Major slowdown and sick outs needed

[USCREW]

I am a University Profesor and not happy with my hours (80+ per week) and my salary (~ 30% lower than industry).
Why don't I just teach slower (cover less material) don't show up to class, or give no degree to the students (who paid tuition and expect an education)?
I just hope there are some pilots' kids in my class that pay and rely on my professional behavior just like I rely on flights being on time all over the world when I travel (~ 100,000 miles/year on *A).

You knew your compensation package , before accepting your position which you claim to be Professor (full, associate, assistant, or instructor?). You have not had that agreement taken away through forced paycuts, reduced benefits, or increased productivity. Your unhappiness with the decision to accept this position with inferior pay and working hours is of your own choosing. We, on the East, are tired of this abuse. We choose not to be further imposed with our respective duties without many tools or much authority to perform our daily job functions. We do this collectively because we are unionized. You, singularly, have agreed to teach at the current pay and conditions. At my University, the tuition and fees is $40,000 a year and the Professors all hold terminal degrees. They are respected because they are not only experts in academia, but also in the ability to integrate didactic knowledge to the real world. Your comment was arrogant and shows lack of understanding for commercial aviation. Stick to what you know.

 

[dariencc]

It cost them six years of concessions while AA Management gets bonuses.

Don't let the facts get in your way!

Yet another subject that Lavman is an expert on!

I hesitate to challenge your limitless knowledge of APA's negotiating history, but this is what was told to me by one of their council reps at the time:

The fine was a non issue in the settlement. The union made it clear that their would be no agreement without the fine payment going away. It would not be traded away for concessions. The company knew this from the start, and needed the fine less than it needed improved labor relations with the pilots.


By the way, how are those Cuban enforcement efforts against picture taking on overflights going?

 

[700UW]

Read this, dont let the facts get in your way!

 

[dariencc]

Read this, dont let the facts get in your way!

I read it. You'll note that the author, an opponent of the APA leadership, made NO MENTION of the fine. Get it? He did not claim that the fine was the reason for their concessions, nor did he state that it was negotiated away in return for any concessions.

APA was engaged in concessionary negotiations at that time, just like every other union in the industry. The fine was a minor side issue in the end.

It cost them six years of concessions while AA Management gets bonuses.

Don't let the facts get in your way!

The only person who thinks that the fine "cost them six years of concessions" is you, the resident expert on every subject under the sun.

By the way, how's that TPA-CUN routing over Cuba working. The one with the Cuban Overfly Permit.

 

[700UW]

Learn to read and can't keep on topic?

PILOTS (APA)
Supreme Court Upholds $45.5 Million Fine Against Union
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Feb. 25 to overturn one of the largest fines against a labor union, a $45.5 million penalty against the Allied Pilots Ass'n at American Airlines for civil contempt for failing to quickly end a 1999 sickout that forced the airline to cancel thousands of flights.The APA has already put $20 million in escrow against the possibility it would have to pay the fine. But the union estimates the total fine would exceed its assets by approximately $10 million.

APA made it clear that if the company tried to collect the fine the union would consider it a very unfriendly act. "The next step is going to be a management decision," said APA spokesman James Philpot. Philpot noted that American was "in the middle of lots of important discussions" with the pilots on a number of issues, including the proposed acquisition of Trans World Airlines Inc. and the purchase of 20 percent of U.S. Airways as part of the U.S. Airways-United Airlines merger.

The fine may be the largest in American labor union history. A Virginia judge fined the United Mine Workers union $64 million for its actions in the Pittston Coal Co. strike in the early 1990s, but the fine was tossed out in a unanimous decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1993.

U.S. Dist. Court Judge Joe Kendall in Dallas ordered the fine in February 1999, less than 48 hours after the airline filed suit against the union. Kendall cited the union for not ending a sickout that had forced American to cancel more than 6,000 flights, stranding thousands of passengers and crippling the airline's operations nationwide. American estimated the job action cost the airline $1.2 million for every 100 flights it was forced to cancel, for an estimated total of $250 million. In holding the union in contempt, Kendall encouraged the union membership to "remember this fiasco the next time they have union elections." The union has since elected new leaders. At one point in his contempt order, Kendall went so far as to describe the pilots union as extortionists little different from the mob families in New York. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Kendall's fine last year. American agreed to forgive the fine as part of a new contract agreement with APA , [Wash. Post 2/26/01]

$45 million fine against pilots union upheld by US Supreme Court
By Jerry White
2 March 2001
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The US Supreme Court on Monday upheld a lower court's ruling that a pilots union and two of its officers must pay $45.5 million in compensatory damages to American Airlines for refusing to halt a sick-out in 1999. The fine against the Allied Pilots Association (APA) is one of the largest in US labor history and threatens to bankrupt the union.

