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World Management Strands Pilots in Angola

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Beer&Brauts

This is Oklahoma Football
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Posts
202
LUANDA, ANGOLA-January 29th– The Executive Council for the pilots of World Airways report that four pilots were stranded in Luanda, Angola by World Airways in direct violation of the current collective bargaining agreement as well as a Letter of Agreement outlining crew member safety between World Airways and the pilots represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters(IBT). When in Luanda, World Airways crews are protected around the clock by armed security personnel. This protection was terminated when the pilots were forced to vacate their hotel rooms.
The pilots concerned were awaiting a company decision after their outbound flight, World Flight 0101 had been struck, and delayed by 12 hours. The pilots, who were exercising their legal rights under the Railway Labor Act, were told by a World Airways Flight Operations manager that they were suspended and were “on their own” in reference to where they were to stay and how they were to get home. However under the current collective bargaining agreement the pilots should have been provided lodging, security and transportation regardless of the ongoing strike.
“Our Strike Committee, concerned for their security and safety, made arrangements for their transportation home,” said Captain Mark Ohlau, World Airways Pilots Executive Council Member and Negotiating Committee Chairman. “As of this moment, they are enroute and once they are safely home we will continue our investigation and undertake whatever legal actions necessary to prevent World Airways from endangering the lives of our employees.”
The pilots of World Airways began a strike on the January 28, 2006 after talks broke down between the pilot’s Negotiating Committee and World Airway’s management under the auspices of the National Mediation Board.
On December 28, 2005, the NMB notified the pilot’s union and their more than 400 pilots, members of Teamsters Local 986 in El Monte, California, and World Airways, Inc. that after a 30 day “cooling off period” both sides were free to exercise self-help—which can include a strike for the pilots.
The unresolved issues in addition to job security are adequate medical and life insurance and genuine compensation increases—not those that are negated by increased benefit costs. The parties have been negotiating a new contract since June 2003, when the pilots’ current collective bargaining agreement became amendable.
A subsidiary of World Air Holdings, Inc., World Airways is the largest commercial carrier of US military personnel. The airline also provides cargo services for various cargo companies.
 
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Beer&Brauts said:
When in Luanda, ..........


........wear two, and make damn sure you've got a plan B for getting home. A little common sense would have gone a long way here.
 
I want to hear these guys stories. I can't even imagine how pissed they were/are. Beers on me. I bet ALPA got them a ride on TAP up to Lisbon then home.
 
Speaks volumes about the kind of people are running World. They're playing
"no prisoners" and looks like they're out to destroy the union.
 
Sell it!

I think there would be one MD-11 up for auction if I were stranded over there. Going price are one-way first class tickets back to the US.
 

It seems like nowadays all airline managements have the same mantra:

--screw the employees

--screw the employees

--screw the employees.

This might be one of Dante's stages of Hell.

Hang in there World pilots !!!

320AV8R

 
shon7 said:
Why should the company honor any contract when there is a strike?

Because striking is part of the contract per RLA
 
WhiteCloud said:
Why not fuel up the jet and fly home?


I believe management pilots are flying the struck legs..world still has to fly the government contract legs...so i am asuming they landed..got off..and a management crew took over...
 
CaptainMark said:
I believe management pilots are flying the struck legs..world still has to fly the government contract legs...so i am asuming they landed..got off..and a management crew took over...
So they could have taken the crew home instead of stranding them? That goes beyond hardball.
 
320AV8R said:
It seems like nowadays all airline managements have the same mantra:

--screw the employees

--screw the employees

--screw the employees.

This might be one of Dante's stages of Hell.

Hang in there World pilots !!!

320AV8R

I think they took it to a new level in this instance.

More like kill the employees.

How do these guys sleep at night?
 
Yea, but management really screwed themselves in these situation. Tatics like this only gives the pilot group more solidarity. So I think management really shot itself in the foot pulling this stunt.
They should have gotten the crew home. And made in a priority to get all the crews home.
 
WSurf said:
Yea, but management really screwed themselves in these situation. Tatics like this only gives the pilot group more solidarity. So I think management really shot itself in the foot pulling this stunt.
They should have gotten the crew home. And made in a priority to get all the crews home.

I think you're being a bit naive to think any company would get the crews home. That is the responsibility of the union. I would hope the union and the membership have a plan in place. I was in Saudi when we went on strike at Seaboard World in 1979. Not a fun event,:( since the Saudi immigration people collected our passports each time we entered the country.

World has a big problem because they now have a MD11 stuck in Luanda.:)
 
The Luanda trip is not part of the military charters. It is something else. Oil contract if I recall. Unless I am mistaken, any military flights are operating as scheduled.
 
