Keeping ALPA on Course

As a major stakeholder in the U.S. and Canadian airline industries, ALPA must carefully consider and address the significant legal ramifications of its actions, which often involve the Association in litigation, arbitration, or other legal proceedings. The union, therefore, has wisely prioritized investing in experienced union attorneys and staff whose sole focus is to protect the rights of ALPA, its pilots, and the profession.

Although the Association employs dozens of Representation Department attorneys assigned to master executive councils (MEC) to provide representation in disciplinary matters and negotiations, the Legal Department’s 13 attorneys and other staff are a distinct group with several hundred years of combined union representation experience. The department’s attorneys aren’t assigned to particular pilot groups but are deployed wherever they’re needed. The Legal Department acts as ALPA’s internal law firm, representing the Association in court, arbitrations, and administrative agencies, and counseling and advising the organization and its leadership on myriad legal issues.

As ALPA’s general counsel and Legal Department director, I’m the union’s primary legal counsellor and provide advice on labor law and all other legal issues to the Association’s president, national officers, and leadership throughout the organization. I ensure that ALPA complies with its internal governing rules and U.S. and Canadian law. Throughout my 33 years in the department, I’ve litigated many cases to defend the Association and supported these other efforts.

Department attorneys provide advice daily on a wide range of issues to ALPA’s national, MEC, and local council officers; ALPA’s governing bodies (the Executive Council, Executive Board, and Board of Directors); national and MEC committees; and pilot volunteers. This counsel rests in significant part on the governing labor laws—including the Railway Labor Act (RLA) and the Canada Labour Code (CLC) (which the Legal Department addresses with the help of ALPA’s lawyers based in Canada)—that regulate airline labor relations, as well as other laws involving health and safety concerns, such as flight and duty time and drug and alcohol issues. We also serve as the union’s parliamentarians for governing bodies and MEC meetings and assist the vice president–administration/secretary in applying union rules throughout the organization.

A key element of ALPA’s strategic plan is to “protect and enforce the legal rights of ALPA, its members, and the piloting profession, and manage risk to safeguard the Association’s assets and viability.” Much of this responsibility falls on the Legal Department, which in recent years has defended ALPA and its pilots’ interests in numerous cases involving the duty of fair representation; bankruptcy; the RLA; the CLC; other federal, state labor, and employment laws; and also in matters before federal administrative agencies such as the FAA, the NTSB, and the National Mediation Board. Department attorneys routinely provide specialized support for scope negotiations and representation in difficult arbitration cases for MECs throughout the union. We also advocate with the Departments of State and Transportation on code-sharing, airline-alliance, and joint-venture issues.

The Legal Department provides significant staff support for ALPA’s partnerships with key international organizations addressing pilot interests, such as International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations, the International Civil Aviation Organization, and the International Transport Workers’ Federation. We frequently offer counsel to pilot groups and governments on international air transport agreements and serve as observers on government-led delegations that negotiate and monitor compliance with the provisions of these agreements with other nations.

Although our department attorneys work with every other department in the Association, we directly support the union’s Flight Time/Duty Time Committee and the Election Ballot and Certification, Hearing, and Appeals Boards. We also oversee ALPA’s emergency relief fund, Pilots for Pilots, and help advise the Special Representational Structure Review Committee, the Strategic Planning and Strike Committee, and other key committees. We’re also often key players in closing out contentious bargaining situations to help ensure that ALPA’s leverage is most effectively and legally applied to obtain maximum value for its pilots. Additionally, we help oversee the Human Intervention Motivation Study (HIMS), a recovery and monitoring program to assist members with alcohol/substance abuse or addiction.

While we may be a small group, we’re indispensable when it comes to protecting and defending the Association and pilot interests and helping the union meet its goals. Through the many services we provide, our department coordinates throughout ALPA to advance the piloting profession while keeping the organization, staff, and members safe and on course.