Oh, and R57, one more thing. Parker compared AWA to Frontier in the crew news. Can you tell us if Frontier is still operating? Thanks, another stellar post by you.

 

Did you miss the Republic debacle?

 

Cost us 7 months? Are you sure about that? Had a protocol agreement been reached in February, it would have sat there until now. Because with or without the protocol agreement, nothing could have happened until a JCBA is reached. That hasn't happened yet. So no time was lost on the SLI. It's on the same schedule, waiting for the same thing... A JCBA first...

 

I looked at it on this site:
http://www.cactuspilot.com

I did not see DOB referenced.

 

Missed it by a mile.

The arbitrator in the Frontier / Republic merger threw his own award in the trash over just a change in ownership. Nothing else.

 

Now you guys are comparing frontier/republic? And I thought the Bloch dispatcher sli was your go to proof of Nic getting it wrong. Crazy beasties

 

So you'd rather be at some where like Frontier than where you are? Gotcha.

S

 

Interesting read on the cactuspilot site. Update and letter sent to President Wilson.

Part of the update...

September 4th APA, American Airlines and USAPA produced the Protocol Agreement to set the rules that will govern the seniority single list integration. The company and our future union, APA, agreed to this Protocol, despite admonitions from Judge Silver expressing concerns over USAPA’s ability to truly represent the West pilots. APA and American Airlines should exercise extreme caution when dealing with USAPA, since their word or agreements cannot be trusted.

The Protocol Agreement, PA, recognizes USAPA’s merger committee even after USAPA is decertified. Meanwhile, West pilots are forced to arbitrate whether or not we will have our own merger committee representation. The Protocol Agreement itself is evidence that USAPA’s interests are diametrically opposed to ours. The events of the last eight years highlight the distinction between legal and ethics. There is no other way to describe a system that provides cover for USAPA to collect dues from the very group they attempt to oppress. There is a level of disappointment however when USAPA is aided by management and our future collective bargaining agent.

Although we are forced to play by their rules, West pilots have reason for optimism. The West pilots, represented by Jeff Freund and Marty Harper, are optimistic about the outcome of the “first” arbitration confirming APA’s right to appoint a West Merger Committee. The next several months should be quite busy for our West Merger Committee, requiring an incredible amount of effort within a compressed time schedule outlined in the PA. The timely expansion of the West Merger Committee is coupled with the PA completion

As per the PA, the West Pilots Merger Committee sent within the time constraints of the PA, aletter requesting party status and for APA to appoint the West Pilots Class Representatives selected West Merger Committee.

The appalling idea that USAPA leadership believes it has the right to use OUR dues money after decertification goes along with the unethical delusion USAPA has had since the summer of 2007. Our legal team is and will be exploring all options available to impact USAPA’s ability after decertification to withhold returning to the pilots their unused dues or USAPA’s ability to use West Pilots’ pro-rated share of their dues against us. A letter is being sent to USAPA and its elected officials addressing these issues. Based on past behavior, USAPA plans on becoming a quasi “Kiwanis Club”, some sort of private, unincorporated association bound by the laws of the State of North Carolina to somehow further obstruct the American Airlines, APA, and West Merger committees.






The letter:

Dear President Wilson:

Pursuant to the terms of the Protocol Agreement between APA, USAPA and American Airlines, I write to advise you that the former America West pilots ("West Pilots") whose names are set out in the attachment to this letter request that, upon APA being certified as the bargaining agent for all American pilots, APA appoint them to serve as a West Merger Committee to represent the interests of the West Pilots in the seniority integration process that will produce an integrated seniority list. The listed West Pilots come from all segments of the West Pilots' group including Plaintiff Class Representatives from the Addington litigation, elected Phoenix base representatives, the original America West Merger Committee, Leonidas LLC (created to protect the Award issued by Arbitrator George Nicolau in connection with the America West/US Airways merger), AWAPPA (created after the Nicolau Award in May 2007 to protect the broader interests of West Pilots vis a vis USAPA), and members of an ad hoc West Pilot Merger Committee that have been studying the implications of a US Airways/American merger for the last 9 months.

Given the hostility shown to the West Pilots by USAPA since USAPA's inception, including most particularly the very rationale for USAPA's existence - namely, to see to it that the entirely proper Nicolau Award which was accepted by US Airways 7 years ago as the legitimate result of a mutually agreed-upon process to integrate the America West and US Airways pilots was never implemented - we believe that it would be a breach of responsibility for APA to decline to appoint a West Merger Committee and to allow West Pilots to be represented by a USAPA Merger Committee. Nevertheless, we understand that under the Protocol Agreement, APA has agreed to assign the question of its discretion to appoint a West Merger Committee (although not the appointment decision itself) to a panel of three arbitrators. While we would have preferred to have APA simply exercise its authority as the bargaining agent for all American pilots and appoint this West Merger Committee directly without the added burden of an arbitration on what we believe is an unassailable proposition generally and as well under these particular circumstances, given that the Agreement is now final, we submit this as a request pursuant to Section 8(a) of the Agreement.

The West Merger Committee is represented by Marty Harper, who has represented both the Addington class representatives and Leonidas LLC for the last 6 years and Jeffrey Freund (and his colleagues at Bredhoff & Kaiser, PLLC), who represented the old America West Merger Committee in the America West/US Airways SLI proceeding as well as AWAPPA and, more recently, Leonidas LLC. I include this information so there is no question about the bona fides of the West Merger Committee or its ability to effectively represent the interests of the West Pilots collectively.

Please contact me if you have any questions or have your counsel contact Marty or Jeff. Speaking for all West Pilots, I believe I can safely say that we look forward to the day when APA officially replaces USAPA as the West Pilots' bargaining agent and to a constructive relationship both during the SLI process and, more importantly, after it is completed and we join ranks to advance the interests of all New American pilots.

 

I wasn't even talking about the SLI, just the rest of the jeopardy of being acquired for pennies on the dollar by a third rate regional to whom you couldn't pay the bills. Though, I can't imagine the AWA folks "accepting" being slotted below so many RJ pilots and taking it in stride. The F9 pilots certainly didn't.

 

You argued AWA was unstable with a bad future, then used a comment by Parker comparing AWA to Frontier, in your typical straw man argument fashion. I asked you if Frontier is still in business six years later. A simple yes/ no question which, apparently, you are incapable of answering. Lol.
Do ever get tired of making your straw man arguments? I don't think the rest of APC is buying it much, a few of your east copilots withstanding. Maybe a couple thousand more posts will do the trick?