snapthis
Veteran
- Dec 23, 2009
- 4,236
- 6,907
Your Phoenix Domicile Representatives wish to inform you of a specific event that took place at the end of the final day of USAPA’s First Quarter BPR Meeting held on April 18, 2013.
The Pension Investigation Committee (PIC) reported the findings of its investigation so far and updated the BPR about the ongoing litigation related to the termination of some East pilots defined benefit pension plan. Unfortunately, the PIC also reported that it has unexpectedly exceeded its funding, which was collected through the PIC Assessment. The PIC has thus far exceeded the amount collected by approximately $190,000.00.
You might ask what this has to do with our PHX-based pilots when we were neither subject to the assessment, nor can we ever expect to benefit from the Pension Investigation? Well, a bill for legal services rendered was presented to USAPA, and on advice of USAPA legal counsel, we had to pay the bill. Since no funds remained in the PIC Assessment account, the bill was paid out of USAPA's General funds without prior notification of the BPR. This means that many pilots not formerly subject to the PIC assessment (East and West) have now been forced to fund the PIC through the expenditure of General funds. According to an estimate given by the legal counsel representing the over 2500 pilots who may benefit from the PIC, they will be able to complete the litigation (including appeals) for another $250,000.00. This, plus other expenditures, means we are looking at a total of only an additional half of a MILLION DOLLARS beyond the amount originally assessed.
Immediately following its presentation, the PIC had a resolution already written, which the BPR immediately adopted by majority vote (8-3, with PHX voting against). That resolution authorized (retroactively, of course) the payment of the $190,000.00, PLUS any additional funds (up to a cap of $300,000.00 promised by the law firm representing the PIC investigation) WITHOUT any ADDITIONAL ASSESSEMENT REFERENDUM VOTE of the affected pilots.
Your PHX Representatives spoke vigorously against the resolution and were careful to ensure that the other BPR members, as well as the PIC, understood that our opposition to the resolution was neither motivated by personal animus, nor by a perception that this was an East versus West item. Nonetheless, the PIC and the other reps on the BPR took the position of, we don’t care if you are vested in this or not, everybody is going to pay for this thing. While only about half of all US Airways pilots ever had a now long-terminated pension, all US Airways pilots will pay to discover what exactly happened to it and why the plan defaulted. As such, we are puzzled as to how the PIC and East BPR seemed offended when we argued that only those originally subject to the assessment should be assessed again to finish the work of the PIC. After all, funding the PIC originally required a referendum and vote of the pilot group. Now, all pilots will pay whether they want to or not. We see this as a distinct change in the management of your dues dollars. Someone went so far as to say, “I don't understand why I am getting such a XXX XXX from the PHX Reps; after all, we just recently funded your ACARS grievance.” We were taken aback that someone would characterize USAPA's duty to represent the West pilots as required by law as some sort of favor to be exchanged in return for the financial support of a committee. PHX has always supported the PIC on basis that, had we lost thousands and thousands of dollars, then we too would be willing to spend a few thousand to find out what happened. That, and it has seemed as though the majority of East pilots we have had contact with have supported the PIC in the past. All US Airways pilots must understand that the original assessment yielded approximately 3.9 million dollars and it has now been spent -- and then some. Before just throwing more money at the committee, we believe the affected pilots have the right to decide for themselves whether or not to continue to invest in this project and that the rest of us have the right not to. Nonetheless, the resolution predictably passed (again, by a vote of 8-3) late that afternoon. No surprise there. This is yet another fine example of how, when given the choice to do the right thing, another opportunity has yet again been wasted by the majority of the BPR. All pilots are footing this bill, this time without a referendum or assessment whether vested in the plan or not.
Merger Committee Interviews
Merger Committee interviews were conducted, and we were presented with six candidates from a list of 19 potential candidates. The BPR Reps had no input (at least no PHX Rep) into who would interview for the opening positions. The following candidates gave a brief introduction followed by a few questions from the BPR: William (Clay) Absher, Kevin Barry, Bob Davison, Tom Kubik, Ken Stravers and Philip Osterhus. USAPA had requested any applicant to submit a resume for the openings a few months ago. USAPA President Gary Hummel is responsible for naming volunteers to committees, followed by BPR approval. We were neither informed of any other candidate interviews nor have any idea of whom Gary may place in the remaining MC positions. In any case, the BPR will have FINAL APPROVAL of each position, so you can guess how much influence the three PHX Rep votes may have. At this point you know about as much as we do as to who may be selected for the MC.
USAPA Stipend for Union Volunteers
We spent a good portion of the morning in session with PHL Rep Paul DiOrio’s resolution eliminating a stipend that is paid to union volunteers on full-time flight pay loss (FPL). This $1000-1500 per month stipend is to compensate for moneys lost due to union work. Paul DiOrio seemed to think this was an abuse of union funds and that volunteers were compensated adequately without the stipend. Two points here; point one, the AWA West contract still governs how our volunteers are paid and making a blanket change to USAPA volunteers would negatively impact the West volunteers on FPL. After much debate and several hours of time, a compromise was made to just make changes to East USAPA FPL volunteers.
Litigation Flow Chart (courtesy of John Owens, USAPA Business Intelligence):
John, Roger & Dave
Note - Phoenix Update edited by USAPA Communications
The Pension Investigation Committee (PIC) reported the findings of its investigation so far and updated the BPR about the ongoing litigation related to the termination of some East pilots defined benefit pension plan. Unfortunately, the PIC also reported that it has unexpectedly exceeded its funding, which was collected through the PIC Assessment. The PIC has thus far exceeded the amount collected by approximately $190,000.00.
