Now, that might not please the pilots union USAPA since that group has acted against its own interests from the start, but that’s too bad. American’s pilots outnumber USAPA members handily. USAPA will disappear in a merger and then hopefully there will be a rational union leadership that will best represent its members on both sides. If the legacy American pilots can come to an agreement with US Airways so quickly, then the US Airways pilots would probably be insane not to take that same contract.

Joint PHL/CLT Domicile Update We believe your careers are being put into jeopardy by the seemingly irresponsible actions we witnessed when our new officers took office. At least Five (5) of the BPR Representatives have been completely shut out from communications by our new Officers. They have failed to return phone calls or appropriately respond to our emails for the last two weeks, and fromwhat we can see, are embarking on a path of destruction for the pilots we represent. Let us be clear, this is not about who won an election and who lost, this is about rolling-up our sleeves and getting to work for our pilots. This is about your Representatives systematically being kept from the decision making and policy producing process. Instead, we're being relegated to the sidelines as a group of inexperienced Officers and Committee members take over the process and independently make decisions with ZERO direction from the entire Board or our represented pilots. If you are not worried about this behavior and the effects it can and will have on your career, you should be.
Here is what we know today:

• The Officers are in possession of a CONFIDENTIAL CONDITIONAL LABOR AND PLAN OF REORGANIZATION AGREEMENT apparently from the APA. President Hummel has chosen to send it to a group of inexperienced committee members including the new Scope Monitoring Committee and the Business Intelligence Committee but not to your elected Representatives. These committee members in possession of this document have not been approved by the BPR and were only appointed on April 18, 2012.
• Many of our pilots with the in-depth knowledge and experience necessary to navigate the complexity of a merger have not been appointed or even contacted for help and guidance to key committees nor have the new Officers sought even a rudimentary briefing from any of the outgoing officers, former President Mike Cleary and Vice President Randy Mowery, who have established relationships and have been in recent discussions with the APA President David Bates prior to leaving office.
• Those with the background and experience to help all of us have been banished from the process. It appears that they have been politically exiled as if they never worked on your behalf. We see this as a huge error in judgment and putting politics before the best interests of all US Airways pilots.
• We were informed Friday that the Officers will be traveling to New York on Wednesday and Thursday to meet with the APA leadership. The Officers have not sought the BPR's input, stonewalled a face-to-face meeting called for by your CLT Representatives on Thursday April 19, 2012 at 1400 (see below) for a Tuesday April 24, 2012 meeting to discuss the actions of the past week. Our officers currently have no official BPR direction, BPR input, nor have they been briefed by any of the former leadership, and combined they have ZERO experience in merger related matters.
• On April 19th your CLT Representatives joined by the PHL Chairman and 1 Vice Chairman called for a Special Meeting of the BPR for April 24th and 25th. The Constitution mandates that the President schedule the meeting. As of Saturday the 21st it had not yet been scheduled.(e-mail below)

April 19, 2012 1400
Captain Gary Hummel,
In accordance with Article V; Section 3 of the USAPA Constitution and Bylaws the following 5 members of the USAPA Board of Pilot Representatives (Captain's Bill McKee, Steve Szpyrka, F/O's Steve Crimi, Dewitt Ingram, and Mike Gilles) are calling for a Face to Face BPR Special Meeting to be held at the USAPA CLT Headquarters on Tuesday April 24 and 25 or the conclusion of business. The meeting is to convene at 0900 with the following Agenda Items.
1. Briefing and Discussions of April 18, 2012 USAPA Office Terminations to include the complete reason and cause for dismissal, the complete severance packages, all employee records, performance reviews, potential legal ramifications, and the total cost of this action to the association and our pilots.
2. Discussion of the total lack of Communications by the USAPA Officers with members of the BPR regarding the April 18, 2012 actions to include committee removals, improper USAPA employee terminations with discussions to include a complete and full briefing of the unauthorized trip to PHX the week of April 2, 2012 without Presidential or BPR approval.
3. Comprehensive Merger Briefing from Merger Council
4. Future Communication Planning and future BPR meeting Schedules.
This notice sent on Thursday April 19, 2012 at 1400 serves proper notice to the Board, Officers, and fulfills the Constitutional requirements.
Please make all meeting arrangements and contact USAPA General Council Brian O'Dwyer, USAPA Merger Council Patrick Szymanski, and USAPA HR Advisor Sherry Taylor for their presence and availability before the Board to complete this formal request from the 5 signed members calling for this meeting.
Sincerely,
Captain Bill McKee CLT Domicile Chairman
Captain Steve Szpyrka PHL Domicile Chairman
F/O Steve Crimi CLT Domicile Vice Chairman
F/O Dewitt Ingram CLT Domicile Vice Chairman
F/O Mike Gilles PHL Domicile Vice Chairman

