But the biggest difference between the two airlines was workforce. The US Airways guys are, generally, much older. Robert W. Mann, an airline analyst and consultant, says that endless financial problems, particularly those following 9/11, led to 1,691 of its 5,000 pilots being "furloughed." That's airline-speak for laid off, yet still on the company's roster, in case the situation were to improve.
At the time of the merger with America West, US Airways hadn't hired a new pilot in 17 years. And, virtually every US Airways pilot who'd been hired since 1987 was stuck on furlough, Mann says. Most had been on the list long enough to find other jobs. Some had landed jobs at JetBlue — or even America West.
Jamie Peachey
Jamie Peachey
David Braid was accused of extortion after doing nothing more than posting a comment online.
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America West was growing. Since its inception in the 1980s, it had grown to 1,894 pilots. None were on furlough at the time of the merger.
Because the airline was still relatively young, few America West pilots could match the US Airways pilots when it came to years of service. In fact, if you drew up a combined seniority list, based strictly on original date of hire, 900 US Airways pilots would predate America West's oldest veteran.
That's been the epicenter of the new airline's post-merger drama. The mounting anger between the two groups of pilots, the RICO suit, even the allegations of dog feces in the mail stem from controversy over the seniority list.
But while the arguments have become petty, the issues are not.
At an airline, everything depends on seniority. Pilots work as a "first officer" for years just to earn captain status — which comes with not only the right to command your own plane but a big pay raise. And with a limited number of jets in the fleet, there's room for only so many captains. (Not to mention, for a pilot, a good schedule is paramount — and the more seniority you have, the better your options.)
If all the furloughed US Airways pilots were allowed to return to active duty as captains, they'd bump the younger captains at America West back down to first officer. If more furloughs were needed, too, the America West guys would be on the chopping block.
The America West pilots didn't think it was fair. Why should they suddenly be in a precarious place, just because their company had absorbed a troubled competitor?
"Everybody saw this as a problem," confirms CJ Szmal, an America West pilot and, at the time of the merger, a union officer. "It's nuclear fusion, it's mushroom cloud stuff. It's the most volatile thing in the world — pilot seniority."
The airline did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment.
The CEOs of the two airlines agreed to become one in September 2005. They kept the US Airways name, the old America West headquarters in Tempe, and America West CEO Doug Parker as their new boss.
After that, it was left to the union chapters representing the East pilots (the older, partially furloughed guys) and the West pilots (the younger, America West ones) to merge into a single unit with a new, combined seniority list. Only after that could they begin negotiating a new contract.
Three years later, they haven't begun to talk about a contract. Seniority has been too great a minefield.
The West guys argue that it can't simply be a matter of date-of-hire: If so, a thousand of them would end up junior to guys who hadn't been working in the industry for years. But the East guys argue that it has to be — and can only be — date-of-hire.
The two pilots groups have been so far apart on the issue that they hired a mediator to help them talk then serve as an impartial arbiter when mediation failed. George Nicolau, who's worked for both the airline industry and Major League Baseball, was suggested by the East pilots. When the West pilots acquiesced, both sides agreed that his verdict would be final and binding.
For 18 days, Nicolau listened to testimony from both sets of pilots. It soon became clear, West pilots say, that the East-based pilots were unwilling to negotiate. It was date-of-hire or nothing.
Mann, who assisted the West pilots during previous merger talks and during the seniority negotiations, was stunned by the East pilots' attitude. "I've done a lot of these," he says. "And this was just the most extreme intransigence I've ever seen."
In May 2007, Nicolau issued his decree on how seniority should be handled. Suffice it to say, it wasn't based strictly on date-of-hire; he'd crafted a compromise that weighed a host of factors.
That should have been it; the two parties had agreed at the beginning that the Nicolau award was to be binding, final, and all those words that mean it can't be challenged or changed or compromised.
The East pilots, though, had other plans.
Screw the "binding" bit. Surely, it applied only to the union that had agreed to arbitration.
What if they were to start a new union? Then, surely, Nicolau wouldn't count.
Then they could start from scratch.
In early 2008, the pilots at US Airways began to campaign for the creation of a new union.