You might ask what this has to do with our PHX-based pilots when we were neither subject to the assessment, nor can we ever expect to benefit from the Pension Investigation? Well, a bill for legal services rendered was presented to USAPA, and on advice of USAPA legal counsel, we had to pay the bill. Since no funds remained in the PIC Assessment account, the bill was paid out of USAPA's General funds without prior notification of the BPR. This means that many pilots not formerly subject to the PIC assessment (East and West) have now been forced to fund the PIC through the expenditure of General funds. According to an estimate given by the legal counsel representing the over 2500 pilots who may benefit from the PIC, they will be able to complete the litigation (including appeals) for another $250,000.00. This, plus other expenditures, means we are looking at a total of only an additional half of a MILLION DOLLARS beyond the amount originally assessed.
Immediately following its presentation, the PIC had a resolution already written, which the BPR immediately adopted by majority vote (8-3, with PHX voting against). That resolution authorized (retroactively, of course) the payment of the $190,000.00, PLUS any additional funds (up to a cap of $300,000.00 promised by the law firm representing the PIC investigation) WITHOUT any ADDITIONAL ASSESSEMENT REFERENDUM VOTE of the affected pilots.
Your PHX Representatives spoke vigorously against the resolution and were careful to ensure that the other BPR members, as well as the PIC, understood that our opposition to the resolution was neither motivated by personal animus, nor by a perception that this was an East versus West item. Nonetheless, the PIC and the other reps on the BPR took the position of, we don’t care if you are vested in this or not, everybody is going to pay for this thing. While only about half of all US Airways pilots ever had a now long-terminated pension, all US Airways pilots will pay to discover what exactly happened to it and why the plan defaulted. As such, we are puzzled as to how the PIC and East BPR seemed offended when we argued that only those originally subject to the assessment should be assessed again to finish the work of the PIC. After all, funding the PIC originally required a referendum and vote of the pilot group. Now, all pilots will pay whether they want to or not. We see this as a distinct change in the management of your dues dollars. Someone went so far as to say, “I don't understand why I am getting such a XXX XXX from the PHX Reps; after all, we just recently funded your ACARS grievance.” We were taken aback that someone would characterize USAPA's duty to represent the West pilots as required by law as some sort of favor to be exchanged in return for the financial support of a committee. PHX has always supported the PIC on basis that, had we lost thousands and thousands of dollars, then we too would be willing to spend a few thousand to find out what happened. That, and it has seemed as though the majority of East pilots we have had contact with have supported the PIC in the past. All US Airways pilots must understand that the original assessment yielded approximately 3.9 million dollars and it has now been spent -- and then some. Before just throwing more money at the committee, we believe the affected pilots have the right to decide for themselves whether or not to continue to invest in this project and that the rest of us have the right not to. Nonetheless, the resolution predictably passed (again, by a vote of 8-3) late that afternoon. No surprise there. This is yet another fine example of how, when given the choice to do the right thing, another opportunity has yet again been wasted by the majority of the BPR. All pilots are footing this bill, this time without a referendum or assessment whether vested in the plan or not.
Merger Committee Interviews
Merger Committee interviews were conducted, and we were presented with six candidates from a list of 19 potential candidates. The BPR Reps had no input (at least no PHX Rep) into who would interview for the opening positions. The following candidates gave a brief introduction followed by a few questions from the BPR: William (Clay) Absher, Kevin Barry, Bob Davison, Tom Kubik, Ken Stravers and Philip Osterhus. USAPA had requested any applicant to submit a resume for the openings a few months ago. USAPA President Gary Hummel is responsible for naming volunteers to committees, followed by BPR approval. We were neither informed of any other candidate interviews nor have any idea of whom Gary may place in the remaining MC positions. In any case, the BPR will have FINAL APPROVAL of each position, so you can guess how much influence the three PHX Rep votes may have. At this point you know about as much as we do as to who may be selected for the MC.
USAPA Stipend for Union Volunteers
We spent a good portion of the morning in session with PHL Rep Paul DiOrio’s resolution eliminating a stipend that is paid to union volunteers on full-time flight pay loss (FPL). This $1000-1500 per month stipend is to compensate for moneys lost due to union work. Paul DiOrio seemed to think this was an abuse of union funds and that volunteers were compensated adequately without the stipend. Two points here; point one, the AWA West contract still governs how our volunteers are paid and making a blanket change to USAPA volunteers would negatively impact the West volunteers on FPL. After much debate and several hours of time, a compromise was made to just make changes to East USAPA FPL volunteers.
“Therefore be it resolved that the effective immediately the BPR has determined that the stipend shall be eliminated for those pilots who are compensated under LOA 95.
Be it further resolved that if during any bid month, a pilot is classified as being on AFB status*, shall continue to be paid on the equipment in which he/she can hold** times the monthly pay cap hours in the position he held at the time he was moved to AFB Status.”
Point two; as we commend Paul DiOrio for his concern to save the union money from the abuses of union volunteers, we are perplexed as to the approval of General funds use in covering PIC expenses as pointed out in the first part of this update.Litigation Flow Chart (courtesy of John Owens, USAPA Business Intelligence):
John, Roger & Dave
Note - Phoenix Update edited by USAPA Communications
