March 28, 2011
Fellow AWA Pilots:
Last week, US Airways Vice President Stephen Johnson wrote a letter to pilots in response to USAPA President Mike Cleary’s complaints about literature sent to East pilots to help educate and inform them about West litigation, and the loss of several years of effective collective bargaining. I write you today to provide you with information about past breeches of West pilots’ personal information that have thus far been relatively ignored by company managers.
In his letter, Mr. Johnson informed us that the company had placed three pilots on administrative leave pending an investigation into circumstances regarding the transmission of a seniority list that had hidden Social Security Numbers (“SSNs”) in a protected part of the list. While I firmly believe that any subsequent investigation will fully exonerate the suspended pilots of any wrong doing, the placing of these West pilots on Restricted Duty/Suspension is unacceptable and inappropriate. I also believe these actions are not in compliance with the terms of our collective bargaining agreement.
I think we are all no strangers to the upset and turmoil that is union politics. ALPA certainly had its share, and to that extent, most us were probably amused at Mr. Cleary’s accusations, and his continuing wild-eyed attacks on anyone or any entity that has a difference of opinion with him, which is truly at the root of this problem. But it is clear that the company has a systemic problem protecting the SSNs of pilots and is using outdated and improper Human Resource policies in this regard.
But it should be clearly pointed out that it was not the fault of any of the suspended pilots that this occurred and the so-called SSN breech was only discovered much later as a part of Mr. Cleary’s manufactured smear campaign.
Here are some things that you should know about similar breeches of your own information:
(i) In 2000, AWAHC transmitted confidential SSN data to the AWA ALPA MEC when sending an excel sheet costing proposal during contract negotiations. The AWA MEC deleted that data, and AWA MEC informed the company. To my knowledge, no further investigations or reprisals or suspensions took place.
(ii) In 2004, the same mistake happened again when AWAHC transmitted confidential data to ALPA that inadvertently contained your SSNs. Again, ALPA deleted the information and informed the company. To my knowledge, no further investigations or reprisals or suspensions took place.
(iii) You should all be aware that in 2005, during our seniority list integration process, company managers likewise again inadvertently transmitted a West list to the US Airways East pilot merger committee that contained all West pilots’ Social Security Numbers. The company, when informed, did not offer free Lifelock subscriptions, nor did they take any steps to conduct an internal investigation, suspend any internal employees, contact law enforcement or any federal authorities.
(iv) Many of the former AWA MEC volunteers believe that USAPA, prior to the NMB election, was able to access West pilots’ personal information from company databases. We believed that East pilot managers supplied this information to them as the address and name formats used in some cases did not match ALPA or FAA databases. Again, to my knowledge, no investigation took place.
While the breech of SSN and other personal information by corporations has become a huge liability problem and was highlighted by many recent high-profile media cases, I am not aware of one incident of pilot identity theft that has occurred as a result of the inadvertent breeches of pilot SSNs hidden in an excel seniority list. While it is important that the company safeguard our data, the problem appears to be systemic in how the company HR and Labor departments store our SSN data coincident with our seniority data in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. That said, I would point out to company managers that it is more important to fix the company’s apparent systemic problem of failing to protect our SSNs on a continuing basis, rather than satisfy Mr. Cleary’s desire for political revenge, and the company’s desire to either appease or outmaneuver him.
When all the facts come out, I firmly believe that any investigation will exonerate the pilots affected. These suspended West pilots have been hard-working volunteers who have put in many unpaid hours for years watching our backs. They are all dedicated, well-respected and professional pilots who do not deserve this additional stress that is being imposed on themselves and their families.
It is NOT acceptable for management to have placed these pilots on Restricted Duty pending the outcome of an investigation that was orchestrated for political purposes either to appease or outmaneuver Mr. Cleary, especially given past company performance with regard to the breech of West pilot data, and given the true circumstances of the alleged incident.
Thank you for your time.
Fraternally,
John McIlvenna
Former AWA MEC Chairman