An American Airlines Captain Filed Suit Against His Own Union After Being Cut Off From An Internal Message Board

An American Airlines Captain filed a lawsuit against his own airline after his access to an internal message board was revoked when he started posting comments in support of a merger with a much larger pilots’ union that dominates the US carriers.

The lawsuit might seem trivial, but it represents a much larger division between pilots at the Fort Worth-based carrier – in one corner, pilots who want to keep the status quo, and in the other corner, aviators who are campaigning for a merger with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).

What’s interesting is that internal surveys have repeatedly suggested that the majority of American Airlines pilots support a merger, but that their wishes have been denied by the union’s leadership.

American Airlines pilots didn’t always have their own union. Decades ago, the carrier’s pilots were part of ALPA, but in 1963, pilots formed their own union called the Allied Pilots Association (APA), which now represents around 16,000 pilots, solely at American Airlines.

Pilots support a merger for a variety of reasons, including the belief that it would give them stronger bargaining powers, as well as a broader stance on political issues.

The most recent attempts to merge APA with ALPA started around a decade ago, although it wasn’t until 2022 that the union’s board of directors caved to pressure to hold a survey on the issue.

The survey revealed that 67% of pilots favored exploring a possible merger, and a committee was established to study whether a merger should be pursued. The committee recommended that a merger be pursued, but within hours of the recommendation being published, the APA board of directors voted to disband the committee.

Merger talks had been effectively killed off.

To turn the situation around, merger supporters started to run for office on the union’s leadership and were able to push for a second survey on the issue that took place earlier this year.

The survey revealed that 58% of pilots supported a potential merger, while 20% were strongly opposed to the idea. With the merger supporting pilots now represented in the union’s leadership, a merger negotiation committee was established.

Now, however, there are four vacancies within the APA’s leadership, and who is chosen to fill these positions could dictate whether the latest merger committee is allowed to continue its work or whether merger talks are, once again, terminated.

Captain Mitchell Vasin was nominated for a position representing a pilot domicile in Phoenix. Vasin supports a merger and took to the internal message board to criticize APA leaders who oppose the merger.

Earlier this month, Vasin received an email from APA’s attorney, informing him that his access to the message board had been suspended. Vasin believes this is a violation of union member free speech, although APA argues his posts amounted to bullying – a charge that Captain Vasin denies.

After being cut off from posting on the message board, Vasin filed suit against APA in a Texas district court, although he filed a motion with the court on Friday to have the case dismissed with prejudice.

The union elections are set to conclude at the end of August, and the results could dictate whether further merger talks with ALPA progress.

Last October, the president of APA was forced to step aside after allegations emerged that he attempted to interfere in local union elections that could have swayed the merger talks.