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Tuesday, August 06, 2002

By Frank Reeves, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

US Airways Express pilots, upset about mainline pilots possibly taking their jobs, plan to picket their union's offices in Washington, D.C., today.

The demonstration is the latest indication of a simmering dispute between pilots who fly turboprops and small jets for Allegheny, PSA and Piedmont airlines -- three wholly owned US Airways subsidiaries, which operate as US Airways Express -- and the carrier's mainline pilots. The groups are represented by separate units of the Air Line Pilots Association.

At issue are provisions in a tentative agreement between US Airways and its unionized mainline pilots that would allow the airline to expand the number of regional jets it can deploy from 70 to 465. US Airways has long insisted that it must have the authority to deploy hundreds of small jets if it's to meet growing competition from Continental and Delta. But the carrier has been limited on the number of regional jets it can deploy by its contract with its mainline pilots.

In the past, the pilots union has opposed increasing the number of regional jets, fearing that it could result in the airline displacing mainline jets with smaller, regional jets. Pilots who operate mainline jets are paid more than their counterparts who fly the smaller aircraft.

Under the tentative agreement, some of the newly allowed regional jets are expected to be deployed by US Airways' existing wholly owned subsidiaries, while the bulk of the new planes are expected to be deployed by MidAtlantic Airways, a fourth wholly owned subsidiary US Airways established in May.

In exchange for permitting the Arlington, Va.-based carrier to increase the number of regional jets, the company agreed to the union's demand that at least half of the new pilot jobs at Allegheny, PSA and Piedmont would go to mainline pilots furloughed as a result of the plunge in air traffic since Sept. 11.

In addition, all of the new pilot slots at MidAtlantic would go to furloughed mainline pilots, until jobs opened up on the mainline fleet.

Patrick Flannery, a nine-year veteran pilot with Allegheny, said the so-called "jets for jobs" program was unfair. He said it would allow mainline pilots not only to take jobs from US Express pilots but also to supersede regional airline pilots in seniority.

Flannery, one of the organizers of the demonstration, said the jets for jobs provision was unfair to the pilots Allegheny and the other subsidiaries have furloughed since Sept. 11. At Allegheny, for example, about 60 of the airline's 400 pilots have been laid off, Flannery said.

Roy Freundlich, spokesman for ALPA's US Airways' local, said that while he understood the concerns of the US Airways Express pilots, there would be no additional regional jet jobs if the mainline pilots had not agreed to let the company deploy more of the smaller jets.

US Airways has sought about $985 million in annual cost savings from its employees as part of its restructuring plan. It has said it is crucial to obtaining $900 million in federal loan guarantees that it must have to survive.

Last month, the mainline pilots agreed to about $465 million in annual wage and benefit cuts. A key provision of the pact is the "jobs for jets" program.

This week US Airways unionized mainline pilots are voting on the tentative agreement. The results are expected to be known on Friday.