ALPA "Deep Concern" at AWA mgt
bizjournals.com
ALPA worries about America West
Tuesday June 21, 1:01 am ET
The Air Line Pilots Association expressed "deep concern" Monday that management of America West Airlines is ignoring what it calls reasonable requests to help ALPA protect jobs in a US Airways merger.
In a meeting with senior AWA management, leaders of the AWA pilots union said it raised "a small number of concerns" but did not get the assurances from some senior managers that they had gotten earlier from CEO Doug Parker.
"It is unfortunate that the pilots are not getting a clear and consistent message from all levels of AWA management," ALPA said.
Parker had assured the pilot union leadership that he wanted to protect his frontline employees, including pilots, from potentially adverse career impacts from the merger, ALPA said.
"Despite his assurances, in less than one week, we were back to the same mentality that legitimate labor concerns come a distant second in the priorities of some senior AWA managers," said J.R. Baker, chairman of the AWA Master Executive Council.
US Airways, now working to emerge from a second Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is the sixth largest legacy airline, while America West is the second largest discount carrier. The two recently announced not only that they would merge, taking the US Airways name, but that a key expansion plan would be to add service to Hawaii. Neither carrier now flies to Hawaii, but America West sells code-share tickets over Hawaiian Airlines.