It’s somewhat difficult to believe that the America West / US Airways merger was closed in 2005.  It’s 2011 and the US Airways pilots still don’t have a unified contract to work from.  There is no doubt that a good deal of primary fault lies with the pilots themselves who:

• Couldn’t agree on how to merge a seniority list between the two unions.
• Couldn’t agree that ALPA was their representative.
• Elected a new union in place of ALPA in order for the US East pilots to take over the union.
• Sued each other multiple times.

Now they’re suing US Airways under the supposition that US Airways has been materially altering the contract under which they’ve been working by unilaterally imposing changes.  US Airways says they think the suit has no merit.  I think the suit has merit but before it can progress, I think the pilots need to get their house in order first.  Without that done, who has standing to bring such a suit?

The pilots, both East and West, need to agree on union representation and seniority merging and then get to the business of negotiating a contract.  Sadly, the business of negotiating a contract can take from 2 to 4 years and that means this may not be done before 2015 or 10 years after the merger.  You can’t blame US Airways for taking advantage of that situation either.  Who wouldn’t?  It keeps costs low and they’ve clearly found a way to operate their airline on two different contracts.

The biggest enemy to US Airways pilots is the pilots themselves.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax