AA/USAirways
 

Wow -
A day after the announcement of the creation of the merger to create the largest airline and no comments on this forum?
Let's get it started...

AA/USAirways
 

Looking forward to it.

I think the merger has great potential for economic gains for all parties. It sounds like a lot of the merger process (at least the part related to the pilots) has been ironed out. That being said, I still wonder if SLI fighting could really sour the deal. Let's hope that MOU both APA and USAPA signed can keep the negotiation/arbitration on track and minimize the discord.

The long pole in the tent for the SLI is the Nic award. Without a resolution to that, any talks between APA and USAPA are fruitless. I'm sure USAPA knows they can't bully or run-over the APA to accept their DOH list, despite the cheap talk. Probably just going to go to arbitration and let the arbitrators decide which US Air list to integrate into the APA list.

If I were an arbitrator, it'd be easy. Regardless of it's merits or lack thereof, the Nic list has already been decided in binding arbitration by a fellow arbitrator.

Exactly. The West guys will sue anything that moves if USAPA, APA, management, or the arbitrator use any list other than the Nic. So I think the question is how well does that MOU protect the merger process from injunctions and such. I don't have the requisite law degree to even guess that answer. I guess only time will tell.

"Eleven days after the MOU was ratified by the pilots of US Airways and five days after the boards of American Airlines and US Airways unanimously approved and announced the merger, the attorney for Leonidas LLC threatened “to file a third round of litigation and seek an injunction of the merger process until we can get a court order directing that the only [seniority] list that can be used is the Nicolau.” The next day, the same attorney wrote a second letter, stating that Leonidas LLC “anticipates litigation and hereby requests that the US Airline Pilots Association... place a litigation hold on certain materials that will be discoverable in such litigation.” Similar letters were sent to APA and US Airways.

Unfortunately these are not idle threats. In the past five years, Leonidas LLC has spent a significant amount of time and money suing USAPA, only to have their cases dismissed.

We cannot stand idly by while a handful of individuals seek to derail an MOU that US Airways pilots overwhelmingly support. That’s why your BPR today approved the filing of a lawsuit in the American Airlines bankruptcy court to prevent Leonidas LLC from interfering with the bankruptcy. This is not an action against the Phoenix-based pilots, nor is it a course of action that anyone desires. Rather, we have been forced to file this action to protect the rights of all pilots – West and East – who overwhelmingly voted in favor of the MOU and the process to move us all collectively forward."
GH

It has been terrible watching these guys fight for about six years now. I only hope that the integration between AA & US will be smoother. They have the MOU and the McCaskill rule, so, I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will play nice.

I gotta think that the west guys would be a lot better off, as will everyone, if the seniority disagreement would get settled sooner than later. But what do I know? I'm just paid to fly.

Hopefully this will mean the demise of USAPA. They are a disgrace to aviation and have stalled the careers of USAirways pilots.

I agree with that