Interesting view.

Could you add a little background, so as to get a clearer picture of why you come to this conclusion? Are you, or someone close to you an east or west US pilot? Do you have a background in law or arbitration?

Why would an arbitrator use a seniority list that has never been used and that one that the conditions for using it will never be met?

I'm not saying you're wrong, I don't know, but I just don't see it.

Judge Silver's ruling:

Turning to the present case, the West Pilots claim USAPA breached its duty of fair
representation by “abandoning the existing obligation to use the Nicolau Award.”
For present purposes, the Court will assume such an obligation existed. Therefore,
the question is whether USAPA had a legitimate union purpose for that abandonment. As
mentioned earlier, this would be an easier inquiry if USAPA had abandoned the Nicolau
Award in favor of a different seniority regime. The Court could then compare the Nicolau
Award to the new seniority regime and evaluate USAPA’s reasons for adopting the new
regime. But the complicated state of affairs means that, at present, there is no new seniority
regime directly comparable to the Nicolau Award. And, in fact, there never will be. The
merger with American Airlines, combined with the terms of the MOU, means a new seniority
regime will exist only after the McCaskill-Bond process is complete. That new seniority
regime will include the thousands of pilots from American Airlines and it will be difficult to
compare that regime to the Nicolau Award. Thus, the only question the Court can answer
at this time is whether USAPA had a legitimate union purpose for entering into the MOU.
It did."

 

Your error is assuming that the Nic has any standing. No one will overturn it.

I don't much like the odds of making predictions about what people will do. The law is much less fickle.

The arbitration panel, if there is one, will be constrained by the terms of the arbitration authority granted to them by the participants.

 

How true...

 

This statement tells me Silver researched this and could find nothing that supported the West's position. She probably found the contrary. But she didn't have to correct the assumption, she just let it ride...

But the truth will eventually come out. USAPA was under NO legal obligation to the Nic... And now it's been legally nullified by the company in the MOU... Time to move on... Any guesses what the December East bid will look like?

 

Once again, the complete myopia of the USAPA crowd shows itself. What the judge said is that USAPA will never have the chance to propose a new seniority list with US Airways management because they are done negotiating with USAPA. So now the DFR liability just moves downstream to the SLI with the APA. Both the company and the APA understand that liability, they want no part of it, and they are going to squash you in the end.

What the judge said was that USAPA was okay with punting on their responsibility to support the Nicolau award in the MOU because of all the pay increases that you guys got. She also said that you just barely passed the DFR test and the only reason is that the liability for the DFR still exists and is alive today.

But hey, keep thinking you had some dramatic victory. You will find out soon enough how Pyrrhic your victory was.

 

Judge Silver "assumed" a premise that favored the plaintiff...

Once she made that assumption, it was not legally possible to find judgment against the defendants.... But as you point out her "present purpose" was to be as politically cool to the hometown crowd... A trophy for everyone... Losers can't be called losers.

 

I don't think many West pilots will ever admit the political theater Silver played in her dicta, right up to the point where she became a judge and said "thus it is ORDERED".

 

Do you mean that you have been working for regional pilot pay for these past 7 or 8 years and you did not have to? Surely there was some legal justification for law suits. Last time I checked none were dismissed, just found NOT RIPE. Far cry from "no legal obligation".

A few seem to misunderstand what is going on. Even if the NIC is dead and gone (which I believe it is) does NOT mean damages/DFR goes away,too. The DFR is for the period covered by what would have been the NIC. Agreed to by the East even if they vote ALPA off and reform a new union. The DFR has been hanging over your heads, waiting patiently. The reason APA is not playing nice is they simply don't want your legal mess. After 7-8 years and millions spent and multi- multi- millions lost in wages/benefits you could certainly call this a mess. The problems for USAPA will continue as long as they are in business. APA won't let them on the property for good reason.

 

That is correct, had we accepted a contract we perhaps could have gotten a raise and the Nic. But we didn't so we didn't get either and stayed status quo, just as the transition agreement called for.

Not sure what you mean not ripe. Judge Silver ruled the case was ripe.

 

it is hard to determine if you truly believe this nonsense, or have just spent such an inordinate amount of key strokes spouting it that it has become gospel for you. However, the rest of the non-usapa universe saw you agree to "binding arbitration"...then when the time came to honor your word, well, we saw what your word was worth.