erichartmann
Freight Dog
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2006
- Posts
- 432
DOB? Do you mean Date of Hire? I doubt the E-Board can provide Date of Birth without violating privacy laws.
I'm not sure what a judge (or arbitrator) would have done. If it was found there was merit in your case it could easily have resulted in DHL being ordered to cease doing business with ABX. Had that been done, then Astar could have simply contracted with ABX on behalf of DHL to haul the freight Astar was incapable of hauling. The excess lift in the sytem could have gradually been phased out (it was anyway) and then the fun would have begun.
ABX's ACMI allows it to "put" surplus aircraft to DHL. Those aircraft could then have been transferred to Astar, increasing Astar's lift. Astar could hire off the street to crew them, perhaps with preferential interviews to furloughed ABX pilots, who would wind up on the bottom of your seniority list. As Astar's lift was increased by the former ABX aircraft, more ABX aircraft would have been parked as being surplus. I sure you can figure out the end of result of that play.
This might have occured anyway, had ABX allowed the surplus aircraft to be "put" to DHL. Hete decided to do otherwise, and the surplus aircraft were cut up. I suspect this is part of the reason Hete is disliked by DP/DHL. He refused to play by their rules. I doubt his primary reason is concern for the employees of ABX, in particular the pilots. (Hete is reputed to have refered to us as scum sucking scorpions) Hete no doubt sees his actions as way to make more money for himself.
Alternatively, Astar could have attemped a buyout of ABX. With the ACMI invalid, this would have been a fairly cheap option. In the event the actual attempt was considerably more expensive, and failed. The price was not right, at least in Hete's mind. The public announcement of the "interest" is proof that talks had already failed. I view the announcement of "interest" as an attempt to drive ABX stock price down and make the offer more attractive.
Astar could also have sought additional lift from other sources. I'm not sure why this was not done, but suspect it has to do with cost. ABX's ACMI is cheap. It barely covers the costs. This option would also result in the whole loss of jobs at ABX.
The least likely result in my view is that the end result would be for DHL to be ordered to pay some indeterminate amount of money to the Astar pilots to settle the case.
As you can see, your (ALPA 017) actions potentially represent a tremendous threat to the careers and livelihood of ABX's pilots. I'm quite sure you are fully aware of this.
Our arriving at some sort of agreement would certainly be a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, it will be a moot point unless the two carriers are merged. This may be the most likely resolution, but it is not ordained, thus the threat remains.
An asset sale in which the pilots were allowed to follow the equipment would accomplish the same thing providing a satisfactory agreement on seniority list merger were in hand. Again, not a sure thing.
My point is that what happens (i.e. merger, asset sale etc) is beyond the control of the two labor groups regardless of any agreement at which we may arrive. Any agreement must be backed up with the understaning that if Astar aquires ABX or its equipment then ABX pilots go with the aircraft, and an acceptable seniority merger is in place. Can you bind your management to this?
Last edited:
