Now there is fresh impetus for US Airways to reach labor peace because it would remove skepticism about whether the airline could make a merger work with American's flight attendants and pilots.
US Airways CEO Doug Parker, a proponent of industry consolidation, said Wednesday the carrier has hired advisers to explore a potential merger with American Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy reorganization on Nov. 29.
"We hope that there might be an urgency to get the contracts all settled, so that they can move forward" with a possible merger, said Capt. James Ray, spokesman for the U.S. Airline Pilots Association.
"Having open contracts, particularly the pilot contract, can be a big stumbling block for a merger," Ray said. "And now the pilots are the last ones left."
Pilots employed at the former US Airways, which went through bankruptcy twice in the last decade, have a provision in their current contract that if there is a "change of control" at the airline "our wages will snap back to pre-bankruptcy era wages, which would put us by far at the top of the industry," Ray said. "So they don't want that to happen."
On Thursday, the National Mediation Board advised US Airways and the pilots union that it was recessing negotiations for now.
"It's not unusual for the mediator and the mediation board to suspend mediation when they believe, if they recess the talks, it will assist the parties in reaching a deal in the longer term," said airline spokesman Todd Lehmacher.
The pilots union responded, in a statement, that the mediator did not indicate how long the "break" would be, and reminded both sides that they were free to continue to negotiate.
