The award is the place to go to fact check. The boss has some bad numbers. Some other facts and the bottom line from a very long document:
On May 19, 2005, US Airways and America West Airlines
announced that they would merge, taking the name US Airways. Both
pilot groups were represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, which
has a Merger Policy governing the integration of pilot seniority lists.
There were also differences in the financial condition of the two
carriers. For a short time, America West had been in bankruptcy but
emerged in 1994 as a low cost carrier (LCC) operating out of hubs in
Phoenix and Las Vegas. US Airways had also declared bankruptcy, not
once but twice. And it was still in bankruptcy at the time of the merger
and was unprepared to present a reorganization plan for its emergence.
Despite these differences, to be detailed later, it is clear from the
evidence that the more financially able needed the other and that both
have benefited financially from the acquisition.
US Airways
At the time of the US Air/America West merger, US Airways had a grand total of 5098 pilots on its seniority list, 1691 of which (33%) were on furlough.
America West
As of the merger, it had 1894 pilots on its list. All, however, were active and less than 200 had spent time onfurlough and then for relatively short periods during the early and mid-90s, at which point hiring resumed with 1131 additional pilots added to the list.
The Conclusion
As evidenced by Captain Brucia's Concurring and Dissenting
Opinion, attached hereto, he disagrees with this aspect of the Award.
His view is that at a minimum consideration should be given to those
US Airways pilots already recalled; that treatment of them as active
pilots consistent with their present status would serve to recognize
the substantial time they had already invested in their airline. In the
majority's view, this gives weight to post-merger expectations rather
than pre-merger expectations, contrary to what ALPA policy foresees.
In so doing it fails to recognize the prospects the US Airways pilots
faced before the merger; including the reduction of the active pilot
work force from 5500 to close to 3000, the sharp reduction in the size
of the fleet since the 1990's; the absence of recalls though many
active pilots were retiring; the successive bankruptcies and the
inability to successfully emerge from that condition. When all that is
considered, in the majority's view, it is far more appropriate to
combine those who brought jobs to the merger, particularly when the
protection of career expectations is of such overriding concern. This is
not to say, of course, that this merger is designed or should be
thought of as a model for others that may follow. As stated at the
beginning, each case does turn on its own facts. As a consequence,
different facts may produce different results. Here, a majority is of the
opinion that the facts of this case justify our conclusion.