PRESS RELEASES

Nov 21, 2008 - Press Release

The America West Pilots have filed lawsuits against USAPA and USAirways, Inc. A ruling was handed down by Judge Wake in this case on 11/20/08.

The following sources can be used to obtain more information:

The Army of Leonidas LLC

USAPA - USAirlinePilots.org

Cactus Underground Podcasts

The Eye on USAPA

Nov 10, 2008 - Press Release

NOV 10, 2008 - Split among US Airways pilots divides the company, by Dawn Gilbertson, The Arizona Republic

May 21st, 2008 - Press Release

Are you researching who bought who? Additional and detailed information regarding the Merger Transaction and its structure, between America West Airlines and USAirways is available in the 2007 USAirways Annual Report.

April 17th, 2008 - Press release

AWAPPA's History

The formation of the America West Airlines Pilots Protective Alliance (AWAPPA) comes in the wake of the May, 2005 merger of America West Airlines and US Airways. The new airline, led by the America West management team from its Tempe, Arizona headquarters, chose US Airways as its name due to wider brand recognition.

The full history of the 2005 purchase of USAirways by America West Airlines may be viewed at USAirways - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

At the time of the merger, US Airways was in its second bankruptcy, had no exit plan, had over 1,700 pilots on furlough, and was in the process of liquidating. In contrast, America West was a flourishing low-cost carrier with dozens of new aircraft on order and steady hiring. Although US Airways had the most to gain from the merger, both airlines are better off as a combined entity than they were as stand alone airlines.

At the time of the merger, the pilots of both airlines were represented by the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA). Under the union’s internal Merger Policy, the two pilot groups began the process of integrating seniority lists. Seniority is the sole determinant of virtually all employment benefits for pilots; pay, position, aircraft, and schedule are among the areas impacted. Unable to reach a consensus after negotiation and mediation, the first two steps of ALPA’s Merger Policy, both groups moved on to the third and final step: Binding Arbitration. Arbitration hearings were held in late 2006/early 2007 under the authority of George Nicolau, a widely respected and experienced arbitrator who was mutually selected by both pilot groups. The hearings produced over 3,000 pages of testimony and involved more than a dozen expert witnesses. Throughout the process, the America West pilot leadership made all the hearing transcripts available to its pilots, something the US Airways pilot leadership did not do.

Against the advice of Arbitrator Nicolau, the US Airways pilots maintained that the seniority lists should be integrated by employment date, otherwise known as “date-of-hire”. Although this integration method is not foreign to union seniority integrations, it is not a method used exclusively by any pilot unions in the United States. Because US Airways is a much older airline than America West, and the average US Airways pilot is older than the average America West pilot, a “date-of-hire” integration would overwhelmingly favor the US Airways pilots. In fact, it would place 80% of the America West pilots on the bottom of the combined seniority list. The America West pilots, on the other hand, argued for a ratio integration method, which does not necessarily favor either pilot group. This approach results in a “fair and equitable” outcome that adheres to ALPA’s Merger Policy and complies with a new federal law passed last year.

In May, 2007, the Arbitration Board issued its decision in the seniority integration. Commonly referred to as the “Nicolau Award”, the decision reserved the top 517 positions for pre-merger US Airways (“East”) pilots, blended in the America West (“West”) pilots, and placed all East pilots who were on furlough on the date of the merger (who had no reasonable expectation of returning to fly for US Airways absent the merger), at the bottom of the integrated seniority list. Not surprisingly, the Arbitration Board decided that simply using years-of-service was not an equitable method for merging the two pilot groups. 

In fact, US Airways CEO Doug Parker made a prescient observation when he announced the America West-US Airways merger in May, 2005. Mr. Parker distributed a letter which read, in part: 

“…we would expect that no employee who already had been furloughed prior to the merger would be permitted to bump an active employee out of a job. Likewise, we expect our unions will recognize a solution that simply “staples” all employees of one airline to the bottom of the other’s seniority list as unacceptable and unconscionable. To that end, because of seniority differences in some groups, straight seniority integration could have an effect similar to that of stapling employees to the bottom of a seniority list, an outcome that is inconsistent with a fair and equitable protocol. Therefore, some type of proportional integration would seem reasonable.”

The Nicolau Award met all of the above stated ideals, and was officially accepted by US Airways CEO Doug Parker as the combined seniority list for America West-US Airways.

After the Nicolau Award was issued, a group of disgruntled US Airways pilots formed the US Airline Pilots Association (USAPA) with the sole intention of abolishing the Nicolau Award and replacing it with a date-of-hire seniority list. USAPA’s actions run counter to several elementary tenets: the definition of “binding” arbitration, the stated guidance of US Airways CEO Doug Parker, and the premise of fair-and-equitable. Under USAPA’s plan, 80% of the America West pilot group would fall below the most junior pre-merger US Airways pilot who was furloughed at the time of the merger and would never have returned to work absent the merger. 

On April 17, 2008, the National Mediation Board announced that USAPA received the majority of votes to become the new bargaining agent for all US Airways pilots, including the pre-merger America West pilots. As a result, the America West Airlines Pilots Protective Alliance (AWAPPA) has been formed to engage in an aggressive strategy to undermine all of USAPA’s discriminatory acts against pre-merger America West pilots. 

AWAPPA will educate pre-merger America West pilots about USAPA and relevant events taking place, while providing recommendations that will ultimately lead to USAPA’s downfall. USAPA’s stated goal of overturning the Nicolau Award goes against the grain of common sense and propriety. By instantly disenfranchising one-third of the combined US Airways pilot group from Day One, USAPA’s existence guarantees labor turmoil at US Airways. USAPA has ensured its demise is just a matter of time.

AWAPPA is an Arizona Limited Liability Corporation created, operated, and privately funded by pre-merger America West pilots. Represented by the highly qualified law firm Bredhoff & Kaiser P.L.L.C., AWAPPA will use any and all resources (legal and political) to ensure that USAPA fails in its stated goal of overturning the Nicolau Award.

Please contact webmaster@awappa.org with comments, errors or suggestions regarding this website.