FoxHunter said:
I think you're being a bit naive to think any company would get the crews home. That is the responsibility of the union. I would hope the union and the membership have a plan in place.

We had guys stranded all over the world during our 1998 strike. Mgmt could care less where people ended up. I worked in the Union Strike center. Guys would call in from every place imaginable, & we'd get them a ticket home, or authorize a rental car, for short distances. It was great to help your fellow pilots out, especially when Mgmt didn't give a rat's a$$ about them.

320AV8R
 
I had a similar stunt pulled on myself and my crew when I flew corporate on a trip to Saudi. We usually had armed security to meet us and when we didn't on this one trip I called the ops manager to insist he remedy the problem. He dropped the ball but in classic arab fashion refused to own his mistake. He told the arabic-speaking flight attendants by phone to "leave the captain behind" and take a cab to the hotel since I stood my ground. You don't want to take a cab as an American in Saudi.

Needless to say, he was promptly fired upon my return to base. I saw to that.

This ops manager at World should be fired for such criminal behavior.
 
Luanda Information

The Crews in Luanda were on a 12 hour strike. The company was notified that the flight was released to operate by the union. Hours later the company then notified the crews they "on there own". It looks like to me they abandon a crew that had been on strike but was no longer on strike.

Bel
 
Bellerophon said:
The Crews in Luanda were on a 12 hour strike. The company was notified that the flight was released to operate by the union. Hours later the company then notified the crews they "on there own". It looks like to me they abandon a crew that had been on strike but was no longer on strike.

Bel

That possibility should have been planned for by the union. The union should have turned around and said "That crew will be on the first available flight out of Luanda and back home. We have purchased the tickets for them." The way things look now the company has unpaid pilots sitting standby, unpaid, that will be available to move the airplane on short notice if they can't find another crew to fly it out.
 
Nevertheless, the manager who made the decision to leave the crew "on their own" in a hostile destination ought to be sent to jail for wrecklessly endangering the lives of those pilots.
 
I heard World is trying to get FedEx or UPS to provide a crew to get the jet out of Luanda. One heck of a place to have a jet stuck...Although World screwed the crew, I can think of no better way to get back at management then leaving an MD-11 on the ramp in Luanda. Thats the Wild Wild West!
 
FYI!!!

Message Line
January 31, 2006

This is FEDEX MEC Communications with the Message Line for January 31,
2006.

Possible Scab Recruitment: The FDX MEC has been informed from highly
credible sources at World Airways that FedEx is being solicited to
recruit retired FedEx MD-11 pilots to be scabs. We have been told that
there is coordination between World and FedEx to hire retired pilots to
move World MD-11s idled by the World pilots' strike and that FedEx
management may assist in the effort. It has been confirmed through
conversations directly with a sampling of some of our retired pilots
that FedEx is attempting to recruit pilots to move unidentified MD-11s
in Africa. It is possible that these pilots are being asked to either
reposition aircraft, or possibly fly them for revenue during the strike.
Either of these actions would involve the crossing of a picket line
established by our fellow pilots in their quest to protect their jobs
from being outsourced.

We are confident that our retired pilots will have the character
necessary to refuse this chance to assist in breaking a strike. It is
extremely tough to imagine that retirees who are being squeezed in the
health care arena the way that ours are would be willing to assist in
the subjugation of a fellow pilot group.

We are in the process of contacting management to get their response to
what part, if any, they have in this type of cooperative, concerted
coercion of labor. If you hear of anyone being recruited or actually
performing these kinds of services, please contact the MEC.
 
Did somebody say MD 11 parts sale?

What parts? That thing was stripped down to nothing as soon as those guys got on the plane home... Some locals have nice new white aluminum walls on their shacks now... By the way, what does a nice EFIS tube sell for these days???

As for the company stranding them there, what a joke... It's a pain to get in and out of there. But, BA, AF, and KLM all serve it, so hopefully they didn't sit around too long.
 
T-Gates said:
World owns North American, and they fly 767-300's and 757's. Are any NAA pilots flying struck work?
No.
NAA pilots are not SCABS. A Portugese outfit-Euro Atlantic- is providing the SCAB labor.
 
whymeworry? said:
Nevertheless, the manager who made the decision to leave the crew "on their own" in a hostile destination ought to be sent to jail for wrecklessly endangering the lives of those pilots.

His name is Charlie MacDonald, and he's the COO. He also left a crew in Communist China with no visa, only a shore pass. That means they can't leave the country unless they're operating. Long story short, the Embassy got involved, and they finally made it out. He actually had our Director of Safety, Kevin Hyatt, on the "Strike Action Team" informing crews that their AMEX's were cnx'd, and they were "on their own" in both cases. There's an oxymoron in there somewhere.
 

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