American Airline Pilots' Slowdown Wins a Victory, Despite What You Read in the DMN

[BoeingBoy]

And get fines imposed...what was it last time??? Never go to a gunfight with only a pocket knife...

Speak for yourself...as part of the group that put themselves on the lowest pay in the industry because they'd rather fight each other than fight the company...

Jim

 

[1AA]

And get fines imposed...what was it last time??? Never go to a gunfight with only a pocket knife...

Speak for yourself...as part of the group that put themselves on the lowest pay in the industry because they'd rather fight each other than fight the company...

Jim

I wish I knew which side of the field you are playing on. Do you even work for AA?

 

[Phoenix]

I wish I knew which side of the field you are playing on. Do you even work for AA?

No, not for AA. He is a pilot that retired from USAir more than five years ago.

 

[nbmcg01]

It would be very hard for a Judge to sign a TRO for working to rule. The company wrote the rules. Only legitimate "self help" without being released.

 

[FWAAA]

It would be very hard for a Judge to sign a TRO for working to rule. The company wrote the rules. Only legitimate "self help" without being released.

The US pilots thought the same thing almost exactly one year ago. They miscalculated:

http://usairlinepilots.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=88&Itemid=524

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

Maybe I'm 'splitting hairs here'....but i would imagine that....' A ...NO - GO ' item .........explicitly outlined in a FAA Manual Means JUST THAT ! .......................... N O - G O !!!!!!!!!!

If I were the new APA president, I would have told Dunce-nese Lynn (In NO Uncertain Terms) that she had 1, and Only ONE chance to come to the table....MINUS ANY tricks, delays, slowdowns ETC. .........To make positive CONCRETE changes to what would be a totally NEW contract !.........(or) The Status Quo !!!!!!!

 

[jersey777]

Well Denise Lynn doesn't run the show no mo! The UCC and Judge do.

 

[Bob Owens]

http://blogs.dallaso...lots_slowdo.php



American Airline Pilots' Slowdown Wins a Victory, Despite What You Read in the DMN

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)][background=transparent]Mitchell Schnurman is a really good business reporter. [/background]The Dallas Morning News[background=transparent] scored a major coup recently when it hired him away from the [/background]Fort Worth Star-Telegram[background=transparent]. He's an ace, the a[/background][background=transparent]But as we see again in today's paper, Schnurman is strangely obtuse when he starts handing out moral advice to the rank and file. Schnurman [/background]posts yet another[background=transparent] in what is fast becoming a regular series of preachy epistles to the pilots union, scolding them for their rogue slowdown action at American Airlines.[/background][/background]

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)][background=transparent]He says, "The negative publicity couldn't be much worse, as cancellations made national and local headlines. ... Plenty of pilots who are doing their jobs must be embarrassed, too. They often talk about getting the respect they deserve, especially from management, but these tactics put their interests ahead of everyone else's."[/background]
[background=transparent]Funny. For all this finger-wagging and tch-tching in the paper this morning, I still don't see the real story about American Airlines. I am scouring my very expensive print version of the paper. Nope. Not there. I go back over the web page as well, navigating around the "Ask Mitch Manners" column to look for some news.[/background]
[background=transparent]No. Not there, either. Maybe they'll move themselves to get it up by the time my item gets posted on Unfair Park.[/background]So as a last resort I go to my usual source for big Dallas business stories that the local paper doesn't like: The Christian Science Monitor. Sure. There it is, big and bold! I thought I saw that mentioned on TV just before the lights went out in my head last night: Management at American has agreed to go back to the bargaining table with the pilots!
[background=transparent][background=transparent]That's the real story today. That's the news. The headline at the top of the front page of any honest morning paper in this town today should be: IT WORKED![/background][/background]
[background=transparent]Damn straight. By dragging the company out to the edge of the cliff -- and only by that! -- the pilots have been able to push a stubborn management team off its arrogant dime. Management was determined to cover its own incompetence with blood drained from the pilots' contract. The pilots showed them that the blood would be their own.[/background]
[background=transparent]Is that really how it's done? Do you really threaten to harm the company if they won't talk? Do you really threaten to shut it down? Of course you do! How in the hell do we think labor ever got management to talk in the first place?[/background]
[background=transparent]The labor movement and unions in this country have weakened to the point of near extinction in the last 20 years because union members have lost the courage and resolve that the American Airlines pilots found again in this dispute.[/background]
[background=transparent]It ain't tiddlywinks. Americans were able to form unions and fight for decent pay in the first place only because workers weren't afraid of an ultimate shootout. They had the courage to go out to that line and face the management goons sent there to beat and even kill them, if that's what it took.[/background]
[background=transparent]Maybe it's time for working and middle class Americans to stop bitching about the plague of income disparity gnawing at the very fiber of our society. Maybe it's time people remembered that in this world you get what you're willing to fight for.[/background]
[background=transparent]Not take. Not steal. Fight for. An honest day's wages for an honest day's work. And when management, acting under Wall Street rules, tries to turn that principle on its head -- comes up with a plan by which the CEO gets a larcenous bonus for doing a lousy job while labor gets the shaft -- then, yes, labor has to be ready to toe that ultimate line.[/background]
[background=transparent]In today's America on any given day, it can seem like management has all the tricks and the ammo. They rewrite the laws themselves. They stack the courts with cronies. And they fill their newspapers with propaganda.[/background]
[background=transparent]But as the American Airlines pilots have reminded us, labor always has the ultimate weapon. The one leverage. The last resort.[/background]
[background=transparent]Shut it down.[/background][/background]

