Pilot Dispute Proves Costly for UPS
The Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the judgment last week.
Like Rickert, they said UPS reneged on promises to hire them after starting its own airline in 1988.
Terms of the settlements are not being disclosed, so it is unlikely the public will ever know UPS's total cost.
UPS spokesman Mark Dickens said the settlements were confidential.
The pilots flew for carriers that contracted to haul UPS air packages before UPS started its own airline. Other airlines were expanding at that time, and many pilots were leaving cargo carriers for better jobs.
The pilots said UPS promised them they all would get jobs at UPS if they would stay through the transition period. But the company subsequently hired only about half of them.
Dickens said UPS maintains it acted properly and treated the pilots fairly and evenly. But he said the company decided that contesting the suits might cost more than settling.
Rickert, who lives in New Hampshire, has been a co-pilot since 1988 with American Airlines - a company he said he joined after waiting months in vain to be hired by UPS.
Because American Airlines already had a lot of senior pilots when Rickert took a job there, he had to get in a long line for a captain's job a rank he held with the cargo carrier he had worked for.
If he had joined American earlier, he said, he could have moved up to captain sooner. But he stayed with his old airline months longer than he would have if he hadn't expected a job with UPS.
"Friends of mine were hired," he told The Courier-Journal in an interview, "and I'd go by the employment office, and they'd say, `We'll get to you. Don't worry about it.' Ultimately, they
aid, `We're sorry. We can't use you."'
The jury awarded Rickert $425,160 in lost wages up to the trial the difference between what he was paid by American Airlines and what he would have made at UPS. It gave him another $321,356 for future lost wages and $1 million in punitive damages.
Rob Shelton, one of several Louisville lawyers who represented both Rickert and the pilots in the settled cases, said the money actually will come to $2.9 million with interest compounded since 1995 and a penalty on the principal.
Shelton said UPS can ask the Kentucky Supreme Court to reconsider its 5-2 decision. Dickens said attorneys are studying the case, but UPS hasn't decided whether to take it further.
Shelton said two pilots' suits against UPS are still pending.
