FlyGirl007

Teamsters Sue to Block Illegal Frontier Pilot Concession Deal

Posted on August 03, 2011 at 15:42 PM EDT

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), the certified union representative of the pilots of Republic Airlines and Frontier Airlines, today filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver against Frontier Airlines Inc., its parent company, Republic Airways Holdings Inc. and a shell company set up by the rejected former union of Frontier.

The lawsuit alleges that Frontier, Republic Airways Holdings and the former union of Frontier pilots, the Frontier Airline Pilots Association, which recently lost a union representation election to the IBT, conspired to interfere in the representation election held in June by the National Mediation Board (NMB) among the pilots of the airlines controlled by Republic Airways. The IBT alleges that Frontier and Republic colluded with FAPA during the balloting period to interfere in the election in exchange for FAPA agreeing to concessions for Frontier pilots.


"The last-minute concession deal cut by Frontier, Republic Airways and FAPA gave concessions in exchange for Frontier agreeing to help FAPA perpetuate itself at Frontier no matter what the outcome of the votes of the pilots," said IBT Airline Division Director Capt. David Bourne. "On the eve of the ballot count, FAPA gave pay cuts and other concessions to management in a desperate effort to avoid a vote of the pilots and short circuit the NMB election—that is just the sort of illegal behavior that Congress passed the Railway Labor Act to prevent."

The lawsuit asks that the court nullify the FAPA concession agreement. It also asks that the court issue an injunction ordering Frontier and Republic to deal only with the IBT, who the NMB declared to have won overwhelmingly an election among the pilots of Republic, Frontier, Lynx Aviation and Midwest Airlines in June.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4 million hard-working men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico including more than 75,000 workers in the airline industry. Go to International Brotherhood of Teamsters | International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) for more information.

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters

F9 Driver

Should read: "Teamsters Sue To Get Their Hands On Equity Stake / Profit Sharing Money Negotiated By Frontier Pilots' Legal Representatives"

Funny that Local 357 had to find out about the filing from the news wire, not from DB and the National boys. They've been so proud of being a "bottom up" union (insert joke here), but DB / DT seem to pull all the strings - at the expense of the Local 357 Coffers.

Come on Scott H, chime on in...

slumav505

While I'm skeptical what this will do, I hope you guys get your concessions back. BB led you guys down the path, but your concessions are merely a drop in the bucket compared to the money they are tossing down to order airplanes. Something else is afoot here. Good for the IBT for standing up, regardless if it works or not.

F9 Driver

The concessions aren't meant / able to save the company. They are part of a larger restructuring of the Frontier business which may, and were the first step by RAH in spinning off its heretofore, since RAH's ownership, unprofitable F9 unit to other owners who may be able to make a profit.

This isn't our first time to this rodeo and BB didn't lead us TO anywhere. The IBT and the entitlement mentality of many of the 357 pilots made us want to run FROM something.

I guess we'll see.

sticky

YAWN...such a typical self centered, introverted, simplistic and predictable Frontier pilot response.

ToiletDuck

Or read "Union stands up for pilots best interest". Sorry but this group has no plans on rolling over. You gave concessions once. That's enough. It's a little hard to have profit sharing when there's no profit. I'd rather see people get paid what they deserve. If we buckle from it then hallelujah.

Hetman

I thought pilots had the ability to compartmentalize their emotions in order to effectively address practical concerns.

Silly me.

jayme

Your primary concern is that the Frontier pilots (the real ones) don't take concessions????

Why don't you let them decide what's best for them, and you work on what's best for you... or is that what you're actually doing here?

CptMrgn

Excellent point! I think we should all be asking the question, is the IBT really concerned about the pilot and unity or just money. The Frontier Pilots have already voiced their wishes not to be IBT by voting unanamously against IBT during the election. Obviously they cant take a hint. Frontier pilots DON'T WANT YOU!!!

ATCsaidDoWhat

So...let's see. Frontier gets bought by RAH. The Frontier pilots (at least F9 and some others who screwed up the SW deal) don't like it. And don't want to take the blame for screwing it up and being stuck with BB. So they decide they are going to take their toys and leave the sandbox.

Oh...wait...it's not their sandbox and they don't own the toys. They tried to get ALPA to come in and save them...no dice. So they went to BB and sold their souls hoping he would save them. If they hadn't tried to cut everyones throat in the SLI, maybe they would have had more friends who voted with them.

But no. They are big, bad 'bus drivers. The elite of the industry. Everyone should bow down to them.

Look east, F9. To Atlanta. To AirTran. That could have been you, but your greed cost you. And it's highly likely that if there is evidence of collusion found between you and BB...it's gonna cost you again.

Worst part is that you know they probably have the goods on you. I guess we'll all have to sit back and wait for your sad new tap dance to begin.