On April 20, 2009 the ALPA Executive Board adopted a new merger policy. That policy was completely rewritten to adopt most of the principles of our merger including:

A cooperative approach to creating a merger process that meets the specific needs of the situation

Negotiation of the JCBA first with an emphasis on using the contract to achieve gains for the combined pilot group

A time limited arbitration process where the default panel is three neutral arbitrators

An emphasis on open communications to the pilot groups to avoid false expectations and promote a unified pilot group at the completion of the merger

The list of items that ere changed is too numerous, but you can examine the new policy on the ALPA web site.

I examined a three hundred+ page document dealing with airline mergers and a process similar to ours was never mentioned. It is extremely difficult to prove a negative, so I will just let the facts speak for themselves.

Below is an excerpt from the introduction to the policy:

MERGER AND FRAGMENTATION POLICY

SOURCE – In April 2009, the Executive Board adopted major revisions to ALPA Merger and Fragmentation Policy. Future amendments will be noted where they occur in the policy and will include the governing body and amendment date.

PART 1 –STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND PREAMBLE

The purpose of ALPA Merger Policy is to provide protection for the employment interests of ALPA represented flight deck crew members by establishing orderly and expeditious processes for (1) concluding a joint collective bargaining agreement (JCBA), (2) concluding the fair and equitable merger of seniority lists and (3) merging Master Executive Councils (MECs).

The policy rests on a number of premises:

· A successful merger requires the full support of ALPA MEC and Local Council leadership for its implementation.

· ALPA members will be kept informed and up to date through responsible communications, and an environment developed to foster unity and strength in negotiating the JCBA.

· Unity of purpose, based on close cooperation among Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) members and between the participating MECs, is essential to bringing about a work force that will obtain benefit from the merger through successful negotiations.

· Integration of seniority lists is one step in the entire merger process; the merger is onetransaction, consisting of the seniority integration process, the contract negotiation process, the ratification process, andthe transition process (both as to the carriers and ALPA governance), all leading to a single pilot group and MEC.