Unity Be Damned

This is a story of an airline pilot who served his country, battled health issues, stood up against medical fraud, and even filed a Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) whistleblower complaint with respect to the pilots defined benefit plan. But when his union, Allied Pilots Association (APA), failed to represent him and made a back door agreement with American Airlines without his knowledge, enough was enough. This pilot filed a Duty of Fair Representation (DFR) lawsuit. Yet, when Allied lost their motion to dismiss, they employed an outside law firm to fight their battle. Union dues fighting a member feels wrong on so many levels. More so they are fighting dirty. This law firm is now allegedly “witness tampering” by threatening this pilots’ witnesses and warning them of union discipline if they testify on his behalf.

Lawrence M. Meadows is a decorated Gulf War era U.S. Air Force officer and veteran military pilot who had honorably served for six years, prior to joining American Airlines in 1991. Yet, despite health issues or active military status, never did Meadows imagine the battle of his life would be against his own pilot union.

In 2004 a debilitating illness forced Larry into long-term disability, only to ensnare him into American’s infamous “Pilot Disability Nurse Case-Management Cost-Saving Reports.” This is how American Airlines’ medical department allegedly targets the costliest disabled pilots’ claims, thus weaponizing the medical review process. American Airline’s utilized Western Medical Evaluators (WME) But wait! The doctor who owns WME had already lost his medical license. I supposed if you’re a doctor who has lost your license, you might have a credibility issue to obtain future employment. Therefore, it’s a no brainer for an airline to employ such a doctor if the intent is to use them for a medical process to rid itself of pilots.

The doctor in mention reinvented himself as the medical director of WME, a mom-and-pop operation, with one distinction—the business was he and his daughter. This is not a story about the doctor, despite his medical license being revoked again. This time for felony medical fraud because he was “likely to deceive the public” and was subsequently sent to prison for five years. The point is, American Airlines knew or should have known his history and still used him.

In 2007, Meadows lost his collectively bargained medical disability pay and benefits. They just went away. As it turns out, he would be without pay for the next four years. Yet, he was not one to give up. The very trait we all want in our pilots.

Despite not receiving medical disability, in August of 2011, he was ordered to get his FAA medical in 60 days or less. The most shocking thing about this new event is an email that identifies their intent was to “come up with” some sort of disciplinary action.  (June 2011 Dr Bettes email to MIA Chief Pilot)

In September of 2011, Meadows went to the Mayo clinic with his initiative to receive a first-class medical. However, because of medication he’d been taking he was inaccurately diagnosed (of which subsequently was overturned years later) … However, he was still on disability and did not obtain his company ordered medical certificate. Therefore, American Airlines subsequently placed Meadows on a second disability claim. The good news was, he was now receiving disability payments once again, yet his argument was that he had gone four years without. This should have been the same continuous process, as he was never cleared the first time.

Meadows arguing the 4-years loss of pay appealed to American’s Pension benefits Administration Committee (PBAC), seeking the four years retroactive disability benefits.

Then, in September of 2011, Meadows identified what he calls American Airline’s cost saving medical fraud and allegedly the union was part of it, impacting the pilots defined benefit plan. American Airlines allegedly targeted 84 pilots to save money. A month after Meadows identified medical fraud, in October of 2011, American Airlines terminated him and removed him from the seniority list without notice.

Meadows then utilized the RLA grievance process and filed two grievances. One was based on the “no notice” termination. The other was a collective grievance with the union and all the pilots out on disability that should have been on the seniority list. Meadows, however wanted to work. He requested to work in training, as he was already working for Boeing instructing on the B777 aircraft and American had a special program, Sick Leave of Absence Special assignment (SLOA), for pilots without a medical. As it turned out, only the favored insiders received those positions. Therefore, the company refused Meadows request.

Remember that appeal to the PBAC? He won! In August of 2013 Meadows received close to $450,000, worth of backpay and medical expenses. Personally, I don’t believe the company or the union was particularly happy with a ruling that undermined their decision to leave Meadows hanging in the wind. They retaliated.