Agenda Item 3 was placed prior to the events on Friday and we are still waiting on this meeting to be called. Certainly the events of Friday reprioritize the agenda, yet Captain Hummel refuses to comply with our properly requested meeting.
The Campaign Promises of Transparency?
We do not take this letter lightly and regret that we feel the need to even bring these items to your attention but we need your help. In order to solicit input from our pilots we must keep you fully informed. We are writing to let the pilots know that your CLT Representatives and 2/3rds of your PHL Representatives have been effectively removed from the leadership roles you elected us. Attempts are being made to politically neutralize 5 of the 8 East Representatives as our new officer team seems to only be able to count to 6 (PHX, DCA, 1 PHL). We have been cut out of the loop by the incoming National Officers, with no input to the direction into the actions of your union.
This behavior began two weeks ago when the four Officers traveled unannounced to PHX and subsequently refused to answer any detailed inquires about their trip, specifically with whom they met. Since then their behavior has become even more troubling as we learned early Wednesday April 18th - the incoming Officers first day - that President Hummel abruptly terminated USAPA Office Coordinator (Natasha Lindsay) and USAPA Bookkeeper (Sandra Rogers), and offered them each a four month severance package without approval from the BPR.
There was zero communication to your Representatives prior to these terminations and offers of severance and every phone call and email on the subject that we have made to any of the 4 Officers about the issue has gone unanswered. Perhaps even more troubling, we learned after the fact that Captain Hummel had contacted Representatives from both PHX and DCA to seek their off-the-record approval for the terminations before they took place. We find this behavior absolutely outrageous. Please keep in mind that these employees recently received stellar job performance reviews and were recommended for a raise.
The Office Staff Situation
As reported above, two hard working office staff personnel were abruptly terminated April 18th by President Hummel. If you are keeping track, the total is now four USAPA Employees who have either quit or been terminated. All of these employees complained of poor treatment by our new President and Secretary-Treasurer. Considering that we are a labor union fighting for our own rights and to be treated with respect by our management we find it hard to believe that we as an organization would so flippantly mistreat our own employees. We are extremely disappointed.
President Hummel Staffs Committees
The Constitution mandates that all Committee appointments expire with each election of a new President. It also gives the authority to the President to staff the Committees subject to the checks-and-balances of a vote by the BPR to confirm or deny appointments. President Hummel provided the BPR with a fairly comprehensive list of his appointments on April 18th and a BPR approval vote should happen at the next Board meeting. We can tell you that we support the vast majority of President Hummel's appointments, however, we are disappointed in the obviously political omission of some previous, hardworking committee members and are concerned over a few of the appointments to some very important Committees. For instance:

