Appearing on Reuters tonight, it appears that union leaders at United Airlines are asking its members to go forward with a vote to determine if United pilots would strike as a response to negotiations breaking down after 2 years of impasse on a new contract.
A vote like this would only authorize the potential of a strike and does not in anyway indicated that a strike would be imminent. In my opinion I think its more of a negotiation tactic being used by the union to bring management back to the bargaining table in an attempt to ratify new contracts for United’s 12,000 pilots.
It would be difficult for any US based airline to have it’s pilots walk out in a strike because the White House would have the ability to “forbid” the strike since it would not be in the best interest of American Commerce.
I really don’t expect United pilots to even come close to walking off the job, but in case you start to see more talk of this in the media, take it with a grain of salt. A lot of things would have to go drastically wrong for the pilots to ever reach the point of walking off the job.
I don’t understand why the airline pilot unions fight so much and can’t find a win-win. Integrity the seniority lists should be internal to them. I’m fairly sure management has said here’s what we’re willing to pay per hour flown, it’s up to you to divide it into pay rates, benefits, and work-rule inefficiencies. Yes UA and CO had different rules, but again the pilots need to work that out among themselves. Scope clauses may be hard, but even here there’s got to be some reasonable way to balance out where RJ operations generate additional feed which supports additional mainline flying, not replaces it. There are a lot of RJ routes which simply would go away without replacement service.
I’m still bitter about the summer of 2000 when the pilots, who already owned 25% of the airline, cost UA $1 billion in lost revenue by their go slow actions. They need leadership that will look at the big picture!
I’m sure that the compay’s preference would be to take even more from not ONLY the pilots, but ALL of the work groups. (Keep an eye on the American Airlines Bankruptcy results) Of course the work groups preference would be to get ALL of the sacrifices back, and then some. I doubt that there will be a successful “meeting in the middle”, in any of the Labor Negotiation’s.
There will be wounds and scars on everyone involved, unfortunately this includes the flying public, as evidenced already by the poor customer service and weak excuses given by the company as a “result of the merger system change overs.”
The “company” seems so focused on generating value for the shareholders that they have lost sight of the ONLY way to guarantee that of happening. ALL successful companies, have competent management, and successful and contented employees who in turn generate a satisfied customer relations base that is willing to return and purchase the product thus insuring the benefits to the shareholders.
While this merger looks to be one that cannot be beat as far as route structures, the devil will indeed be in the details…and the details are just now beginning to surface. United cannot be successful and continue to draw the ire of the customer base. There are dark and turbulent skies ahead unless there is a universal refocus and implimentation of the “Working Together Guidelines”.
Not a distraction thst a president wants in election year. Though Smi’s whopping salary gouge would feed in to the hatred of uncontionable corporate greed felt by the nation. I saw this coming and still booked flights with UA over the summer (upgraded too). Sigh! Should have taken the AA match.
Gotta love unions. Considering the administration is the most union friendly one ever, if the pilots wanted to strike, I don’t think they would be stopped.