But, I thought you guys WANTED a reservation. Most of the early posts in objection to DOH centered around East guys, living out west bidding in to PHX and making West guys more junior or costing them a Captain bid. What's changed? Wasn't your point in wanting the Nic so badly, protecting what you brought to the party?
Driver B)
I also recall that one of the west attempts to persuade east pilots to support ALPA and the Nic was that none of them were interested in coming east to fly widebodies, nor would they consider working in any of our obviously geographically-challenged inferior east coast bases.
NOW, it seems, that they are upset that we want to protect them in the very sandbox that they once were so desperate to keep us out of.
Let me ask this. If usapa caves or is forced to use the Nicolau in the contract. Do you think that east pilots could or would come up with $2 mil+ and file a DFR?
After all it is in your C&BL right? Anyone on the east with that kind of leadership skill to put together an enterprise like we have here?
That's a very interesting question. I doubt that, when/if the dust ever settles on this thing, the east would mount a DFR campaign against USAPA if the union were forced to use the Nic. Absent some truly deceitful actions by USAPA I doubt they could muster the funds to make a DFR run over the Nic.
I initially thought that something like this might trigger a refiling of Breeger et al. But if, after ALL court remedies have been exhausted, the courts impose the Nic (which I don't believe for one NY second that they will) then even Breeger et al would have little hope of prevailing. But if the courts let USAPA do its thing on DOH/LOS with C&Rs, USAPA may just have to endure two DFRs: Addington and Breeger. So be it.
That being said, with Nic in the contract and the company unwilling to come even close to industry standard wages, there will not be a contract ratified with Nic in it. The votes just aren't there on the east. This is especially true if the east pilots prevail on the LOA 93 pay grievance. Even absent a win there, the most senior east pilots are doing okay on LOA 93, and the less senior pilots are chomping at the bit to get their seat and/or equipment upgrades and would not vote for the Nic no matter how much money is thrown at them in their present status.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, if the company's request is ripe, so is the original Addington trial. The rule 60b filing AOL has made could cause the 9ths opinion to be vacated. We would then go back to the injunction in place, with the damages trial looming.
So, in your world of jurisprudence, a lower court action gets to override a ruling by a higher court. Interesting concept. In the real world of law, a federal district judge is bound by the decisions of the circuit court above him/her and by the Supreme Court above all. The Ninth Circuit ruled that Addington is not ripe. Absent a Supreme Court intervention on that ruling, that's it. It's not ripe. There is nothing Judge Silver can do in her courtroom to change that fact. She knows it.
You do realize that not only has Seham billed usapa over 7 million in the last few years, but he is also running up a tab that the east pilots are going to have to pay when the West collects its legal fees and damages?
What I am saying is you ought to start thinking about it as the "best money you ever borrowed".
Wow! There's an old chestnut of your that we haven't seen here for a while. Still clicking away at the heels of those ruby slippers?
Oh, and if it did cost USAPA $7 million so far, not only is it the best dues money I have ever spent, I think it's the best dues/fees money the west pilots have ever spent, too. Thanks, all of you, for your sizable contribution to USAPA's legal fees.
