American Airlines Pilots Union Moves Towards Possibly Joining ALPA

Some pilots at American Airlines want to leave their union, the Allied Pilots Association, and link up with the largest pilots union, the Air Line Pilots Association. They will present their case to the APA board in June, setting up a potential merger or vote on union representation at the largest U.S. airline. Since November, a five-pilot committee of the APA, which represents the 15,000 American pilots at American, has explored whether to merge with ALPA, which represents 67,000 pilots at 39 U.S. and Canadian airlines. ALPA’s membership includes crew members at American’s biggest competitors, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. That committee recently said that, so far, it has not found any roadblocks to a merger between the two airline pilot unions. But the fate of any potential union merger remains unclear. “Preliminarily, we have not found any major concerns that would lead us to recommend against the board doing full due diligence by proceeding to Phase 2,” the committee reported to the APA board earlier in April. The board will decide what to do next at a June 1 meeting. A group of APA members called AA Pilots for ALPA is advocating for a merger. A posting on the group’s website declares: “The pilots of American Airlines need union representation with the resources worthy of the largest airline in the U.S. A merger between APA and ALPA will provide our elected union representatives with the training, tools, and support they need to successfully advocate for our pilots.”<br/>