The high court declined to hear the case, which stems from a 10-day job action by thousands of American pilots against contract violations and the outsourcing of jobs to America's low-cost affiliate Reno Air. The sick-out, which began on February 6, 1999, quickly got out of control of the APA leadership and crippled the country's second-largest airline, forcing American to cancel 6,000 flights. In the course of the job action, rank-and-file pilots defied a back-to-work order from US District Judge Elton “Joe†Kendall.

The Supreme Court justices, who ruled without comment or dissent, refused to hear arguments by the union and its two officers, former APA President Richard LaVoy and Vice President Brian Mayhew, that Kendall had not given them adequate opportunity to defend themselves. The union took the case to the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court upheld Kendall's ruling.

Kendall levied the massive fines in February 1999, less than 48 hours after the airline filed suit against the union. In his ruling Kendall showed no restraint in his class hostility towards the pilots and sympathy with corporate management, saying that the union had been taken over by a “radical element†that was determined to “drive American into the side of a mountain.â€

Infuriated by the refusal of hundreds of pilots to comply with his order to return to work, Kendall railed against the pilots and suggested at one point that the union was engaged in a criminal conspiracy akin to a Mafia extortion ring.

At the time Kendall, a former Dallas police officer, said, “No one can make someone else go fly an airplane. Particularly if someone is dishonest and willing to lie and say they are sick when they really aren'tÉ. But what a federal judge can do, and what I will do, is make people pay for what they break. So if the activity and consequent damages continue, when all the dust clears, all the assets of the union, including their strike war chest will be capable of being safely stored in the overhead bin of a Piper Cub.â€

The judge continued: “It is this Court's view that a minor labor dispute has been transformed into nothing more than a shakedown. Even though it may indeed be more economical for American to cave in and pay, in the long run, if you pay extortion today, you typically have to pay it tomorrow.â€

In holding the union in contempt, Kendall encouraged the union membership to “remember this fiasco the next time they have union elections.â€

The job action was sparked by American's repeated efforts to undermine pilots' job security and wage levels. American's $12.1 billion parent company, AMR, has spearheaded the efforts of US carriers to dismantle the so-called Scope Clause that limits the use of lower-paid pilots when a company acquires another airline or shares routes with an international carrier.

According to its agreement with the APA, American was required to merge new pilots into the current seniority list and upgrade their wage and benefit package when it acquired a new airline. Instead the airline declared it would take nearly two years to bring pilots from recently acquired Reno Air, who earned half the wages of American pilots, up to normal pay scale. In February 1997 American pilots struck over long-standing disputes, but were ordered back to work by President Clinton within five minutes of their walkout.

American Airlines agreed to forgive the fine as part of a new contract agreement with the APA.

The action by the Supreme Court is aimed at intimidating airline workers and other sections of the working class that are coming into struggles. Pilots, mechanics and flight attendants at United, American, Delta, Northwest and other airlines are currently pressing for improved wages and benefits against airline management, who have refused to sign contracts with substantial improvements years after the old agreements have expired. Airline workers, who gave up major concessions during the economic downturn of the early 1990s, are eager to recoup their losses after nearly a decade of record profits for the airlines.

Last month President Bush intervened to block a possible strike by Northwest mechanics on March 13. A spokesman cited the president's concerns that such a walkout would disrupt the economy. Bush's decision reversed a National Mediation Board (NMB) ruling that would have allowed union members to walk off the job March 13 if no agreement had been reached, and extends the legally required “cooling-off†period for another 60 days, forcing workers to remain on the job through at least mid-May.

That CBA was voted down by the membership and a new CBA was ratified that cost the APA $23 million in the fine, plus all the concessions given by APA which was $660 Million per year.

