AMERICAN AIRLINE PILOTS STRIKE BUT CLINTON ORDERS THEM BACK
By JAMES BENNET
Published: February 15, 1997
Invoking seldom-used emergency powers, President Clinton intervened today minutes after midnight to halt a strike by American Airlines pilots that had threatened to disrupt air travel nationwide.
The action -- the first such move by a President in an airline strike in 31 years -- will keep American's planes flying for up to 60 days, while a specially convened board develops a proposed agreement and the two parties consider it. In taking the action, Mr. Clinton said he hoped to avert ''severe disruption to both domestic and international air transportation.''
''I was also particularly concerned that a strike would be especially disruptive over a holiday weekend, when hundreds of thousands of citizens rely on our air transit system,'' Mr. Clinton said.
He called on the two parties to ''redouble their efforts to reach an agreement; they owe that to each other and to the traveling public.''
Just after midnight, James Sovich, the president of the Allied Pilots Association, addressed his members and their families via a satellite system, informing them: ''We have no alternative but to exercise our right to call a strike.''
Mr. Sovich said: ''We have no other method of demonstrating to management that we are resolute in our commitment to receiving a fair and equitable contract agreement.''
The pilots called the strike after their board rejected a last proposal from Federal mediators.
But the White House reacted almost instantly. Bruce Lindsey, the deputy counsel, rushed to the residence to obtain the President's signature on orders invoking powers Mr. Clinton has under the 1926 Railway Labor Act.
The President named a three-member panel to recommend a non-binding resolution of the dispute. The panel has 30 days to devise recommendations and the parties have another 30 days to consider them, with no work stoppage in the meantime.
By intervening, President Clinton ignored objections from the 9,000-member pilots union, which wascounting on the leverage of a strike to secure a better contract. But, had he not intervened, the tens of thousands of travelers who would have been stranded or at least inconvenienced by the strike may well have wondered why not.
Mr. Clinton took the steps after a day spent hanging back, refusing to tip his hand on Friday on whether he would intervene in hopes that the pressure of the deadline would force the parties to agree. But the airline and representatives of its pilots were unable to resolve differences over wages and whether lesser-paid pilots should be permitted to fly American's smaller, commuter jets.
Mr. Clinton named Robert O. Harris to be chairman of the three-member mediation panel. Mr. Harris, a former chairman of the National Mediation Board, previously served as chairman of a board convened by Congress to resolve the railroad labor dispute of 1981. The President also appointed Anthony V. Sinicropi, a professor emeritus of the University of Iowa and a former president of the National Academy of Arbitrators. The third member is Helen Witt, a former member of the Federal Mediation and Consultation Service.
The union emphasized that the President's action may only postpone a strike. ''We may have to do this one more time,'' Mr. Sovich said early this morning.
Since American carries roughly 20 percent of the nation's air travelers -- and is a dominant airline in cities like Miami, Dallas, and Chicago -- a strike would have stranded travelers nationwide. While American's other unions are opposed to the pilots' efforts, the company said would not operate if its 9,000 pilots struck.
The Transpotation Department had estimated that 40,000 travelers would be stranded by a strike this weekend, and that it would ripple through the economy, costing as much as $200 million a day.
The airline was clearly delighted with the President's action. ''If there's any silvery lining to the cloud,'' said Donald Carty, the president of American Airlines, after Mr. Clinton intervened, ''the airline is operating. And we're delighted that it's operating.''