Brilliant Post. I just wish we had people in the ATD who could read and comprehend what you have written.

 

[1AA]

Brilliant Post. I just wish we had people in the ATD who could read and comprehend what you have written.

How do I take your comment? Funny or sad? Unfortunately it is the truth and reality with the TWU. I got mine started in 1946 at American Airlines under the TWU. A good fight requires good leadership at best. We have neither a good fight or good leadership. The pilots action got the company back to the table. I hope things will be better this time around for them.

 

[Bob Owens]

Not quite.

At the moment, I bet it's another tactic to deflate the pilots with "calm down, see, I am willing to talk".

Smisek just tried that with the UAL pilots. They took a strike vote, picketed and had NMB pressure, then comes their AIP (Agreement in Principle). Not long after while writing actual language, they start lying, delaying and stonewalling again. Word is the NMB was forced to get involved again and is pissed at Management.

Nobody said it was over, far from it, but in war an advance is considered a victory of sorts. Sure as hell beats the unconditional surrender we were duped into.

 

[Bob Owens]

No, a TRO for changes in past practice. A so-called "work to book" campaign can result in a TRO. Remember, all the company has to show is that the pattern of write-ups changed when the pilot's contract was changed - minor items written up at departure time or at non-maintenance stations, etc to deliberately delay a flight. The APA is left stuck between arguing that it's members either weren't following the FAR's before the contract was abrogated (carrying minor write-ups) or are engaging in an illegal job action now. Bragging about the success of an illegal job action just makes the company's case for them. Super FLUF should know better.

Just ask USAPA or any US East pilot about TRO's and permanent injunctions...heck, ask the APA about the fine levied for an illegal job action. As I recall, that was the result of a sickout - what---a TRO against being sick??? Absolutely.

Jim

Maybe you should read the language from the failed TRO that AA tried to get in 2001 against mechanics. To me it looks like Fluf copied and pasted the post from somewhere else. The person is writing as if he is not a Pilot.

[background=transparent]But as the American Airlines pilots have reminded us,[/background]

 

[Bob Owens]

. The pilots action got the company back to the table. I hope things will be better this time around for them.

SAD.

We were repeatedly told that was is happening would not happen and if it did we would lose the bases. Well, where were they going to send it all within the next few months? Capacity is tight, nobody wants to gear up for MD-80s, we gave them six years to get rid of the 80s and shop around instead!!!

 

[Bob Owens]

The US pilots thought the same thing almost exactly one year ago. They miscalculated:

http://usairlinepilo...d=88&Itemid=524

Ok so the Union tells the pilots about the order. Then what? Tells the pilots not to report discrepancies? Cant do that, either, that would put them in violation with the FAA. So, the write ups continue, and maintenance continues to verify and address the discrepancies, then what? FINE THE UNION!!!? So then comes the trial, the company will show graphs and charts, the pilots will show actual PIREPS and ask the company to pick which discrepancies the pilots should not have written up. Last time that happened a company official said that mechanics dont have to go to the Maintenence manual if they were familiar with the job!!! OOOPS I think the company has enough problems with the FAA. If the company had felt they had a case against the pilots they would have filed, they didn't.

 

[bigjets]

AA can afford to give the pilots a better contract than the LBO. They can use the money AA saved when they shafted the workers who belong to the twu! They did it with the twu's help.

You mean AA did it with TULE's help!!! 75% yes vote from TULE.

 

[bigjets]

AA pilots have carried write ups in the past. AA has responded by cutting outstation mechanics and parts. Any court is free to contact me.

Thanks for nothing!!! Between TULE and the pilots sticking it to the line mechs everyday, we don't have a chance.