CBS for Dallas-Forth Worth Local said that pilots of airline US Airways are fighting their seniority rights to lucrative routes and flying bigger planes as the company consolidates with American Airlines. According to a report by The Associated Press, US Airways pilots are seeking for an arbitrator to help them settle the standoff between pilots of American Airlines as the former have not agreed to the stipulations of the latter's pilots' union in Forth Worth, Texas regarding the combination of their worker groups.
The US Airline Pilots Association are asking all defendants, namely American Airlines, US Airways and the Allied Pilots Association, to use the process as provided in the McCaskill-Bond federal law to settle the seniority dispute, said The Dallas Morning News.
Mondaq said that the Mccaskill-Bond Statute addresses the seniority integration treatment of airlines who are under the merger process. It is to note that American Airlines was also involved in the case the US Airways' pilots' union had cited when the former merged with Trans World Airlines TWA. Mondaq said that the McCaskill-Bond Statute was invoked to address the concerns of both workers' unions with regard to the consolidation of TWA and American Airlines.
CBS said that pilots who had more seniority often get the privileges of flying bigger airplanes and get the most lucrative routes.
The Dallas Morning News said that the latest development of the consolidation of the workers' unions in lieu of the merger process between the two airlines arose from a disagreement over a protocol that would integrate the seniority lists of both companies. USAPA had said that since the two carriers are still in the process of consolidating, APA's motion to conduct the seniority list consolidation as if the merger has already completed was invalid and that they are in no position to be declared as the bargaining representative for all of the pilots.
