Originally Posted by
teddyballgame
Let us also remember that in the AAA/AWA pilot seniority arbitration, it was the UAL pilot neutral, Capt. Gillen, who agreed with Arbitrator Nicolau that the AAA pilots who were furloughed at the time did not bring a job to the merger, and therefore should be placed on the combined seniority list below AWA pilots who had literally just been hired at the time of the merger announcement.
The CAL pilot neutral, Capt. Brucia, disagreed with this position, and argued that the furloughed AAA pilots -- some of whom had been on the seniority list for 17 years at that time -- should be at least given credit for the time they had actually spent in active service with AAA (i.e., actually flying the line and not furloughed).
Ironic, isn't it? In this merger, it is the UAL side that has the furloughed pilots who want to be given credit for their time in active service, when it is their own guy who is on record in a merger arbitration as stating that they bring nothing to the table, and should therefore be stapled. And it is the CAL side that has active pilots flying today who were hired many years after some of the currently furloughed UAL pilots.
If I were on the CAL Merger Committee, I would have Capt. Gillen's testimony from 2007 dusted off and ready to go on day one of the inevitable UAL/CAL seniority arbitration hearings.
If you want to use Capt. Brucia's dissent as the basis for dealing with the L-UAL furloughees I'll sign on to that plan. But you guys really ought to read the award.
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At a minimum, it is my opinion that the US Airways pilots, who had already received notice of their opportunity to return to work from furlough, should have received some consideration for the substantial time they have already invested in their airline. In the event that the "new" company again decided to furlough pilots in the near future,conditions and restrictions could have been used to insure a measure of protection for the junior America West pilots to protect them from furlough for some period of time. In fact such a restriction was part of the US Airways Pilot's integration proposal in this case.I believe that this approach would have better balanced the equities that each pilot group brought to this merger."