity-based integration or, for that matter, any other specific standard of integration in seniority integration arbitrations. In fact, the integration standards that would be applied by arbitrators would be similar under both ALPA Merger Policy and the Allegheny-Mohawk seniority integration procedures provided for in this legislation. The standards applied by arbitrators under both procedures have typically included consideration of career expectations for the pilots at the two carriers at the time of the merger, and have been implemented through ratios, as well as date of hire and other methodologies.
Although there are procedural differences (such as varying timelines) between ALPA Merger Policy and the Allegheny-Mohawk process, the only other major difference is that management may be directly involved in the negotiations and arbitration process under Allegheny-Mohawk, but not under ALPA Merger Policy. That difference—inserting management in the process—is not a helpful change for pilots.
Simply put, the Allegheny-Mohawk legislation does NOT require or even refer to date of hire or length of service integration. But you don’t have to take ALPA National’s word on it. Merger counsel independently retained by the US Airways MEC has stated clearly that the Allegheny-Mohawk procedures required in the legislation “make no mention of date of hire methodology. [This process] provides only for ‘a fair and equitable manner’ of seniority integration. It carries no more preference, or disfavor, of date of hire integration than does ALPA Merger Policy.†Merger counsel independently retained by the America West MEC has taken the same position, concluding: “Allegheny-Mohawk procedures give no preference to date of hire (or, for that matter, to any particular integration methodology). Like Merger Policy, they don’t mention date of hire at all.â€
USAPA is simply wrong when it alleges that “in order to reap the benefit†of the new legislation, US Airways pilots “must remove themselves from ALPA.†The truth is that in the absence of a negotiated seniority integration agreement, under both procedures it is up to the arbitrator to decide which standards to apply to accomplish the integration
You should ask why USAPA is not providing accurate information on this important issue, one that could significantly affect you in a future transaction.
This legislation was originally proposed by AFA and stemmed from the inequities that arose when the independent unions that represent the flight attendants and pilots of American Airlines forced the flight attendants and pilots of the former Trans World Airlines to forgo a merger seniority arbitration process and suffer imposed seniority terms that disfavored these groups. ALPA insisted upon legislative provisions for protection of ALPA Merger Policy in an ALPA-ALPA merger and for retention of any additional protections for ALPA pilots beyond Allegheny-Mohawk procedures in ALPA labor agreements. The ALPA-drafted language on these key provisions was adopted by Congress and signed by the President. This important legislative success demonstrates ALPA’s leadership role on Capitol Hill.
I'm absolutely "certain" that you must be 100% correct on what the company would/might have chosen to do otherwise...after all = you're from Alpa.. :blink:
