LOA 93 Pay Duration Grievance Timeline (Show Me the Money Part II): May 27, 2011
Fellow Pilot’s,
The record on the LOA 93 Pay Duration Arbitration officially closed on June 11th of last year. Almost a full year has gone by since all of the evidence has been in the hands of Arbitrator Kasher. The effective date of the dispute was January 1, 2010.
Two legitimate questions need to be asked and answered; 1.Is the lack of a decision announcement by now, normal? 2. Would it be proper to ask the arbitrator when to expect one?
I worked as the PIT Grievance Chairman and MEC Grievance Chairman for nine years from 1993-2002. After that I sat on the System Board for six years. I have been involved in far too many arbitrations to count, either as the grievance representative pursuing the case, as a system board member with the arbitrator, or as a witness. I have been involved in numerous arbitrations with Arbitrator Kasher going back to the 90’s. I feel I am more than qualified to answer the two questions above.
Q1. No, this length of time is not normal. Usually a draft is out 2-4 months after the record closes. By all accounts this has not occurred in the LOA 93 arbitration, after more than 11 months. Recall that USAPA’s own update as the hearing ended February 4, 2010 predicted a decision around the September, 2010 time frame. That would have been perfectly in line with the 2-4 month time period after the record was expected to close.
Please understand that an arbitrator’s decision first appears to the interested parties through the System Board Members in draft form; simply a first pass to allow the parties to comment and to correct any errors of fact or argument. Later, after a possible Executive Session or two (face to face), a Final and Signed decision is issued. Sometimes a final resolution may take longer as the two sides haggle over what would be the proper remedy with the arbitrator retaining jurisdiction; but should we be at almost a year without even a draft? Never in my experience has the process just to receive a draft taken this long.
Q2. Yes, we should ask the arbitrator when to expect a decision. Look, Kasher is a pro. He won’t read anything negative into such a request. He knows this case is a big one and is of huge interest to both parties... Hell, he’s probably wondering why we haven’t asked him by now! What message is sent to him by our silence?
What about the argument that such a request may piss him off? Arbitrators are independent contractors. They are not federal judges with salaries and retirement bennies. They only get paid when they work.
To get steady and recurring work from either a union, or a company, BOTH of those parties have to be consistently happy with the arbitrator’s work product and service. In short, a successful arbitrator must take great care to make both sides happy. Once I understood this simple principle, some things I saw during arbitrations made more sense. Numerous times I saw the company take an “aggressive” tone with an arbitrator. Each time I felt the company was digging a hole that would surely help us. Wrong! Each time the arbitrator backed down and ruled for the company as he strove to maintain his “mutual acceptability” for future possible selection.
Again, Kasher is a pro. Asking the question when? will not make him upset and won’t affect the decision. So let’s ask the question and get things moving. We’ve been mired in quick sand on too many fronts for too long now.
Oh, perhaps you recall that USAPA Grievance update you got last fall, implying that an impending surgery for the arbitrator was the probable reason for a delay in our LOA 93 decision?? As of last month, April, 2011, surgery had not been performed on Mr. Kasher...only on your wallets. Mr. Kasher has been working virtually full time since that update came out six months ago. All that work and still, no result for the US Airways Pilots! Recent intel, from other, more reliable sources has it that he’s actually about to get his contemplated surgery. Will this provide yet another excuse? Once again, we need to ask the question.
Fraternally,
Doug Mowery
A-320 CLT
