Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LABOR—UNIONS, UNION MEMBERS—D.P.R.: Union prevails against fair-representation claim of fired American Airlines pilot, (Apr 23, 2025)

By Jason Albright, J.D.

He was terminated after failing to successfully complete MD-80 flight training.

The Allied Pilots Association (APA) is entitled to summary judgment against the fair-representation claims of a flow-through pilot for American Airlines who was fired and allegedly excluded from a company equity distribution after he failed a flight exam. His claims related to the union’s handling of his discharge grievance were untimely, he admitted that he received the distribution from which he alleged the union had attempted to exclude him, and the arbitration award in his case did not require the union—as he alleged—to notify him when the airline was accepting new pilot applications (Torres v. Allied Pilots Association, No. 22-1218 (PAD) (D.P.R. Apr. 22, 2025)).

Termination. On May 9, 2011, American terminated the pilot’s employment for failure to successfully complete MD-80 flight training and not being able to provide any reasonable expectation that he could be trained to do so.

Grievance and arbitration decision. On May 11, he filed a grievance challenging his firing. The grievance proceeded through the process agreed on between American and the union, and on November 1, 2011, it was submitted to a system board of adjustment for arbitration. After three days of hearings in December 2020, the Board ruled, among other things, that the termination was for just cause, and that the carrier reasonably concluded that further training would not be of any value.

Lawsuit. Then, on April 12, 2022, the pilot filed a fair-representation suit under the Railway Labor Act against the union in federal district court in Florida. On May 12, 2022, the case was transferred to the federal district court in Puerto Rico. After close of discovery, the union moved for summary judgment.

Fair-representation allegations. The pilot specifically alleged that the union breached its fair-representation duty in: (1) failing to move the grievance forward in a span of over nine years; (2) not arguing at the grievance hearing that American’s training personnel discriminated against Hispanic pilots such as him; (3) perfunctorily handling his case; (4) attempting to exclude him from a company equity distribution; and (5) not notifying him that American had begun receiving applications for pilot positions in 2021.

Limitations issue as to grievance handling. The court found that the first three grievance-related claims were barred by the applicable six-month statute of limitations. It was “apparent that plaintiff knew or should have known of APA’s alleged deficiencies by December 2020, at the latest, and he did not come to court until April 2022, more than six months after having been notified of the system board’s decision. And he offered no meaningful argument that he undertook any diligent efforts that would in any way toll the running of the clock on those claims until the date he initiated suit.

Equity distribution. His claim as to the equity distribution fared similarly. He alleged that APA attempted to exclude him from a company equity distribution, but he admitted in his deposition that he received the distribution, and he stated that he was not complaining that he did not. “On this record,” the court concluded, “he was not prejudiced by the lack of advice he complains about.”

Notification of new openings. Finally, the union was also entitled to summary judgment against his claim as to the alleged failure to notify him of new openings pursuant to the arbitration award. The award simply did not impose on APA the obligation to notify him that American was accepting pilot applications. It stated that APA can notify him of that fact, not that it shall do so. “Viewed through this prism,” the court concluded, “that APA did not notify plaintiff of this event cannot support a duty of fair representation claim.”

The case is No. 22-1218 (PAD).

Judge: Delgado-Hernández, P.

Attorneys: Felix G. Torres, pro se. Luis Fernando Llach-Zuniga (Casillas Santiago Torres) for Allied Pilots Association.

Companies: Allied Pilots Association

Cases: Labor UnionsMembers Discharge PensionBenefitPlans UnfairLaborPractices PuertoRicoNews