Allegiant Air & Pilots Finally Reach a Deal

LAS VEGAS (CN) — After a three-year labor dispute, several lawsuits and narrowly averted pilot strikes, the Teamsters and Allegiant Air reached a tentative deal and will meet Monday to nail it down and send it to pilots for a vote.

Allegiant Air Capt. Scott Whitman, chairman of the pilots' negotiating committee, said he was confident his fellow pilots will like the contract and approve by secret vote in July.

Allegiant CEO Maury Gallagher seemed relieved at the deal, which he said would "allow us to move into a new chapter at Allegiant."

A mediator with the National Mediation Board oversaw the negotiations. Allegiant pilots voted in 2012 to join Teamsters Local 1224, and since then have had a contentious relationship with the airline.

U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro temporarily restrained the pilots from striking on April 2, 2015, and potentially stranding thousands of passengers stranded at airports across the nation.

Allegiant asked for the emergency ruling in light of a pilots' vote to strike on the date of Navarro's injunction, saying a strike would have cost it $7.7 million per day.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon issued a preliminary injunction against the strike about a month later, and on May 28, 2015 refused to sanction Allegiant for contempt of court in a dispute over the airline's pilot scheduling system.

The union claimed the scheduling system violated Gordon's 2012 injunction.

Gordon disagreed, saying the airline made reasonable efforts to abide by his injunction and respect pilots' seniority, and a strike would irreparably harm Allegiant.

Gordon found it was in the "public interest" to ensure Allegiant pilots would not strike, so passengers would not have to worry about being stranded far from home.

Having lost the bid for sanctions and ability to strike, the union agreed to a mediated resolution, which culminated in the tentative contract agreement.

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