 

[diogenes]

When our fathers and grandfathers fought, bled, went to jail and died to establish unions, their activities were illegal, too. The corporations had but to ask for the government to send in law enforcement or the national guard to crack strikers' heads. Those strikers' courage is why we had 40 hour workweeks, workplace safety, overtime pay, health benefits, etc (contrary to current popular myth, the free market did not grant those benefits).

Does anybody think under the current Administration any type of union self-help will be deemed legal? Certainly no one on the dais at union legislative conferences thinks so - they all speak to government mendacity and corruption.

Given union leadership is aware of that, why are they sitting on their hands?

I'm guessing because they are comfortable in their sinecures, and afraid of putting some skin in the game.

From 2000 on, all any work group at US had to do to bring the operation to a standstill (the only way to get a recalcitrant management's attention) was work to the book - nothing illegal, unethical or immoral. Employees were too busy throwing one another under the bus, and union leadership was too comfortable to go there. For Glass&Crellin, it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

I don't see anything that's changed.

 

[nycbusdriver]

It cost them six years of concessions while AA Management gets bonuses.

Don't let the facts get in your way!

Typically disingenuous of you.

Pretty much all the airlines (except SWA) took six years of concessions simultaneously with AA.

All of the other AA workgroups took simultaneous six years of concessions.

Did we all take these concessions because of the fine leveled at APA?

Or was there another incident that took place on 9/11/01 that might have been responsible for the six years of concessions?

 

[Travelpro72]

I am West. And where do you get 30%? Most flight attendants do live in Phoenix, Hp employed. I wasn't talking about our pilots, was I? NO. And I was asking TravelPro a question not you.

As a reserve you must be in base when on duty. We go on duty at midnight so you must be in base before midnight. We too have the two flight rule. You can list yourself as a reserve commuter but not sure what THAT does for you. Now as a blockholder your allowed I believe 2 "unable to commutes" a year. The thing that is ticking me off, tonight is case in point that MANY MANY MANY PIT commuters couldn't make it to work due to the horrible weather. Yeah, well you should check the news and leave the day before if the flights are full or weather is comming. WE ARE NOT HERE as reserves to cover this SH!T. We have no exceptions as a reserve. If your on duty for 6 days and don't fly any of them you have to be in your base by midnight the 1st day until your released the last day. It's total BS.

 

[WCT]

Like most of the west employees, you are myopic, and will never see the big picture.

30% is a firm picture of commuters. Ask your base managers. But then, maybe you are avoiding the BMs. I hear they are asking questions about you. Why might that be?

Everybody avoids there Inflight sups on the West. They don't know much about what the job entails anyway. I try to see a more postive big picture, rather a narrow minded one full of negativity..

 

[dariencc]

Learn to read and can't keep on topic?
That CBA was voted down by the membership and a new CBA was ratified that cost the APA $23 million in the fine, plus all the concessions given by APA which was $660 Million per year.

This is typical of you. Google search a subject you know nothing about. Post as if you are the world expert.

This comes straight from an APA council rep at the time. After the first proposed CBA was voted down, the union made several small, token payments from the escrow account, as ordered by the court. It was made clear to the company that insistence on collecting the rest would be considered "an extremely hostile act." As part of the new CBA, which was ratified, the fine went away. American wisely understood that improved labor relations were more important than collecting the fine.

Another educational experience for Lavman, similiar to his memorable "debates" with pilots and flight attendants about Cuban overfly policies and procedures. There ARE limits to Google, you know.

 

[songbirdstew]

We actually don't need an organized sick out for F/As----so many couldn't commute to work due to storms recently that they had to call in SCK....
Add in the fact that Tempe hardly awarded any vacation to F/As for the month of August and those who have always had AUG off for family vacation also called in SCK.
I have flown every day I've been on duty this month and none of the trips flown have been for my own base.
Tempe also did the same thing w/ VAC in November and December. I just talked to a F/A w/ 31 years who has always held Christmas off---well, not this year ! She's already reserved a SCK call for it.
Tempe thought that if VAC wasn't awarded then everyone would just swallow it and fly----so you need a Dr's note for the holiday or your 5th SCK call????
Go pay your $20 co-pay and get one......