Just curious... Someone told me that at least 200 AMT's have crossed the picket line and returned to work since the strike began almost two months ago.
Can anyone verify that?
You were misinformed. The number of NWA strikers who have become scabs is still less than 100. You can see most of them here:
http://www.amfa33.org/strike/scabs.htm
Additionally, several more who chose to become scabs have subsequently quit when they discovered the environment they were forced to work in and several more have been terminated for bringing forward their concerns about the safety of a particular aircraft or workmanship issues.
5-10% is probably less than what management expected...
Considering that management's plan called for 15% to cross on the day that the strike began and 25% within two weeks, it is certain that they had unreasonable expectations.
...but every time someone else returns to work, it throws water on the argument that inexperienced mechanics are working on NWA aircraft.
Prior to the strike there were more than 4700 technicians still working at NWA and a total of over 7900 on the seniority list counting those laid off after 9/11 and when the Iraq war began. Since the strike started, NWA has tried repeatedly to lure people from both groups across the picket line, even having their former managers call them at home with promises that they will be treated different than the rest of the scabs. For those who have been laid off prior to the strike, NWA first attempted to lure them across the picket line with a bogus "Notice of Recall" and when that did not work threatened them with termination and then did away with their recall rights.
Yet when they return, they find what one who became a scab and subsequently quit described as a "Lord of the Flies" environment where the scab mechanics are either afraid to or unwilling to assist each other, where mechanics are now afraid to bring forward airworthiness concerns for fear of being fired. Where any complaint puts one at risk for discharge. As each day of the strike has gone by, the scabs discover more and more of the real NWA, rather than the one they knew when they were in training and during the beginning of the strike.
Even in the best of times, NWA is a fairly hostile place to work. The pilots strike in 1998 stripped the last of the pretense of cooperation that remained from the 1993 concessions and the company's reaction to the 2001 AMFA contract made it clear to us that NWA meant to declare war on its mechanics. The vast majority of us have been preparing our 'exit strategies' for several years and have no intention to or need to cross our picket line. Having experienced life at NWA when we did have a union to protect us from retaliation by management for bringing forward legitimate airworthiness concerns, there is no way I would be willing to work in the same environment without one.
can't wait to hear the next "Guess who I ran Into Today" story 
