ATW Daily News

Lawsuit ratchets up pilot acrimony at US Airways

Wednesday June 4, 2008

The new union representing US Airways pilots filed suit against a group of fellow pilots originally with America West Airlines charging that they have engaged in harassment, extortion, racketeering and other illegal activities.

The 49-page complaint, filed May 30, also alleges that the former HP pilots are denying cockpit jump seat privileges to US colleagues. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of contentious maneuvers that have been ongoing since the two pilot groups were forced to become one through the US/HP merger two years ago. In April, a group led by US pilots voted to decertify its Air Line Pilots Assn. chapter, replacing it with the new US Airline Pilots Assn. (ATWOnline, April 18). Former HP pilots then formed the America West Airlines Pilots Protective Alliance, which is not a legally recognized bargaining unit.

The suit claims that a group of AWAPPA pilots named as defendants made harassing and threatening phone calls to USAPA and its leaders and deliberately jammed its toll-free number with thousands of "frivolous calls." In one instance cited, a doll labeled "USAPA" was found hanging by a noose inside a US cockpit in St. Louis.

The complaint asks the court for a temporary restraining order that would ban such activities and stop the "threats of physical or economic retaliation" against those who support USAPA. It also seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages along with legal fees and a trial by jury.

"The defendants' and their co-conspirators' repeated and continuous acts of racketeering were neither isolated nor sporadic events," the lawsuit filed in the US District Court of Western North Carolina claims. "They were and are a calculated series of repeated violations of law in order to destroy USAPA. . . by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, fear and sabotage."

One pilot, a senior captain formerly with HP who spoke on condition of anonymity, told ATWOnline that there continues to be "animosity at a lot of levels." He claimed there are some pilots with far less seniority who are upset and frustrated over a lack of promotion opportunities. "The emotion involved by those affected sometimes manifests itself in ways you may not consider professional," he said.

But USAPA has done nothing to improve the situation, he contended. "They have gone out of their way to antagonize us. The adversarial relationship is manifested through this lawsuit. They haven't tried to embrace us or get us onboard. They have always sought to disenfranchise us because they are bigger."

by Sandra Arnoult

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