The union which represents more than 16,000 aircrew at United Airlines is facing a class-action lawsuit from a pilot who claims it discriminated against veteran crew members on long-term disability when it failed to secure increased benefits as part of a new collective bargaining agreement.
Veteran pilot Jessica Reynolds joined United Airlines in 1989, but 28 years later, her career was served a virtual “death sentence” when she was diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the back and osteopenia.
The diagnosis meant that Reynolds couldn’t secure her medical license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and she found herself grounded, unable to fly as a pilot for United Airlines.
Thankfully, as a member of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), she was able to access a special Long Term Disability fund that guaranteed her a monthly payment of between $8,000 and $11,000, depending on the severity of the disability.
Reynolds has received long-term disability support since 2017, although the monthly payment hasn’t risen with inflation.
That is, however, until September 2023, when ALPA secured a new collective bargaining agreement for its members, adding more than $10 billion in value to the last contract and increasing wages for operational pilots by as much as 40%.
As part of the updated contract, the union also secured an increase in the monthly long-term disability payment up to nearly $16,000. The increased monthly payment, however, only applied to pilots whose disability occurred on or after the ratification date of the updated contract.
Around 700 pilots who were already drawing long-term disability payments, including Reynolds, were excluded from receiving the increased payments.
There was, however, one more exception. ALPA managed to negotiate a “carveout” for around 25 pilots who had been diagnosed with Long COVID prior to the ratification date of the updated contract in September 2023.
Reynolds says ALPA’s failure to secure increased payments for pilots already on long-term disability was “arbitrary, discriminatory, and irrational.”
“The failure to negotiate for such pilots was intentional, not related to any legitimate union objective, and only serves to cause extreme ongoing hardship to Plaintiff and the putative class members,” the complaint against ALPA continues.
Reynolds filed her lawsuit in March 2024 in an Ohio district court, but after more than a year of legal wrangling, the case is now being moved to Illinois, where United Airlines and the local chapter of the ALPA pilots union are based.
The legal action seeks to secure an injunction against ALPA to force it to negotiate with United in an attempt to increase monthly long-term disability payments for pilots who have been unable to work since before the updated contract came into effect in 2023.
$132000/yr seems like plenty for disability payments. Most people can only dream of getting that much money per year for anything. One thing pilots know going into that career field (or a least should know) is that a career ending medical condition is a distinct possibility.