Opinion ID: 771985
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Seniority Integration Methodology

Text: 10 The APA required Delta to hire at least 700 Pan Am pilots. As a practical matter - and quite apart from the APA - Delta needed to hire Pan Am pilots to fly the newly acquired transatlantic routes. This was because Pan Am's transatlantic routes were flown primarily with Airbus 310 (A-310) aircraft, a twin-engine widebody jet. Since the A-310 makes over-ocean voyages with only two engines, the FAA mandates that pilots of that aircraft receive special training addressing the particular safety concerns presented. Delta had not owned any A-310s, and thus none of its pilots were qualified to fly that aircraft. Therefore, in order to meet its turnkey objectives, Delta needed to hire Pan Am pilots who were qualified on the A-310. 11 Delta had purchased, in the transatlantic routes, the cream of the Pan Am crop; and the pilots who flew those routes were among the most senior at Pan Am. For commercial airline pilots, seniority is everything. Airlines maintain seniority lists ranking each of their pilots by their length of service for the particular airline. Each month, to obtain work assignments, pilots bid for particular positions (captain, first officer, second officer), on particular aircraft, flying particular routes out of particular airports, some more desirable than others. Assignments are by seniority. 12 The seniority status of Delta's pilots was protected in the collective bargaining agreement Delta had with the pilots' labor union, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). 1 As is the custom in the airline industry, that agreement required Delta to place newly hired pilots at the bottom of Delta's seniority list, regardless of the length of cockpit experience the newly hired pilot may have had with other airlines. (For this reason, pilots typically spend their entire careers with a single airline; the switching costs for senior pilots are too high.) However, the senior Pan Am pilots that Delta needed made it clear that they would not leave Pan Am, even if it was in bankruptcy, if they were to be cast down to the bottom of the Delta pilot seniority list. Thus, to close the APA and meet its turnkey objectives, Delta had to negotiate a concession from ALPA that would amend the collective bargaining agreement to let Delta integrate the Pan Am pilots into the Delta seniority list. 13 The existing Delta pilots had to protect their own turf. They were understandably concerned that the APA and the integration of Pan Am pilots would dilute their own status on the Delta seniority list. After extensive analysis of the impact of various integration methodologies, Delta and ALPA eventually agreed on a modified status ratio methodology that would spread Pan Am pilots equitably throughout Delta's seniority list. 14 The starting point for the integration was the position held by the most senior Delta pilot of whatever aircraft was deemed to be most nearly equivalent to the A-310. Delta deemed its Boeing 767ER (B-767ER) to be most equivalent to the A 310 because both were long haul twin-engine aircraft, although the B-767ER was not cleared for over ocean voyages. Delta's most senior B-767ER pilot occupied spot #590. Thereafter, the methodology separately integrated the Pan Am captains, first officers and flight engineers, according to a ratio based on the number of comparable positions expected to exist at Delta, in the absence of the APA, as of the end of 1992. 2 Thus, the formula called for dividing the number of Delta captain positions (at B-767ER captain level and below) anticipated to exist as of the end of 1992 - that is, 3,360 - by the number of Pan Am captains eventually hired by Delta - 286. This resulted in a ratio of approximately twelve to one. Thus, one Pan Am captain was integrated after every twelve spots beneath #590 - at #603, #616, #629, #641 and so on. After all the Pan Am captains had been integrated, the Delta first officers and flight engineers were then ratioed with their acquired Pan Am counterparts, resulting in one Pan Am position being created after each ten or eleven Delta positions throughout the remainder of the seniority list. 15 While the modified status ratio methodology gave the acquired Pan Am pilots enhanced bidding seniority vis-a-vis new hires, it also resulted in placing many former Pan Am pilots in spots below Delta pilots with less cockpit experience. Thus, once they moved over to Delta, several Pan Am pilots were relegated to cockpit positions, aircraft, and routes less desirable than those they had flown at Pan Am. For example, some 55-year-old Pan Am pilots found themselves flying in positions junior to 35-year-old pilots who had been with Delta their entire career. However, the Pan Am pilots were integrated in seniority order - that is, within the integrated seniority list, and thus, Pan Am pilots maintained their seniority relative to other Pan Am pilots. 16 On August 30, 1991, Delta and ALPA entered into a supplemental collective bargaining agreement authorizing Delta to implement the modified status ratio methodology to integrate the Pan Am pilots into the Delta seniority list on November 1, 1991, the same day that the final aspects of the acquisition were scheduled to close. 17 Immediately after the execution of the supplemental collective bargaining agreement, Delta began to offer employment to qualified Pan Am pilots according to their relative seniority on the Pan Am seniority list, ultimately hiring 774 Pan Am cockpit personnel. In addition to the integration methodology, Delta set two other terms of employment for the Pan Am pilots that are at issue in this case: a ten-year service requirement for fully paid post-retirement medical benefits and a pay scale that increased pay rates from Pan Am levels to Delta levels gradually over three years.