US Airways, Pilots Clash on Slowdown

Updated from 7/30/11 to include a response from the U.S. Airline Pilots Association.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. TheStreet) -- US Airways(LCC) has sued its pilots union, contending that an escalating safety campaign is actually an illegal job action that has harmed the airline and its passengers through an increasing number of flight delays, missed connections and mishandled bags.

The U.S. Airline Pilots Association responded late Saturday, saying "accusations that USAPA is involved with any sort of illegal job action are categorically false." In fact, the union said it has "posted a message to our pilots advising them that it is not the union's policy to engage in any sort of illegal job actions."

The airline's suit, filed Friday in Charlotte, alleges the job action is illegal under the Railway Labor Act, which does not allow "self help" actions or alterations in the status quo relationship between the airline and the union until a mediation process has played out and pilots are formally released from negotiations.

"Our core point is that USAPA has been engaged for a long time in a concerted effort to disrupt the airline," said Steve Johnson, US Airways executive vice president and corporate counsel, in an interview. "These activities have increased in intensity since May.

"This is a lawsuit in which the defendants are the union and its president," Johnson added. "We are not suing our individual pilots. This is not about the thousands of dedicated pilots we have who, despite this sideshow, operate their flights on time."

The airline is seeking a preliminary injunction to halt the safety slowdown. The case was filed in Charlotte because the city is the union's headquarters and the site of the airline's largest hub, where the majority of delays related to the safety slowdown have occurred, Johnson said.

>> Get your financial news on the go with TheStreet's iPad app.

He said the job action included a June 16 case, which USAPA publicized in a USA Today advertisement, where a veteran captain declined to fly a Philadelphia-Rome flight due to electrical system problems. The aircraft departed about seven hours late, with a different crew.

In an extremely unusual occurrence, the captain was eventually escorted from the airport by airline security officials, apparently because she was believed to have denigrated the airline's safety practices in conversations with passengers.

In its statement, USAPA referred to the incident, pointing out that "this carrier recently called corporate security on a highly experienced International Captain, and threatened her crew with arrest, simply because this crew refused to fly an aircraft that appeared to have significant electrical problems.

"In our view the US Airways lawsuit represents nothing more than an escalation of the pilot intimidation campaign that started over three years ago when they tried to discipline pilots for requesting additional reserve fuel," the union said. That series of events also led to a USAPA ad in USA Today.

In its filing Friday, the airline said the safety campaign exposes the deep schism that exists between two warring factions of pilots, separated by a controversial 2007 seniority ruling following the 2005 merger of US Airways, known as "the east," and America West. The former group dominates USAPA, which ousted a predecessor union in a 2008 election. Not a single pilot from the latter group has participated in the safety slowdown, Johnson said.

> > Bull or Bear? Vote in Our Poll