Greetings,

AFA 66 eCommunication - Wednesday, May 13, 2009

US Airways West Pilots Win DFR Lawsuit Against USAPA

At approximately 10:40 this morning, a jury of nine, at the Sandra Day O’Connor federal court house in Phoenix, AZ,  found USAPA liable in the Addington case. This is a Duty of Fair Representation (DFR) law suit between the West-based pilots of US Airways and the US Airways Pilots Association  (USAPA) which won representation of both pilot groups last year.
 
The West pilots of US Airways now have a final resolution to their arbitrated seniority. Winning this lawsuit, means that USAPA did not fairly represent the West based pilots in their implementation of the USAPA Date of Hire seniority integration list and that the seniority list arbitrated by NMB Arbitrator Nicolau will stand.

Many pilots have been waiting for this answer. It has been a long journey to reach this decision and the hope was that the pilot group could put the seniority issue aside and unite toward  reaching a single contract with management. With this decision, AFA was hopeful that the Company will move forward to reach combined contracts with both the pilot and flight attendant groups.

However, immediately after the jury reached their decision, USAPA put out a statement saying, “our legal team is already working on an expedited appeal and stay of any proposed injunctive relief,” and are planning to appeal to “The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and, if necessary, the United States Supreme Court .“

It is our hope that USAPA will accept this decision and move forward with this merger and with their careers.

MEC President, Lisa LeCarre  
MEC Vice President, Dorene Fredette
MEC Secretrary-Treasurer, Jeff Albers



mec@afa66.org
www.afa66.org