Originally Posted by
Frisco727
Liability primarily. Do all parties include the West pilots? Was the West included in the compromise? Initially, the APA was opposed to USAPA continuing as an entity. Now they are free to take all dues money under protest from the West pilots and continue business as usual?
I've spent time reading the updates on the Leonidas site. Click on those links:
September 2014.
Today, the NMB certified the Allied Pilots Association as the exclusive bargaining agent for all flight deck crewmembers of US Airways. You can read the NMB determination here. Effective immediately, USAPA no longer has the legal status of a collective bargaining agent.
USAPA is still in possession of a substantial amount of dues monies, collected from US Airways pilots for the purpose of collective bargaining - a purpose which they cannot fulfill anymore. A demand letter was sent on Friday September 12th to USAPA officers and counsel which notices USAPA for the remittance of all funds in excess to concluding USAPA's business as a exclusive bargaining agent required under the law. You can read the demand letter here.
Additionally, a Litigation Hold Letter was sent to USAPA attorney Brian O’Dwyer for the retention of all USAPA records.
Finally, we encourage all West pilots to apply for membership to our new collective bargaining agent. The APA has a convenient online application, which you can access here.
Thank you all for your continued support.
The APA has a DFR obligation to the West pilots as well. There are a lot of lawsuits, hold letters, demand letters and trouble in general I don't want to see the APA a part.
I don't think the APA has anything to worry about on the DFR front. As a matter of fact, I think they handled that very well.
First off, until SCS they had no DFR to east or west, right? USAPA was the legally elected CBA of US pilots and they carried that burden. After SCS they do, and they wanted to give the west a seat. Here's the problem with that. They were negotiating with a group that didn't want to, and apparently wasn't going to. So they could wait untilt SCS and do what they wanted, but then the east pilots would have a good claim against them as there is a standing ruling from a federal judge saying that the west pilots didn't have the right to separate status, and that it would cause chaos if they got it. So that would have been a pretty bold step, opening up DFR liablity to the east. Now, Silver also said that the east wouldn't have a right to it either, but the difference is that all parties AGREED to that(It think all parties recognized that was nuts with MB). So, they compromised with the arbitration. Now they can say "We wanted to give them their own committee, but their CBA wouldn't agree to it, so we settled." I think this keeps their hands clean.
I think you said that you are fairly new to the east/west fight, but I will give you some advice. Take any AOL update with a grain of salt. They like to write these flowing diatribes, but they are almost always wrong.
AOL wants USAPA to shut down so they cannot speak for east pilots in the AII appeal, pure and simple. They threatened to sue, so USAPA asked for a DC. We'll see what the courts say.