Union files suit in US Airways arbitration dispute

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, February, 2007 | by Tom Belden

The International Association of Machinists has filed a federal lawsuit charging US Airways with using bankruptcy law to avoid an abitration case stemming from a union grievance.

US Airways last week filed a complaint against the union, which represents airline mechanics and baggage handlers, asking U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Alexandria, Va., to block an arbitration hearing that was scheduled to start yesterday.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, asserts that US Airways should not be allowed to use the bankrutpcy court to shield itself from its obligations under the Railway Labor Act to resolve collective-bargaining disputes. US Airways spent just over a year in bankruptcy-court protection before emerging Sept. 27, 2005, when it merged...