In the fall of 2007 I had two 5-hour one on one conversations with former USAPA president Stephen Bradford regarding his ideas on how a new union should proceed. Bradford is an intelligent individual that I do not hold in the same class as ALPA’s former RC4/5 or USAPA’s hardliners who have been in control of every major failure the East pilot group has sustained.
Bradford told me that USAPA members would pay dues about 25% less than ALPA, union leaders would be volunteers and not on the gravy train, USAPA would be democratic, there would be no “roll call†provision, there would be nobody associated with the RC4 as a USAPA leader, there would be a professional negotiating team, there would be no abuse of union dues, BPR meetings would use webcams for accountability, and of course he recited case law on why DOH could be the only method legally permitted to integrate two pilot groups.
I believed Bradford because I thought he was genuine, but during the election process two major events occurred that changed my support from USAPA to ALPA.
First, the RC4/5 MEC members and other hardliners stopped attending ALPA meetings and instead were attending USAPA organizing events. I believe it is wrong to hold an office of a union and then use union resources as a means to elect another union. Where is the integrity in that? Then I found out that PHL F/O Rep. Dave Ciabattoni was writing USAPA’s C&BL’s and Uniform Operating Manual (UOM), which is one of the reasons ALPA removed him from office. Ciabattoni pledged his allegiance to ALPA during the Representation Campaign, but behind the scenes was working to build USAPA. I new this was going to be trouble, big trouble, because of the hardliners past performance in ALPA.
Next, the ACPC was formed that provided information by people I respect that was anti-USAPA for valid reasons with the ACPC providing truthful, factual information. Then ALPA attorney Mike Abram wrote letters to the pilot on the pending legal problems USAPA would inherit if USAPA was successful in winning the election because the West pilots could bring a DFR lawsuit against the BPR and the West would be successful. Guess what? Abram was dead-on accurate again!
With this said, let me point out that I believe the Nicolau Award is wrong for two reasons. One, I believe in DOH as the bedrock of airline seniority. It is the merger policy of every other US Airways labor group and is how both the East and West pilot groups administer their contracts. And, Joe Monda, the lowest East seniority pilot at the date of the merger is now junior to Dave Odell. At the time of the merger Odell had 3 months seniority, was on probation with America West, and an ALPA apprentice member. On the other hand Joe had 17 years and 3 months uninterrupted US Airways service. Which pilot contributed more to the success of the combined business entity? Joe or Dave.
However, DOH did not exist in ALPA MeRger Policy and I believe it is wrong to renege on a promise to not accept a final and binding arbitration award the parties agree to.
Now back to the NMB’s election…During the Representation campaign when it became clear USAPA was going to be run by people I believe are dishonest who lack character (the old RC4/5 hardliner group) and with the ACPC’s/Mike Abram’s information I shifted my support back to ALPA. Why? I thought if the two MEC’s would remain in place there would eventually be a settlement between the East and West pilot groups that would mitigate the Nicolau Award, permit a new join Pilot and F/A contract, and permit all of US Airways’ stakeholders to constructively move forward.
However, the East pilots did not allow this to happen and the East instead voted for USAPA in an effort to have the majority impose their will on the minority, which I believe is wrong.
Now lets fast forward to today. USAPA has broken most of their campaign promises. USAPA members now pay more in dues and assessments than any airline union in the entire U.S., union leaders voted them self a huge pay raise without first informing the membership or permitting the membership to vote on this issue (which may be a violation of DOL labor), USAPA is not democratic (in fact just last week the BPR attempted to hide the fact that they leased new vehicles for union officials to use and the members did not vote on this abuse), the “roll call†provision was re-inserted back into the C&BLs following the election, the BPR and Key Committees are only made up of people loyal to the former RC4/5, outstanding former ALPA R&I officials who have done fantastic work on behalf of the pilots are not permitted to do union work even though pilots are suffering with R&I/LTD problems, there is not a real professional negotiating team (Seham and Peterson were fired by the American Airlines pilot union APA and they now represent USAP), there is abuse of union dues, there has not been one BPR meeting that used webcams for accountability, and now USAPA has been found guilty of DFR with virtually no chance of an appellate victory. During this time frame thousands of US Airways pilots are being damaged by the union in lost wages, no real chance of an appellate victory, and the company being hurt by USAPA by not being able to fully integrate.
If you click
here,
here, and
here you can read 3 of many reasons on why I believe USAPA is harming all US Airways pilots, both from the East and the West; along with thousands of other US Airways employees and other stakeholders.
I made a mistake in initially supporting USAPA, but I learned from my mistake and I am moving forward. USAPA needs to be removed from the property and I strongly believe an effort to do that will occur in the not-too-distant future when permitted by federal law.
Regards,
USA320Pilot
