Transcript of Proceedings: Grievance of First Officer Michael Danford, ATL 18-14 AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INT'L and DELTA AIR LINES CO. Volume One October 28, 2020 (866) 787-6774 | [email protected] | www.storycloud.co Arbitration Proceedings - October 28, 2020 VIRTUAL ARBITRATION GRIEVANCE OF FIRST OFFICER MICHAEL DANFORD CASE NO. 18-14 BETWEEN AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INT'L AND DELTA AIR LINES CO. VOLUME ONE OCTOBER 28, 2020 REPORTED BY: DAMIEN STONEBERGER STORYCLOUD 1 www.storycloud.co | (866) 787-6774 | [email protected] Arbitration Proceedings - October 28, 2020 1 APPEARANCES 2 ARBITRATOR: 3 Mark Burdette 4 FOR THE COMPANY, DELTA AIR LINES CO.: 5 THOMAS J. KASSIN, ESQ. SARAH F. AUFDENKAMPE, ESQ. 6 FORD HARRISON 271 17th Street NW, Suite 1900 7 Atlanta, Georgia 30363 404-888-3800 8 [email protected] 9 CHRIS PUCKETT, ESQ. DELTA AIR LINES, INC. 10 1010 Delta Blvd. Department 943 11 Atlanta, GA 30354 404-715-1152 12 [email protected] 13 Also Present for the Company: 14 Brian J. Pickett, Company Board Member Mike J. Doyle, Company Board Member 15 Patrick Burns, Company Representative 16 FOR THE UNION, DELTA MEC AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION,INT'L: 17 18 LEE SEHAM, ESQ. SEHAM SEHAM MELTZ PETERSEN 19 199 Main Street White Plains, New York 10601 20 914-997-1346 [email protected] 21 RACHEL SAMUDA, ESQ. 22 AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INT'L 100 Hartsfield Centre Parkway 23 Suite 800 Atlanta, GA 30354 24 404-763-5198 [email protected] 25 2 www.storycloud.co | (866) 787-6774 | [email protected] Arbitration Proceedings - October 28, 2020 1 APPEARANCES, CON'T 2 3 Also Present for the Union: 4 Emilio Marcos, Contract Administration Committee Chairman 5 Kevin Morris, Union Board Member Steve Mayer, Union Board Member 6 7 8 Also Present: 9 Michael Danford, Grievant Emily Zavis, Remote Technician 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 www.storycloud.co | (866) 787-6774 | [email protected] Arbitration Proceedings - October 28, 2020 1 INDEX 2 PAGE 3 Appearances......................................... 2 4 5 OPENING STATEMENT 6 By Mr. Kassin.................................. 7 By Mr. Seham.................................. 12 7 8 9 COMPANY WITNESSES 10 JOSEPH TIMOTHY JONES, PH.D. 11 Direct Examination by Mr. Kassin ............. 20 Cross Examination by Mr. Seham .............. 102 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 www.storycloud.co | (866) 787-6774 | [email protected] Arbitration Proceedings - October 28, 2020 1 INDEX TO EXHIBITS NO. DESCRIPTION PAGE 2 COMPANY EXHIBITS 3 Exhibit 1 Michael Danford chronology 8 4 Exhibit 9 Documentation Package 20 5 Exhibit 10 USDTL Litigation Package 20 6 Exhibit 12 Joe Jones CV 23 7 Exhibit 13 PEth Slides 32 8 UNION EXHIBITS 9 Exhibit 1 Review Article 111 10 Exhibit 2 LabCorp Results 119 11 Exhibit 7 USDTL Re-confirm 135 12 Exhibit 11 DBS Collection Instructions 146 13 Exhibit 12 Document subpoena to Dr. Jones 154 14 Exhibit 13 Mr. Duffield letter, Sept. 2, 2020 153 15 Exhibit 14 Mr. Duffield letter, Sept. 10, 2020 154 16 Exhibit 15 Stability of PEth in DBS 155 17 Exhibit 16 Litigation Package 160 18 Exhibit 17 USDTL Business Record Affidavit 163 19 Exhibit 18 Joseph Tordella email 170 20 Exhibit 19 FAQs 132 21 Exhibit 20 Sealed bag 181 22 Exhibit 21 Testing in DBS 182 23 Exhibit 23 Letter of Termination 196 24 Exhibit 34 Email from Ms. Gable 199 25 Exhibit 80 Oral Presentation 149 5 www.storycloud.co | (866) 787-6774 | [email protected] Arbitration Proceedings - October 28, 2020 1 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS, VOLUME ONE 2 OCTOBER 28, 2020 3 4 THE ARBITRATOR: This is Mark Burdette. I've 5 been selected as the arbitrator under the Delta-ALPA 6 Collective Bargaining Agreement to be the neutral chair 7 of the system board in the matter of the discharge of 8 Michael Danford. And so with this, we're going to 9 proceed today. Are there any items, Mr. Kassin or Mr. 10 Seham, that we need to deal with before we get into 11 opening statements and -- 12 MR. SEHAM: I don't know when it is appropriate to 13 bring this up, but probably -- probably now, is that 14 the parties have stipulated that we will handle this 15 proceeding on a bifurcated basis. In other word, 16 determine first -- we'll have the board determine first 17 whether reinstatement is appropriate and we will defer 18 any issue in terms of the make whole relief. 19 MR. KASSIN: That is correct. 