Philadelphia Domicile Update

October 11, 2013


Philadelphia Domicile and BPR Update

Dear PHL Pilots,

During the month of September, we had a PHL Domicile Meeting, followed by a quarterly BPR Regular Meeting.

PHL Domicile Meeting

A PHL domicile meeting was held on September 17, 2013, and included briefings by both the Merger and Grievance Committees and a question/answer session followed with Merger Counsel Pat Szymanski. In addition, two resolutions were passed unanimously, and were taken to the BPR meeting for consideration.

The first resolution included the requirement for the President to provide to the BPR a detailed weekly update to insure that the BPR is aware of both the prior week’s activities, in addition to the Officers upcoming week’s schedule . The second resolution involved President Hummel’s ongoing eligibility to serve, as well as his adherence to the Constitution and Bylaws and UOM.

Note - Resolutions and Votes are not official until BPR Meeting Minutes are approved.

Resolution on President Weekly Update (passed unanimously by BPR on September 26)

WHEREAS, the BPR needs current information, and

WHEREAS, a lack of information minimizes the effectiveness of the BPR,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that, the USAPA President shall provide at least one weekly update to the BPR, outlining in detail the activities of the officers during the prior week, and

THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, a final weekly update shall occur no later than Saturday of each week, and

THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the weekly update shall also include the officer anticipated activities for the upcoming week, and

THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, if the officers anticipated schedule changes after the BPR is updated, the Board will be updated within 24 hours.

Resolution on Term of office of the USAPA President after disqualifying medical event (Tabled unanimously by the BPR on September 27)

WHEREAS UOM III. Administration of Flight Pay Loss (FPL) states the following: All members claiming USAPA pay other than those on sick leave/med status (see IV) will remain current and qualified on the aircraft which they currently hold, and

WHEREAS, several BPR members were informed by USAPA General Counsel that the USAPA President is on MED status, and

WHEREAS on June 04, 2013 the BPR was forwarded a memo dated May 15, 2013, “Officer on MED Status” (attached herein as ‘background’) which reviewed the applicable provisions in the USAPA Constitution and Bylaws, and UOM regarding the effect of a National Officer on MED status.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED in compliance the USAPA Constitution, Bylaws, and Union Operating Manual, any USAPA National Officer that is not current and/or qualified on the aircraft they hold due to illness will be considered to be on MED status on the date of disqualification, and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED due to the medical disqualifying event on May 12, 2013 placing the USAPA President on MED status, the BPR will allow the President to remain in office until May 11, 2014 (twelve months) unless the president is able to regain his aircraft qualification and appropriate FAA medical certification beforehand.

THEREFORE BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED the USAPA Secretary Treasurer and the Ballot Certification Committee initiates and completes the balloting and election process for an interim election for the office of USAPA President to be completed no later than May 1, 2014.

BPR Quarterly Meeting

The first day of the BPR meeting consisted primarily of briefings from various committees and legal briefs, and can be reviewed in depth by referencing the USAPA BPR Updates. As such, while we will not reiterate the individual committee reports, we would like to comment on the underlying theme which we find to be the most relevant to our state of affairs, and the concerns you have expressed as the most important at this time.

Addington II: Judge Silver recently awarded the Addington Plaintiffs Class Status, authorized our ‘seniority neutral’ Company the right to intervene, and ruled against USAPA’s effort to receive certain data from Leonidas LLC. While we are obviously disappointed in the rulings, we believe you should focus on the fact that none of these rulings dealt with the merits of the case. Your PHL reps remain confident in the merits of our case and believe that USAPA will ultimately prevail in this suit.

Three Percent: After years of effort, we are dumbfounded by the actions, or inaction by Arbitrator Kasher. To say that this case is ‘bizarre’ would be an understatement. No rational has been provided as to why he ruled the way he did, and there is even reason to believe that the Arbitrator does not truly understand the question asked. We are now contemplating our next course of action which may include yet another visit to Federal Court.

Grievance: Essentially, if you think there is any effort by this Management to make even the slightest effort to alter the negative approach toward this pilot group, think again. Not only has there been no effort to improve relations, but since the MOU was passed, the Company has stepped up their negative campaign and has now graduated from negative to hostile. They have also shown their hand in future plans to transfer aircraft between east and west flying, had the merger gone through last month.

Merger Support: While we continue to support the merger, as we believe it to be the quickest short term fix to many long term problem, we also continue to believe we must be prepared for the possibility that the merger may not occur. As it stands now, our Negotiating Committee expends 100% effort to a situation that most give only a 50% probability of success. Further, we believe that should the merger not occur, we will have to quickly shift our focus. For now however, we believe that we should be, and should have been allocating our time and resources towards the alternative. There is absolutely no reason to believe that this Management cannot work together with USAPA in the same aggressive approach as they did with the APA, when they hammered out a contract in a matter of weeks.

Unfortunately, as one might expect; US Airways President Scott Kirby has already informed USAPA that he has no intention of negotiating under the same aggressive timeline; once again using the seniority dispute as an excuse. In the mean time, we will be mired in protracted negotiations with a management that has no interest in treating us fairly, a flawed system that will likely take years to grant a release for a legal job action.

What to do about it: Your PHL reps, along with the CLT reps, believe the reason we are in the situation we are in is due to the USAPA President excluding the BPR from major decisions and the BPR not exercising its duty to have a major role in the decision making process. The MOU is an example where the BPR was effectively cut out of the process and in some cases, the last to know about upcoming events. In essence, USAPA did not utilize the teamwork available to them in an effective manner. The result, as we are now seeing, is there are areas that were previously not considered, which may have been prevented had all available resources been utilized. We also believe that our Union committees require a review, and that the staffing may not be in line with what we consider necessary to confront this management team going forward.

In order to correct these issues, the BPR has now passed a resolution to require the President to provide weekly updates on past and known future events. In addition, the BPR is reviewing several committees to insure that they are staffed according to the current needs of the Association.

What’s next? By now you may have heard rumors as to the events that occurred during a portion of the BPR meeting. In essence, for a short time there was what could only be considered a battle between the BPR and the President over authority and UOM interpretation. The result was a stalemate and a tabling of several issues which will need to be studied and dealt with during the next meeting. While we, like you, are tired of the infighting that has been prevalent in the past; it is clear to the majority of the BPR that the way to effectively deal with the serious issues moving forward is for the BPR to have representational authority that was the intent of USAPA from the beginning. In our opinion, the Association has been run autonomously rather than as an effective team since April 2012. We must correct this behavior; USAPA will be more effective united than divided, and we will require unity in the upcoming dealings with our counterparts at APA, or with the Company if we remain independent.

USAPA President Hummel believes if the merger with APA is ultimately blocked and we once again find ourselves back in section 6, US Airways Management will hopefully remember our good-faith effort in negotiating the MOU and do the right thing when it comes time to negotiate a new CBA. Unfortunately, we do not share his optimism.

Lastly, we want you to know that for the first time in a long time, the PHL BPR is united. We currently have the majority of the BPR unified in how to be most effective and as always, we will continue to work with your collective best interests in mind. It will be a difficult road and we hope you will continue to work with us and support us as we move forward.

Paul DiOrio John Taylor Paul Music
Chairman Vice Chairman Vice Chairman
978-886-1141 540-809-9480 772-708-6159








To adjust your email preferences or to opt out of communications, please visit the Account Settings section of the website.



Copyright 2013 - US Airline Pilots Association
200 East Woodlawn Road, Suite 250, Charlotte, NC 28217
Phone Message: 877-332-3350 | Office: 704-936-4500 | Toll-free: 877-332-3342