5 ms·

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details on why the strike happened, says an "unspecified" number of flights for Amazon (actually 35/day) and even seems out of date..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

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details on why the strike happened, says an "unspecified" number of flights for Amazon (actually 35/day) and even seems out of date..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-strike-abx-air/ http://aviationtribune.com/airlines/north-america/pilots-str...

logfromblammo 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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.
  - jdavis703 10y ago
    I don't know the full situation (and definitely didn't downvoted you), but just because they were working "emergency hours" doesn't mean they were being abused. Workplace abuse is things like harassment, physical intimidation, etc.
    - toomuchtodo 10y ago
      “The situation has risen to the level where the company is illegally violating its contract with pilots by not allowing them to take contractually obligated compensatory time for the forced extra work. Throughout the year and now, especially during the 4th quarter, ABX has been forcing its pilots to fly flights because it had intentionally short-staffed its operations in the face of increased customer demands” the Airline Professionals Association said in a statement. “ABX refused to recall pilots who had been furloughed as a result of DHL’s termination of North American operations several years ago. ABX refused to recall those pilots because it did not want to bring them back and pay them at the top of the pilots’ wage scale, as required by the pilots’ contract. ABX instead extinguished those pilots’ recall rights earlier this year and then tried to hire new pilots who would be paid at the bottom of the pilots’ wage scale. ABX management has acknowledged that its penny-wise, pound foolish scheme backfired, as it waited too long to start hiring additional pilots and actually hired too few pilots. Since then, ABX has been forcing its pilots to fly additional trips and disrupting their schedules in an effort to climb out from the staffing hole it dug for itself”. Seems like self-serving profit motivated labor abuse to me. Wage theft is still theft.
      - eli_gottlieb 10y ago
        Wage theft is actually the single largest known form of theft in the USA right now[1]. >No one knows exactly how big a problem wage theft is, but in 2012 federal and state agencies recovered $933 million for victims of wage theft. By comparison, all the property taken in all the robberies of all types in 2012, solved or unsolved, amounted to a little under $341 million. [1] -- http://theweek.com/articles/642568/biggest-crime-waves-america-isnt-what-think http://theweek.com/articles/642568/biggest-crime-waves-ameri...
        toomuchtodo 10y ago
        Thanks for this! I'm interested in projects to automate the detection and reporting of wage theft.
        ci5er 10y ago
  - stevehawk 10y ago
    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.
    - guard-of-terra 10y ago
      "then United would hold out paying until" We should really be moving away from this bullshit to blockchain-mediated escrow enforced by contract. This way the only case you don't pay upon delivered work is if you're bankrupt. Which is what should happen here, btw. Don't want to pay? Congratulations, you're technically bankrupt. Get your shares loose.
      - cylinder 10y ago
        I don't understand the down votes. In Australia, directors are personally liable if they allow their company to trade while insolvent. Good place to start.
    - now0rristho33 10y ago
      No worries! Trump is going to make America great again! He'll be going right after any business man in this country that is a crooked swindler, cheat, grifter, and any other synonymous adjectives! If he doesn't, we can just vote the other side back in when they promise to do what Trump didn't! It'll be fine!
- LeifCarrotson 10y ago
  But what pilots would want to work there? They treat their employees like crap! It's a self-perpetuating problem.
cmdrfred 10y ago
>ABX says this is a minor contractual dispute, so they should be forced back to work The problem with our free market system is we don't have one. When a company wishes to cut wages or slash benefits, free market. When the workers decide they don't want to work under certain conditions anymore, get a judge involved.

logfromblammo 10y ago

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 10y ago
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.
- jdavis703 10y ago
  I don't know the full situation (and definitely didn't downvoted you), but just because they were working "emergency hours" doesn't mean they were being abused. Workplace abuse is things like harassment, physical intimidation, etc.
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    “The situation has risen to the level where the company is illegally violating its contract with pilots by not allowing them to take contractually obligated compensatory time for the forced extra work. Throughout the year and now, especially during the 4th quarter, ABX has been forcing its pilots to fly flights because it had intentionally short-staffed its operations in the face of increased customer demands” the Airline Professionals Association said in a statement. “ABX refused to recall pilots who had been furloughed as a result of DHL’s termination of North American operations several years ago. ABX refused to recall those pilots because it did not want to bring them back and pay them at the top of the pilots’ wage scale, as required by the pilots’ contract. ABX instead extinguished those pilots’ recall rights earlier this year and then tried to hire new pilots who would be paid at the bottom of the pilots’ wage scale. ABX management has acknowledged that its penny-wise, pound foolish scheme backfired, as it waited too long to start hiring additional pilots and actually hired too few pilots. Since then, ABX has been forcing its pilots to fly additional trips and disrupting their schedules in an effort to climb out from the staffing hole it dug for itself”. Seems like self-serving profit motivated labor abuse to me. Wage theft is still theft.
    - eli_gottlieb 10y ago
      Wage theft is actually the single largest known form of theft in the USA right now[1]. >No one knows exactly how big a problem wage theft is, but in 2012 federal and state agencies recovered $933 million for victims of wage theft. By comparison, all the property taken in all the robberies of all types in 2012, solved or unsolved, amounted to a little under $341 million. [1] -- http://theweek.com/articles/642568/biggest-crime-waves-america-isnt-what-think http://theweek.com/articles/642568/biggest-crime-waves-ameri...
      - toomuchtodo 10y ago
        Thanks for this! I'm interested in projects to automate the detection and reporting of wage theft.
      - ci5er 10y ago
- stevehawk 10y ago
  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.
  - guard-of-terra 10y ago
    "then United would hold out paying until" We should really be moving away from this bullshit to blockchain-mediated escrow enforced by contract. This way the only case you don't pay upon delivered work is if you're bankrupt. Which is what should happen here, btw. Don't want to pay? Congratulations, you're technically bankrupt. Get your shares loose.
    - cylinder 10y ago
      I don't understand the down votes. In Australia, directors are personally liable if they allow their company to trade while insolvent. Good place to start.
  - now0rristho33 10y ago
    No worries! Trump is going to make America great again! He'll be going right after any business man in this country that is a crooked swindler, cheat, grifter, and any other synonymous adjectives! If he doesn't, we can just vote the other side back in when they promise to do what Trump didn't! It'll be fine!
LeifCarrotson 10y ago
But what pilots would want to work there? They treat their employees like crap! It's a self-perpetuating problem.

cmdrfred 10y ago

>ABX says this is a minor contractual dispute, so they should be forced back to work The problem with our free market system is we don't have one. When a company wishes to cut wages or slash benefits, free market. When the workers decide they don't want to work under certain conditions anymore, get a judge involved.