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News Release
Release #02.064
July 19, 2002
ALPA Sues Mesa Air Group, Seeks Court Order for Good Faith Bargaining
PHOENIX, AZ. --- The Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), filed suit on July 17 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona against Mesa Airlines, Mesa Air Group, and Jonathan Ornstein, the CEO of Mesa Airlines and Mesa Air Group.
In the suit, ALPA asks the Court to compel the Mesa defendants to bargain in good faith as outlined by the Railway Labor Act (RLA), and cease all efforts to undermine the organizational rights of Mesa Airlines pilots.It also requests that the Court enjoin the Mesa defendants from operating Freedom Airlines, a non-union start-up carrier, which they have threatened to use to divert work from the Mesa Airlines pilots.
“The lack of good faith bargaining at Mesa and the continued use of whipsaw tactics between pilots within the Mesa Air Group system are indicative of Mesa Air Group’s lack of interest in securing a labor agreement that meets the needs of the carrier’s pilots,” said ALPA President Duane Woerth.
Pilot contract negotiations are presently in mediation under the auspices of the National Mediation Board (NMB).In a recent victory for ALPA, the NMB announced on July 2, 2002, that Mesa Air Group’s subsidiaries (Mesa Airlines, Inc., Air Midwest, Inc. and CCAir, Inc.) constitute a single transportation system, acknowledging what ALPA has alleged for some time that all labor relations for these wholly-owned subsidiaries of Mesa Air Group are managed and coordinated by Ornstein and Mesa Air Group.
The Air Line Pilots Association, International, represents 66,000 pilots at 43 airlines in the United States and Canada.Visit the ALPA Web site at http://www.alpa.org.
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ALPA Contact: Teresa Mattick (703) 481-4440