SlumTodd_Millionaire
Most Hated Member
Don't forget Clinton not allowing American to strike in 1997 during his presidential term..ordering them back to work 4 minutes after the strike began..
That's not quite how it happened. The APA was negotiating non-stop with AMR until the very last minute of the 30-day cooling off period, trying to get a deal, but the problem was that they had made some pretty incredible promises to the membership about what they were going to get (no more outsourced RJs, for example). They had no chance of actually getting what they had promised their members, and they knew it. When the deadline hit, President Clinton's Chief Counsel, Bruce Lindsey, called the President of the APA and asked him what they would like Clinton to do. Knowing that they were in a no-win situation, the APA President said "you know, we wouldn't really be opposed to a PEB." Taking the hint, Lindsey went back to Clinton and told him to order a PEB.
The PEB did exactly what the APA hoped for. It threw out all of the crazy promises that they had made that they would never be able to deliver on, but it still got them improvements over what the company was offering at the table.
In short, Clinton helped the APA with his decision to postpone their strike and issue a PEB. He was just doing what they wanted.
He had them ordered back to work again in 1999 following a mass "sick-out", due to RLA restrictions.
President Clinton had nothing to do with that one. That was a Texas judge that found them in violation of the RLA (which they were). The judge was absolutely right, and the APA screwed up organized labor under the RLA for a long time thanks to those shenanigans. The injunctions that were issued as a result make it very difficult for RLA labor groups to do anything nowadays, because his rulings are now part of case law.
At least a strike was allowed to occur under Bush's term.
No large strikes were allowed under Bush's administration after CMR, and some would argue that even that strike wasn't large since it was a "regional." Under Clinton, however, the IAM conducted a 5-day strike at USAirways, the APFA conducted a 5-day strike at American, and ALPA conducted a 15-day strike at NWA. Bush never allowed a strike at a major carrier or even a regional carrier after CMR, despite the fact that several airlines were approaching record lengths of time under mediation during his term.