The worst thing an airline can do is give time to an intelligent human if the company is not playing on the up and up. Logic says they will not roll over. Larry Meadows figured out the medical scheme in full. Therefore, he filed an SOX whistleblower complaint, and in February 2014 an administrative law judge (ALJ) granted a 60-day discovery period to depose four executives including the CEO, with a federal bench trial set for June 4, 2014. However, I’m told that American Airlines and APA argued together against Meadows, in a court of law, falsely asserting his filing was not timely preserved and received an injunction. Despite facts that spoke otherwise, and because of APA’s participation, they won the injunction and Meadows lost his day in court.

Legal manipulation of the law that was successful because APA, Meadows’ union, stood against him. That should be against the law. Well, it is. And it was time to hold APA accountable. Therefore in 2017 Meadows filed a DFR for failure to timely file his grievance and violations of his statutory Union Member Bill of Rights under the Labor Management Relations Disclosure Act (“LMRDA”).

Finally, years later in December 2018, due to regulatory changes and his condition now in remission, Meadows finally obtained his FAA Airman’s first-class and sought seniority reinstatement. His intent was to return as an American Airline Captain, as were four other pilots in the similar situation.

However, in May of 2019 American brought others back and left him behind. Why? My guess is that punishment prevailed for Meadows filing a whistleblower complaint, having engaged in protected activity, advocating for his fellow disabled veterans and pilots. Thus, in January 2020 Meadows filed a charge of discrimination and retaliation under the ADA disability act.

What happened to those two grievances you ask?

For eleven year they were in a “Twin Grievance Burial” and sat until 2023. In March of 2023, the new APA President, Captain Ed Sicher, determined to address the collective grievance #12-012, and attempted to move it to the system board on an expedited basis. Yet, the grievance was never arbitrated. Instead, on January 15, 2025, the union secretly foreclosed all of Meadows’ grievance claims for zero value without notice and disregarding his statutory right to arbitrate at his own expense. During this time, there were also three other similarly situated pilots able to return to duty. American Airlines, with support of APA, allowed those three pilots to return to duty. One of which had been out for approximately 24 years. Yet they refused to return Meadows.

PRESENT TIME  

On September 18, 2025, APA, lost their motion to dismiss the DFR. Typically, when a union loses a motion to dismiss a DFR, there are settlement agreements underway. Not in Larry Meadows’ case. Instead, the union doubled-downed and employed the law firm Bredhoff and Kaiser. The attorneys involved, Joshua B. Shiffrin and Grace Rybak have been allegedly calling Meadows’ witnesses and threatening them to not testify (Doc 109 see Doc 110 next)

Meadows is fighting back. He filed an Emergency Motion to disqualify these attorneys for criminal tampering. (Doc 109 and 110) This motion is currently before the court. Meadows’ goal with this motion is to disqualify APA’s defense counsel for witness tampering, a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. 1512(b), and move forward with his witness depositions, which have been placed under a temporary protective order by APA.

DEEP DIVE PODCAST

Listen to the podcast to understand the elements of this witnesses tampering case to see what is at stake. It’s only 15 minutes long, but fascinating. I thought ALPA was bad, but these guys at APA play just as dirty. We have to remember, it’s not the pilot union per se, but the pilots running those entities that put themselves above the law and above their pilots that is the problem.

CASE STATUS

This case was stayed on November 1, 2018, on the premise that Larry’s reinstatement was imminent upon receipt of Plaintiff’s FAA Airman’s Medical Certificate First-class. Larry obtained that certificate on November 28, 2018. Despite the APA President’s promise of his seniority reinstatement and return to active line pilot status, that did not occur. 

The subsequent years have been marked by a relentless campaign by Allied Pilots Association (APA) of broken promises, bad-faith delays and denials, and escalating retaliation, culminating in the collusive extinguishment of Larry’s grievance rights, a secret settlement of his claim s without notice for zero value, the retaliatory termination of his 34-year union membership, and, most recently, a campaign of witness tampering to obstruct deposition testimony and suppression of evidence in this very case. (Doc 109).

The stay was lifted on May 15, 2025, and supplemental facts identify the seamless, ongoing pattern and practice of APA’S bad-faith breach of its Duty of Fair Representation (“DFR’) in violation of the Railway Labor Act, its ongoing breaches of contract of the APA Constitution and Bylaws, and its ongoing and escalating retaliation in violation of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act and Union Member Bill of Rights, Sec. 101(a). The supplemental facts in document 129 do not assert new claims, but instead identify the continuing violations and foreseeable culmination of the misconduct alleged in the original claim.