December 22, 2013
West Merger Committee Update
The following update has been published on behalf of the West Merger Committee:
Dear Former AWA Pilots,
Recently the nine Addington plaintiffs, in their role as Class Representatives, appointed the five of us to an autonomous West Merger Committee to represent the interests of the West class members in the upcoming Seniority Integration Process. After being appointed, we immediately began working together to determine what we should be prepared for in the coming weeks.
As many of you are aware, the MOU dictates a very specific time frame for how the Seniority Integration Process must proceed. The first step of the process is that the parties have 30 days after the close of the merger to agree on a Seniority Integration Protocol Agreement (Protocol Agreement). The day after the merged closed, December 10, 2013, management of New American sent an invitation to the West Class counsel, Marty Harper, along with counsel for APA and USAPA, inviting each of their clients respective merger committees to attend an initial protocol agreement meeting in Washington, DC on December 20th. This action is consistent with the legal position taken by the Company in their court filings, where they have repeatedly stated that the West Pilots are entitled to separate representation of our own choosing in the seniority integration process with the American Airlines pilots.
In preparation for this meeting, your West Merger Committee and counsel engaged in multiple conference calls and collaborated to draft an initial proposal for a protocol agreement. Our meetings included a face to face prep session on December 18th after which we all traveled to Washington for the meeting with the Company and APA. Prior to the meeting, USAPA indicated to the Company and APA that it would not attend if the West Pilots were in attendance. The other three parties met as planned on the morning of the 20th, at the DC offices of O'Melveny and Myers. Present on behalf of the company were Paul Jones (Vice-President Legal Affairs), Beth Holdren (Managing Director Labor Relations) and O'Melveny attorneys Robert Siegel and Chris Hollinger. In attendance on behalf of APA were its General Counsel, Ed James and Seniority Integration Committee Chairman Marc Stephens. All parties expressed regret that USAPA had decided not to participate in the Protocol Agreement negotiation process (as required by the MOU), but proceeded to engage in meaningful discussions without its participation.
There are no further meetings scheduled at this time with respect to the Protocol Agreement, but we anticipate we will continue to work with APA on this agreement.
Lastly, we appreciate the trust and support the Class Representatives (that is, the Addington Plaintiffs) and all West pilots have placed in our committee. While we are still in the early days of working together as a committee and have much work yet to do, we are pleased with the immediate atmosphere of cooperation and trust enjoyed by our team.
Sincerely,
Doug, Dave, Russ, Johan and Eric
West Merger Committee
