Originally Posted by
JetJock16
As I understand it, those who don't want to join ALPA will not be forced to join but will still have to pay a portion (1.4%....?) for benefits received from the union. There will only be one contract and those who join and don't join get the benefits of that contract. If you don't join then there are other benefits you will not receive such as Aero-Medical and Legal (I believe).
This only applies to those who work at a union company but choose to not be union members. More of a personal statement than a real economic choice because you pay anyway.
In the case of XJT/ASA/SKW...
XJT may be able to get a court to require an integrated seniority list but XJT will not be able to force the SKW pilot group to become ALPA against their will.
A seniority list is not a union, and there is no language in the XJT contract which implies that a merged pilot group would have to join a union (that would not be enforceable on the non-union group anyway since they were never party to the agreement between XJT alpa and management). You can easily have a virtual seniority list allowing movement between carriers while keeping the groups separate in all other respects.
Does the XJT contract require that a merged pilot group have identical pay scales, work rules, and benefits? I doubt it.
Having nothing to do with XJT's contract it would still be possible for XJT/ASA to make a "common carrier" petition to the NMB in order to force SKW on board. But the standards for meeting this criteria are well known and totally under the control of INC...
- If INC creates a virtual merger by running all three airlines from one SOC, and does not keep the routes seperate that would support common carrier.
- But if INC keeps the airlines as separate financial entities, with their own training, routes, SOCs, etc a common carrier petition would not work. There's plenty of precedent on this and INC is probably smart enough to avoid triggering it.