I will immediately offer full disclosure and state that I am not an American nor a USAir pilot. I am, however, a 17 year veteran of the industry, and have been with United for a little over a year. I was hired just prior to the SLI announcement, and I did not have a dog in that fight anymore than I have one in the USAir/AMR one.
That said, my late father was an attorney and an arbitrator/mediator, and we discussed his work extensively, so I have a bit of a deeper understanding of the way the process works than most, and one thing I get really tired of hearing is the accusations of the arbitrators being "bought off" by one side or the other. In truth, that just doesn't happen.
That said, as the US/AMR SLI process unfolds, I'd like to offer the following concept.
Instead of arguing the SLI merits in front of a single group of 3 or 5 arbitrators, go ahead and pay the money to argue the case in front of 4
separate sets of 3 or 5 panel arbitrators. Each would act as though they are deciding the case.
Once the arguments are complete, each panel will go into deliberations and decide the case as they see fit.
When all 4 groups have completed their work, one will randomly be selected as the the final decision, and they will present it as such. Once the decision is rendered, the remaining panels will present their own decisions.
The point is this: the chances are that
all 4 panels will render decisions that are either the same or very nearly so. This should--
in theory--alleviate concerns of the non-existent "buy off," and demonstrate that the appropriate law (and case law) will have been applied equally, fairly, and properly.
It's just food for thought, and it will not eliminate the crazy conspiracy theories that will inevitably come up, but it will help all parties to provide the most focused arguments they can, while at the same time providing some reassurance that, under the law and
NOT UNDER THE CLOUD OF EMOTION, nobody is getting an unfair deal.
I'm not planning on doing a lot of responding to the replies to this thread. I'm simply using it as a conversation starter for something outside the box, a new tool that might be used in this and future mergers.
Ladies and gentlemen....start your engines!
