US Airways Pilots Yearn For a Contract

PHILADELPHIA (TheStreet) -- US Airways(LCC) pilots held a demonstration at Philadelphia International Airport Wednesday, making the case that contract talks that began four years ago have gone on far too long.

On that point, there is broad agreement, but the cause of the delay is disputed. Is it corporate stalling, as the pilots maintain? Or is it an inability to overcome the barrier of a bitter and divisive battle over pilot seniority that followed the 2005 merger of US Airways with America West, as the airline says?

US Airways contract talks began in November 2005. "US Airways has stalled negotiations so that employees are mired in bankruptcy-era contracts that were negotiated seven years ago," said Mike Cleary, president of the U.S. Airline Pilots Association, in an interview. "They have found excuse after excuse not to come to the table."

Stephen Johnson, US Airways corporate counsel, said in an interview that "we've negotiated energetically and in good faith on any issue USAPA was prepared to negotiate -- but nothing about the key elements, such as pay or scope, because our pilots are engaged in a protracted dispute over seniority litigation and there can't be a single agreement without a seniority list." Currently, two agreements exist, one with each pilot group.

As far as the litigation, it has been a long expensive story, and it continues.

Following the merger, the two pilot groups went to binding arbitration to settle their differences, but the arbitrator produced a ruling so controversial that the former group, a majority, voted to quit the Air Line Pilots Association after 57 years. They formed USAPA, which is committed to ensuring the seniority ruling is never implemented.

Then the dispute moved to the courts. In 2009, a U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix ruled that the ruling must be part of the contract. Then, in June, a U.S. Appeals court ruled that the case cannot be considered until a contract agreement has been reached. It ordered the Phoenix court to dismiss.

In July, the airline went back to the Phoenix court , asking a judge to rule that it will not be liable for picking one group's preferred seniority list over the other's. That case is pending.

Cleary called the airline's filing a stall tactic "to involve everybody in another year of litigation." USAPA's view is that the appeals court ruling enables a contract agreement that does not include the seniority ruling, as long as that contract provides a seniority agreement that is fair to the west pilots. The union believes it does not need a second court's approval to negotiate such a contract.