American Airlines Pilots Want To End 50-Year Union Allegiance

Some American Airlines pilots are lobbying to give up their 53-year relationship with an independent union, and instead join the larger Air Line Pilots Association. At least two pilot bases are introducing resolutions seeking to merge the independent Allied Pilots Association into the ALPA. The discontent arises from recent Delta and Southwest agreements that, under still-tentative terms, would pay pilots there more than what American Airlines pilots will earn under an agreement reached last year. “There’s a well-founded belief that APA, as an independent union, underperforms,” said Mitch Vasin, an American first officer based in Phoenix. “It can’t compete with a national union with the resources and political connections and the size of ALPA.”