20 THE ARBITRATOR: Okay. That's fine. I'm 21 comfortable with that. All right with -- with that on 22 the record, this is a discharge case, so the company 23 will bear the burden of proof. Mr. Kassin, are you 24 prepared to go forward with an opening statement? 25 MR. KASSIN: Yes, sir, I am. 6 www.storycloud.co | (866) 787-6774 | [email protected] Arbitration Proceedings - October 28, 2020 1 THE ARBITRATOR: Okay. Thank you. Go ahead. 2 MR. KASSIN: Sure. Good morning, Arbitrator 3 Burdette and members of the System Board of Adjustment. 4 Like other major airlines, Delta has a HIMS Program for 5 its pilots who are alcohol-dependent. We talked about 6 that in a number of the pre-hearing conferences, but 7 the whole board has not heard this, so I'm going to 8 give a quick summary. I mean, the Delta HIMS program 9 is called the Delta Pilot's -- Pilot Assistance 10 Committee or HIMS, and it's administered both by Delta 11 and ALPA. The other stakeholder in the Delta HIMS 12 program is the Federal Aviation Administration. 13 Pilots can enter DPAC thru various avenues. As a 14 general rule when a pilot enters DPAC as a volunteer or 15 through an off-duty alcohol incident, they complete 16 initial treatment, they're placed on what's called a 17 Contract A. Pilots on a Contract A are required to 18 maintain complete abstinence, attend meetings, 19 participate in aftercare program, and they're subject 20 to random unannounced alcohol testing. All of this is 21 agreed to in their Contract A. Pilots who enter DPAC 22 through on-duty positive test, but who do not operate 23 an aircraft with alcohol in their system are placed on 24 what we call a Contract B. Contract B incorporates 25 Contract A, but it also includes a last chance 7 www.storycloud.co | (866) 787-6774 | [email protected] Arbitration Proceedings - October 28, 2020 1 provision. 2 We have a lot of testimony to cover in the time we 3 have allotted so I'm going to keep my opening remarks 4 rather brief. I'm going to refer everybody to what 5 we've identified as Company Exhibit 1, which is Michael 6 Danford chronology. And kind of give an overview is 7 where we are and how we got here. 8 (Company Exhibit 1 marked for identification) 9 On January 5, 2017, Mr. Danford was operating a 10 Dodge pickup truck in the township of Black Wolf, 11 Wisconsin. At approximately 5:30 pm. Mr. Danford 12 rear-ended a Ford Explorer at a stop sign. Believing 13 that Mr. Danford was impaired, the investigating 14 officer did a field sobriety test and then transported 15 Mr. Danford to a hospital for what the State of 16 Wisconsin calls, an evidentiary chemical test in his 17 blood. The test was conducted approximately an 18 hour-and-a-half after the accident and Mr. Danford's 19 blood alcohol was measured at .229. From that point 20 forward there was no notice to Delta from Mr. Danford 21 of his DUI. He continued to fly. In June of 2017, he 22 was unable to get his FAA medical renewed because of 23 the DUI or Wisconsin calls it an OWI. In July, he 24 called in sick for his flight. On July 31st, 2017, he 25 had an assessment and this is something the FAA 8 www.storycloud.co | (866) 787-6774 | [email protected] Arbitration Proceedings - October 28, 2020 1 required. And following that assessment, on the day of 2 August 1st, 2017, he entered the Talbot Recovery Center 3 for treatment. On September 13, 2017, he signed his 4 Contract A as part of the DPAC program and the Delta 5 Substance Abuse Policy. 6 He completed his treatment at the Talbot Recovery 7 Center on September 14th, 2017, and he was admitted or 8 entered into the DPAC program on September 17th. So 9 once Mr. Danford completed his treatment at the Talbot 10 Recovery Center on September 14 and enter DPAC on 11 September 17, he was subject to DPAC's Random Testing 12 Protocol, which is essentially 14 tests a year. Delta 13 uses urine test to measure ethyl glucuronide or you're 14 going to hear us referred to ethyl glucuronide as ETG 15 and ethyl sulfate and you'll hear us refer to it as 16 ETS. It also uses phosphatidylethanol or PEth or 17 P-E-T-H. And you're going to hear references to all 18 three of those, but they're the same thing. Testing 19 either as a stand alone, random test or when there is a 20 question about a urine test that has EPG in it and 21 we're looking to see whether or not alcohol was present 22 through ingestion drinking alcoholic beverages. 23 Over the next several months, he had several random 24 tests.