
Pilots Strike at Cargo Carrier Serving DHL, Amazon.com - jstreebin
http://www.wsj.com/articles/pilots-strike-at-cargo-carrier-serving-dhl-amazon-com-1479821378
======
rgbrenner
WSJ has no details on why the strike happened, says an "unspecified" number of
flights for Amazon (actually 35/day) and even seems out of date.. since the
court order ABX attempted to get was already dismissed.

Each of the pilots has worked an average of 32 emergency days so far this year
(days they would have had off). In just the first 3 months of this year, 40%
of captains exceeded their emergency work days.. so it's possible there are no
captains or first officers on ABXs payroll with emergency work days remaining.
ABX says this is a minor contractual dispute, so they should be forced back to
work (along with more emergency days) and it should be resolved through
arbitration/mediation. The judge didn't agree. And the issue has been ongoing
for a year and half.

This article has more detail: [http://aviationtribune.com/airlines/north-
america/pilots-str...](http://aviationtribune.com/airlines/north-
america/pilots-strike-abx-air/)

~~~
logfromblammo
Apparently, the pilots' contract says that flight time scheduled on an
emergency basis is supposed to be repaid with compensatory time off.

Clearly, from the sheer amount of emergency scheduling, the company simply
does not employ enough pilots to honor all of its contract obligations. ABX
needs to immediately expand its permanent pilot workforce by about 15%, and
_still_ hire additional temporary contractors to get through the end-year
holiday season.

~~~
toomuchtodo
But that'd cost money and eat into profits /s

EDIT: I don't care who you are, abusing labor for profits is not morally
acceptable.

~~~
stevehawk
The airline industry seems particularly rough. I assume it's because of the
high cost of just entering the business. I was on a United Express (ie - a
carrier operating under United's name) flight once and sat next to a pilot. I
was listening to him talk about their imminent strike and contract
negotiations and it just seemed like a bummer. Basically, the minor carrier is
only big enough to contract out to one major carrier, which is also all that's
economically feasible since the crew need uniforms of the major airline and
the plane can't be repainted with every flight to represent another carrier.

With their dependence on United established, United then failed to pay the
minor carrier. This caused the minor carrier to go delinquent on bills,
salaries, etc. United then agreed to immediately backpay everything if the
minor carrier agreed to salary cuts across the board. If they didn't, then
United would hold out paying until a court made them.

This is made all the more insulting because United, et al, ask these same
pilots not to wear their uniforms when using their food stamps.

~~~
vvanders
This tactic is common across businesses. Quite a few publishers in the game
industry have pulled the same stunt and when the developer goes under re-hire
everyone to work on the title at a lower rate.

Most publishing contracts have a clause the the publisher gets source/assets
in the event of a developer bankruptcy.

~~~
cylinder
Without statutory protection it's a race to the bottom. We can't expect
everyone to just duke it out in the courts to sort everything out. Clearly
that gives yet another advantage to big pocketed corporations. But it seems
the US prefers it this way.

------
6stringmerc
In a way the title is almost misleading - not the fault of most articles
though - because the carrier is attempting to use the US Court System to block
the pilots going on strike. So, while yes they may "go on Strike" it's part of
a longer process. Personally I know which entity I'm pulling for, so long-term
I'll have to file away the result as educational no matter which side gets
their way.

~~~
Johnny555
The text of the linked article seems to match the headline... the article says
that the strike is in-progress and planes are grounded:

 _The pilots are picketing ABX Air, a subsidiary of Air Transport Services
Group Inc., and aren’t flying scheduled routes, the union said Tuesday. ATSG
has 58 freighter aircraft in its fleet, including 50 widebody Boeing 767
planes._

 _Pilots aren’t crossing the picket lines, which means planes are unable to
leave an Amazon hub in Wilmington, Ohio, and a DHL hub in Cincinnati, said a
person familiar with the matter._

The carrier said they are seeking a court order to end the work stoppage, but
it hasn't been granted yet and it's not at all clear that it will be (at
least, not according to the article):

 _Air Transport Services Group said it is trying to end what it calls an
illegal work stoppage. ABX Air President John Starkovich said the airline is
seeking a court order to force the pilots back to work._

~~~
vkou
> ABX Air President John Starkovich said the airline is seeking a court order
> to force the pilots back to work.

How are these kinds of court orders possible in a free country, with largely
at-will employment? Employees are not slaves.

~~~
rgbrenner
Basically the idea is rail (and later airlines) are critical national
infrastructure, and the country should not be brought to a standstill over
minor contract disputes. Before the law, here's what would happen:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1877](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1877)

So the law requires minor disputes to be resolved through arbitration or
mediation, instead of with a strike. ABX is saying this is a minor dispute,
the union says it's a major dispute. The judge agreed with the union.

Even if the employees were forced back to work, they can still quit. So
there's no slavery here.

~~~
jandrese
IMHO, if the courts are being used to break the strike they should also be
used to arbitrate the dispute and make the resolution binding. Make it
dangerous to try to use the government to prosecute your own labor relations
problem because they could find in favor of the unions and force you to honor
time off promises or raise pay or whatever it is the union is striking over.
And of course if the union is the one being unreasonable then we have today's
situation where the workers are told to get back to work and the Union is told
to pound sand.

~~~
rgbrenner
Right now, the NLRB does that. The board uses administrative law judges, and
they can be appealed to the US court of appeals or the US supreme court.

It's so similar to what you're suggesting, I'm not quite sure what the
advantage of changing it would be?

------
scoot
I so misinterpreted that headline - for a moment I though military aircraft
had attacked a cargo ship!

~~~
soared
I had the same thought, and closed the article after realizing it. I suppose
that still benefits the authoring website...

------
more_corn
Please stop posting paywalled articles. There are all kinds of arguments for
paying for quality news and whatever, but I'll never pay for WSJ and I simply
don't care enough to bother with circumvention. If people want to try the
paywall thing let them build the wall. Lets stop peeking over the top though
shall we?

~~~
cypherpunks01
See
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989)

I do wish that paywall articles could be tagged as such though.

~~~
yohoho22
Maybe if there was a little more encouragement of non-paywalled submissions,
where possible?

Here's a Bloomberg article that seems to cover mostly the same ground as this
WSJ piece, for example:
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-22/pilot-
str...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-22/pilot-strike-could-
hurt-amazon-s-air-operation-during-holidays)

Sometimes the WSJ or NYT or whoever just has something to offer that others do
not. In many cases, though, it seems like there's other paywall-free reporting
that could work basically as well.

