Merger Committee Update

On Thursday, December 19, in compliance with the MOU direction regarding the Seniority List Integration (SLI) timeline, representatives from your Merger Committee met in Washington with representatives of the APA Seniority Integration Committee. We discussed language for the Protocol Agreement which will govern major aspects of the upcoming SLI process. This is the 1st phase of the Seniority Integration process as defined in the MOU Timeline.
The exchange was friendly, frank and productive. We will continue to exchange draft language during the holidays and have scheduled additional meeting dates in early January. Your Board was briefed by the Merger Committee earlier this month on our initial draft of the Protocol Agreement at the most recent quarterly meeting in Charlotte, with the understanding they would approve any final language.
Last week the Company proposed a meeting on December 20 with themselves, USAPA, APA, and the Addington II plaintiffs. As you know, the Company, USAPA, and APA are the only parties to the MOU. The plaintiffs in the Addington II litigation are not. A meeting between the Company and the Addington II plaintiffs concerning seniority would be a violation of a number of sections of the MOU as well as the Railway Labor Act. Additionally, the Company has never indicated the intended subject matter of the proposed meeting.
The USAPA Merger Committee will not be attending the meeting, or any other meeting that includes parties other than the exclusive bargaining agents of the two pilot groups and the Company, unless and until there is a requirement from the courts. Our counsel has stated this position to the Company, including the fact that such a meeting would violate USAPA’s status as the certified bargaining representative of all US Airways Pilots. You may rest assured your Merger Committee is in unanimous agreement that we will endeavor to comply with all aspects of the MOU as it pertains to our SLI timeline. Should the Company not follow the well-defined direction and intent of the MOU, your union will take the appropriate steps under the procedures established by the MOU to stop the violations and steer the process back to the proper course. Attached is a copy of the letter that was sent to the Company yesterday.
The recap of the recent APA board meeting contains the following report:
"The Seniority Integration Committee gave an in-depth briefing in executive session. The board approved a related motion to authorize the committee to enter into protocol and seniority integration negotiations in accordance with the four-party MOU and the McCaskill Bond Act labor protective provisions. The committee is directed to seek a fair and equitable seniority integration based on the AA pilots' pre-merger career expectations that ensures equitable sharing of post-merger progression or decline."
We are encouraged by this report and are hopeful our discussions with the APA Committee will continue to make progress towards fair and equitable seniority integration for all of our pilots.
USAPA Merger Committee