The president of the 15,000-strong American Airlines pilots’ union has been ousted following allegations that he attempted to interfere with local elections that could sway a potential merger with a much larger union.
In a vote of the board of directors of the Allied Pilots Association (APA) on Monday, Captain Ed Sicher was recalled as the union’s president in a 15-5 vote. In a short statement, the union said: “We thank CA Sicher for his service to our membership.”
Aero Crew News, however, reported that the recall vote was called because of “serious allegations of election tampering,” in which Sicher is accused of attempting to block local election candidates who favor a merger with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).
ALPA represents pilots at numerous airlines across the United States and Canada, including United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Delta, and JetBlue.
According to Aero Crew News, Sicher reinterpreted one of the union’s bylaws, which allowed disciplinary action to be brought against two board members and six local council candidates who supported the merger with ALPA.
Disciplinary action was brought on the grounds that supporting a general vote of the membership over a merger would threaten APA’s existence.
In addition, there were allegations that Sicher had threatened to release the names of voters and non-voters in local council elections, which raised the possibility of potential voter intimidation.
Last year, the Dallas-based union rejected a potential merger with ALPA after the board of directors of the Allied Pilots Association voted 10-10 on a motion of create a merger negotiations committee.
The vote would have required a two-thirds majority to pass.
The formation of the merger committee won the support of local leaders based in Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Phoenix (which are all former US Airways bases), as well as Chicago.
Meanwhile, local leaders in Boston, Washington, Dallas, and Los Angeles opposed the motion, and leaders in Miami and New York were split.
In 2022, a poll of AA’s pilots found that 67% supported a potential merger with ALPA, although only just over half of pilots at the carrier took part in the vote.