• Appointed to the merger Committee was the previous AWA Merger Committee Chairman who oversaw seniority discussion between AWA and AAA. We do have concerns over this appointment due to Nicolau Seniority issues and litigation that we are currently facing. We feel it may be unwise for our pilot's best interests to cross this bridge until the seniority issue is finally resolved. Appointed to the UOM Committee was the founder of "Change USAPA", an organization started to seek Constitutional amendments to eliminate "date of hire" from the USAPA Constitution. We believe it unwise to appoint this individual to the Committee who will be tasked with writing the rules that govern USAPA, at least until the seniority issue is resolved internally.
• One of the above appointees is also one of three who took receipt of the file containing your social security numbers and subsequently used your contact data to mail you seniority propaganda even after knowing the misappropriated spreadsheet contained sensitive information. The BPR found this action so egregious, they voted to bring formal charges against him. We don't believe that his actions merit a position on the Committee that writes the Union Operating Manual language.
• The new Grievance Committee Chairman has a caustic relationship with the majority of the East Representatives. He is an author of the Compass Correction and has been an antagonistic figure to the majority of the East Reps for years now. We are hesitant to cast our vote to affirm an appointment for someone who has such a volatile personality and has clearly been a divisive force for the cause of unity on our property for a long time.

These are only a few of our concerns and they are valid and real. We are attempting to work through these issues by attempting to force direct lines of communications but are met with open dismissiveness. Considering we have been effectively cut out of the communications loop with the Officers, we need the line pilots that we serve to understand that we are frustrated and need your help. We clearly see that the Officers are using the political power block of PHX, DCA, and 1 PHL Rep, to not only eliminate CLT and the majority of PHL pilots from the process, but allow the Officers to do whatever they choose. In the interest of transparency, we believe it important to share our thoughts and positions on these issues with you as well as informing you that despite our concerns and frustrations we are actively seeking solutions to what we consider toxic political environment.
Final Thoughts
Ladies and gentlemen, the merger train has left the station and Doug Parker is once again attempting to leave us behind. Your National Officers are charging into battle with no direction, no experience and no plan whatsoever and it needs to stop now!!! We only need to look back a few years to the morning you found out your pension was gone without your input, knowledge or your vote to understand the dangerous road that we are currently on. USAPA was built with the focus on line pilot's input and representational equality for all US Airways pilots. Since Wednesday April 18, 2012 your union is being run by Captain Gary Hummel, BPR members from PHX, DCA, and 1 from PHL. Until Captain Hummel learns to embrace the concept of representational equality with full transparency, it appears we are destined to make the same mistakes of our past.
President Hummel, VP Bradford, EVP Smyser and Secretary-Treasurer Streble will not return our calls or emails regarding their accountability. They know they have 6 votes on the BPR and with that they have the majority and can do whatever they want. They can give your seniority away, bargain away your Change of Control provisions, or cut any deal they want without a peep to any of us, until it is time to vote. Through their backdoor alliances they know they have the votes to make important decisions without input from all of your elected Representatives. We are not suggesting that this is their intent, but it would be irresponsible of us not to let you know that we are very concerned.
This is not our merger; it is Doug Parker's merger. We need to take a deep breath, slow down, and use good common sense. We do not have time for these animated political actions and games of political revenge that we have witnessed this past week. We need your help to make it STOP!! If you don't like how events are unfolding please email the Officers at [email protected] and your Representatives and the BPR at [email protected]. What we need from the Officers is transparency and open communication from EVERY BPR member, not just a select few. We are more than willing to work with the National Officers. We understand that now is the time for unity, but unity is a two way street and we must be included in the process as we move forward. This situation can be rectified overnight by the Officers, and we are asking for your help in demanding that the Officers cease their secretive behavior and open up the lines of communications with us all. We must utilize all our USAPA resources as failing to do so ensures inevitable failures; jeopardizing our seniority, our careers, and our futures.
Thank you for your attention to these significant issues. Do not let the apathetic behaviors of our past create tomorrow's failures. This is maybe the last chance to regain our profession, get involved.
PHL Chairman Steve "Spike" Szpyrka
PHL Vice Chairman Mike Gillies
CLT Chairman Bill McKee
CLT Vice Chairman Steve Crimi
CLT Vice Chairman DeWitt Ingram