Operating Successfully during a Strike

[DoinTime]

I have been working for my company (SAA) and on NWA planes well before all this started. I am NOT crossing a picket line to take over for striking NWA mechs.

I have no controll over whose buisness management takes. If a plane comes in, I am expected to do my job regardless of whose it is.

I sympathize with NWA mechs, but I have to do my job too.

Struck work is struck work. If NWA pilots go on strike you can be for damn sure I'm not going to fly their work regardless of what my employer says.

 

[DoinTime]

If you work in a different union even at the same company, you will be expected to go to work. If you don't, the company can get an injunction to compel you to work. If you do not comply, huge fines and jail time can be assessed against you and your union. In the American Airlines "job action" a few years ago, APA was almost bankrupted and individual pilots were singled out for lawsuits for calling in sick.

You've been around long enough to know that is compleat BS. Secondary strikes and sickouts (Illegal job action) are completely different things. No Unionized group is ever required to cross picket lines at their place of employment. Not even under the RLA. This is echoed throughout airline/railroad history

 

[Occam's Razor]

DoinTime wrote: "Secondary strikes and sickouts (Illegal job action) are completely different things. No Unionized group is ever required to cross picket lines at their place of employment. Not even under the RLA. This is echoed throughout airline/railroad history"

To be completely accurate, you should say, "...unless they have agreed to a no-strike clause in their contract."

In the case of the other NWA unions, only ALPA has not traded away the ability to sympathy strike. Any PFAA, IAM, or AMFA member who refuses to work during a strike by one of the other NWA unions can be terminated for cause (violation of the contract).

During the 1998 strike, NWA mechanics crossed ALPA picket lines.

 

[Donsa320]

You've been around long enough to know that is compleat BS. Secondary strikes and sickouts (Illegal job action) are completely different things. No Unionized group is ever required to cross picket lines at their place of employment. Not even under the RLA. This is echoed throughout airline/railroad history

Compleat (sic) BS huh, well we maybe will see soon enough.

~DC

 

[100LL... Again!]

Struck work is struck work. If NWA pilots go on strike you can be for dang sure I'm not going to fly their work regardless of what my employer says.

No, it is not.

If NW already has this agreement in place with outside vendors, then that is not crossing a picket line. You would, perhaps, like him to lose his job to protect the NW mechanic's bargaining position?

Scabbing is crossing a picket line. You union thugs always amaze me.

 

[DoinTime]

Scabbing is crossing a picket line.

Scabbing is performing struck work. Plain and simple.

 

[:-)]

Scabbing is performing struck work. Plain and simple.

Scabbing has always been the act of crossing the picket line and becoming a replacement worker at the company being struck.

Sorry, but you just can't broaden up the definition to the extent you are attempting, it just don't work. However, I understand your desire and agree, but it ain't gonna fly bro.

Cal

 

[surplus1]

Unless you are in the same union you cannot honor the other's picket line if you have a contract to work. That is a secondary boycott, forbidden by Taft Hartley. The company would get an injunction against it in a heart beat. When Lorenzo did not do that, in the case of Eastern, then you knew he did not want the pilots back. In any case, nobody won that one anyway, IMHO.

~DC

Small technicality -- Taft Hartley does not apply. The NWA situation is under the RLA (Railway Labor Act). In certain circumstances a sympathy strike is permissable, in others not. The law is not cut and dry but very complex.

The EAL pilot strike was a sympathy strike in support of the IAM.

In the APA case, wich was not a strike, the judge's ruling was a somewhat draconian decision written by a man whose own words made it patently clear that his personal attitude towards labor unions and labor disputes was the purpose of the decision. If you read the decision it is not hard to see that. Nevertheless, it was upheld. Federal judges seldom rule in favor of labor, which has little to do with facts and a lot to do with politics.

In any case, it is hightly improbable that the NWA pilots will honor the mechanics strike. I predict the pilots will fly if the mechanics strike, picket line or not, they will cross it. ALPA will not go to court to try and prove it can strike in sympathy.

The company's objective in this case is to break the AMFA. They will probably succeed.

 

[cfm56-7b]

why are the pilots the first one's to take concessions?

 

[Donsa320]

Small technicality -- Taft Hartley does not apply. The NWA situation is under the RLA (Railway Labor Act). In certain circumstances a sympathy strike is permissable, in others not. The law is not cut and dry but very complex.

The EAL pilot strike was a sympathy strike in support of the IAM.

In the APA case, wich was not a strike, the judge's ruling was a somewhat draconian decision written by a man whose own words made it patently clear that his personal attitude towards labor unions and labor disputes was the purpose of the decision. If you read the decision it is not hard to see that. Nevertheless, it was upheld. Federal judges seldom rule in favor of labor, which has little to do with facts and a lot to do with politics.

In any case, it is hightly improbable that the NWA pilots will honor the mechanics strike. I predict the pilots will fly if the mechanics strike, picket line or not, they will cross it. ALPA will not go to court to try and prove it can strike in sympathy.

The company's objective in this case is to break the AMFA. They will probably succeed.

Well, back in the day we we were told at ALPA meetings that Taft Hartley did apply as far as the secondary boycott was concerned.
But as you say, Federal Judges seldom rule in favor of labor. If NWA ALPA no longer has a "no strike clause" they must have gotten rid of it after the '98 strike. (I've beeen gone since 1991).

My point really is to cool down the hot heads that seem to think that a strike is a walk in the park. It is not...lives will be ruined and jobs and companies lost for good in many cases. People will scab with little remorse. On the other hand memories are long. Example; The Southern Airways strike in the early 1960's. It was only settled after the Democrats took the White House after the 1962 elections. But scabs were allowed to stay on as part of the back to work agreement. Forward to 1991 just before I retired. One of those scabs mistakenly left his kit bag in ops at Memphis, overnight. A couple of the old Southern guys took the bag to the men's room and emptied the contents of their large bowel into it! 40 years after the strike. But remember, these were true scabs flying Southern's DC-3s on Southern's routes. So if you are flying under a contract for a struck carrier, ALPA will let you know if your flying is considered flying struck work. You don't get to make that determination on your own. Be very careful about walking off the company property. it may be difficult to get back on it.

~DC

 

[Donsa320]

why are the pilots the first one's to take concessions?

I think because we have the most to lose. We can't zip over to a different carrier with any ease if our company fails. IMHO

DC

 

[surplus1]

Donsa320,

I agree with everything you said in your post # 25. Any strike is a very sad event. The wounds never heal completely.

 

[Workin'Stiff]

Well put Donsa...

 

[USMCmech]

If NW already has this agreement in place with outside vendors, then that is not crossing a picket line. You would, perhaps, like him to lose his job to protect the NW mechanic's bargaining position?

I don't like the fact that my company will be takeing work from NWA if their mechs walk out. However, it is completly out of my controll. Short of quiting my job (something I won't do, I have a family to support) there is nothing I can do.

Calling all 3,000 mechs at my facility scabs simply because we are continueing to do our jobs is uncalled for, and insulting.




Now the guys who are being brought in to do line maint by NWA are a different matter entirely.

 

[mynameisjim]

How about the managers and salaried employees who are trained to work in place of the mechanics. Are they considered scabs though they are managers? Lets say they used to be a mechanic, now they are a manager. They then work as mechanics again during the strike, then back to a manager after the strike.


The managers do not have the ability to honor the picket line. In order to keep their jobs (and even to qualify for unemployment benefits) they must do as the company asks.

What is the common perception of a worker like that?