It was precisely for that reason that US Airways, American and their respective pilot unions negotiated a detailed, comprehensive pre-merger collective bargaining agreement, with meticulous attention to deadlines, to ensure that the labor components of the merger could be effectuated as soon as possible. USAPA, however, continues to delay the process of resolving the internal US Airways pilot seniority integration dispute (a resolution that obviously would facilitate the process of merging the American and US Airways pilot seniority lists). It now claims, not only that this dispute is not currently ripe, but that it will not become ripe for years — until the operational integration of the airlines is otherwise completed and the parties have finished the JCBA process.
That is not tenable. The bankruptcy court has approved the merger. The Plan of Reorganization, which incorporates the MOU, has been filed and is awaiting approval by the bankruptcy court. The risk of harm to American is imminent. USAPA has contractually agreed to begin the merger-related seniority integration process “as soon as possible after” the Plan is approved and American emerges from Chapter 11 — a date scheduled to arrive early in the third quarter. This potential injury to American’s contract rights is not remote or insubstantial; it is here and now.
To the extent it applies here, ripeness is a prudential doctrine, not a jurisdictional rule. See Addington v. U.S. Airline Pilots Ass’n, 606 F.3d 1174 (9th Cir. 2010). Given the current state of affairs, it would be unwarranted and imprudent in the extreme to use that doctrine to deny the merging parties the benefit of their bargain and frustrate American’s efforts to realize the advantages expected by the new company’s shareholders and employees alike.7
7 It is worth noting that the bankruptcy court expressed unequivocally its view that “[t]here needs to be a decision as to what the integration is going to be by [USAPA].” See Transcript of April 3, 2013 hearing, In Re AMR Corporation, United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, 13-01282-shl, Doc. 20-1, attached hereto as Exhibit B, at 33. Resolving the US Airways seniority dispute, the court concluded “is a precondition to the [seniority] integration [process] that’s contemplated by this merger . . . . You have to figure out what the rights are within [US Airways] first.” Id., at 21. The court observed that “[c]ertainly there is a live dispute about [US Airways] seniority as a result of that merger. I would think after 13 [sic; eight] years I guess one would think it's ripe for decision.” Id., at 31.