Air Line Pilots Ass'n v. United Air Lines, Inc., 86C4605.

• Decision Date: 15 July 1986
• Docket Number: No. 86C4605.,86C4605.
• Citation: 637 F. Supp. 215
• Parties: AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INTERNATIONAL, Plaintiff, v. UNITED AIR LINES, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

637 F. Supp. 215

AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INTERNATIONAL, Plaintiff, v. UNITED AIR LINES, INC., Defendant.

No. 86C4605.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, E.D.

July 15, 1986.

Harold A. Katz, Michael E. Erp, Katz, Friedman, Schur & Eagle, Chicago, Ill., Michael E. Abram, Cohen, Weiss & Simon, New York City, for plaintiff.

Joel H. Kaplan, Seyfarth, Shaw, Fair-weather & Geraldson, Chicago, Ill., Stephen P. Sawyer, United Air Lines, Inc., Elk Grove Tp., Ill., for defendant.

ORDER

BUA, District Judge.

Before the Court is defendant's motion for summary judgment in a labor dispute. For the reasons stated herein, defendant's motion is granted.

I. FACTS

Plaintiff Air Line Pilots Association ("ALPA") and defendant United Air Lines, Inc. ("United") are parties to two collective bargaining agreements, including a Basic Agreement ("Agreement"), due to expire on October 1, 1988, and an International Supplemental Agreement ("International Supplement") with respect to United's international flying to and within the Pacific Basin. In 1985, United acquired Pan American's Pacific operations. Included in the purchase of these operations were six L-1011s. Prior to this date, United did not have any L-1011s in its fleet.

When United began flying these L-1011s in February 1986, it discovered that these aircraft required maintenance to be performed by a subcontractor in Hong Kong. This maintenance necessitated the scheduling of a daily round trip maintenance ferry flight of L-1011 aircraft from Taipei to Hong Kong. United needs pilots to fly these maintenance ferry flights. Since May 1, 1986, United has flown maintenance ferry flights between Taipei and Hong Kong utilizing line pilots and nonline pilots, including United's engineering pilots and outside pilots.

Prior to utilizing nonline pilots, United and ALPA met twice in April 1986 to discuss the establishment of a temporary domicile ("TDY") in Taipei to conduct this maintenance ferry operation. Under Section 6A of the International Supplement, United was required to seek ALPA's concurrence in order to establish such a temporary domicile, as follows:

The Company may designate TDY assignments at Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney and Auckland. With mutual concurrence between the Association and the Company, other foreign cities also may be designated.

According to United, its efforts to establish a temporary domicile at Taipei proved unsuccessful when ALPA insisted upon other economic benefits as a trade-off for the Taipei temporary domicile. Subsequently, United has not established a temporary domicile in Taipei. Beginning May 24, 1986, United assigned test pilots to ferry the Taipei-Hong Kong flights. On June 12, 1986, United contracted out this work to an outside contract supplier of pilots. On June 6, 1986, ALPA advised United that it regarded the use of nonline pilots in the Taipei-Hong Kong operation as a violation of the scope provisions of the Agreement.

II. DISCUSSION

ALPA contends that the assignment of the ferry flights to nonline pilots violates various provisions of the collective bargaining agreement, including the scope clause, the recognition clause, and the crew complement clause. United counters that both the scope and recognition clauses contain exception language which permits nonline pilots to perform certain flying. United asserts that maintenance ferry flying has historically been performed by nonline pilots. Finally, United argues that both the agreement and the parties' past practice draw a distinction between commercial flight operations and other flying, the latter not being included within the agreement.

Both parties agree that this action revolves around the issue of whether this dispute is a major or minor one under the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. § 151, et seq. (RLA). Although the line between major and minor disputes is imprecise, see Local 553, Transport Workers Union of America v. Eastern Airlines, Inc., 695 F.2d 668, 673 (2d Cir.1983), whether a controversy is labeled major or minor leads to quite different procedural results. If a controversy is major, a union may strike in support of its position if after negotiation, mediation, and possible presidential intervention, the parties are unable to settle their dispute. If a controversy is minor, the parties must submit the dispute to the System Board of Adjustment if negotiations fail. Local 553, 695 F.2d at 675; International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. Pan American World Airways, 607 F.Supp. 609, 613 (E.D. N.Y.1985).

The Supreme Court has defined what constitutes a major or a minor dispute:

The first relates to disputes over the formation of collective agreements and efforts to secure them. They arise when there is no agreement or where it is sought to change the terms of one, and therefore the issue is not whether an existing agreement controls the controversy. They look to the acquisition of rights for the future, not to assertion of rights claimed to have vested in the past.

The second class, however, contemplates the existence of a collective agreement already concluded or, at any rate, a situation in which no effort is made to bring about a formal change in terms or to create a new one. The dispute relates either to the meaning or proper application of a particular provision with reference to a specific situation or to an omitted case. In the latter event the claim is founded upon some incident of the employment relation, or asserted one, independent of those covered by the collective bargaining agreement, e.g., claims on account of personal injuries. In either case, the claim is to rights accrued, not merely to have new ones created for the future.

Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway v. Burley, 325 U.S. 711, 723, 65 S.Ct. 1282, 1289, 89 L.Ed. 1886 (1944).

Thus, the test is whether the conflict can be resolved by...