A proposed sick-out?
- Thread starter WestIndian425
- Start date
jynxyjoe
Queso King
glassnpowder98
Well-Known Member
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I've been scheduled for vacation that week since the beginning of the year, so I'll be quasi participating
n57flyguy
Well-Known Member
How is it illegal? (serious question)
ClarkGriswold
Non Nutritive Cereal Varnish Engineer
Because no one has been released from the NMB. Under the RLA you cannot strike or cause a work slowdown whenever you feel like it. I would laugh if some people went to jail.
jynxyjoe
Queso King
One of the finer points of the RLA, this would be considered an illegal job action.
One of the mighty Reverends (Jackson or Sharpton) went to jail for a NYC transit worker sickout. He was labeled as a leader and got a couple months to think about it (unless he plead out and I didn't hear about it).
jtrain609
Antisocial Monster
Union leaders go to jail, everyone else gets fired.
ppragman
FLIPY FLAPS!
Who really cares if it is illegal though? I mean the original labor activists out there had to periodically have the military brought in to end disputes. I am more than a little convinced that the process is pretty broken (that said I am an outsider), what's an airline going to do - fire everyone and shutdown?
An airline has a large percentage of the pilots sick out. Completion rates plummet, stranded customers and the airline loses a crap-ton of money. The company has no more leverage than it had before to wrest more cash from its mainline partner to re-enter negotiations to pay you more.
So now, a relatively healthy carrier begins to bleed money and now you want a raise: Counterintuitive.
The leverage is the threat of a strike not the strike itself. it's the threat of economic damage and if you actually go on strike, it's because both sides have failed in negotiations.
Under the RLA you do not have the legal ability to strike, yet. A strike is withholding of service. If you're calling in sick, en masse, you're not striking, you're abusing sick leave. if you want to strike, man up and tell crew scheduling, "I'm not coming in tomorrow because I'm going on an illegal strike".
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Cptnchia
Dissatisfied Customer
Once the mainline customer cancels the ASA due to non compliance with completion rates, THEN the airline will fire everyone and shutdown. Such is the life of a contractor. Fail to show up to do a job, get fired.
jtrain609
Antisocial Monster
FIFY
ppragman
FLIPY FLAPS!
Well, why aren't we doing that? From everything I've read, the pay and workrules suck at the regional level so why isn't anyone performing "illegal" work stoppages.
I'd also like to question the constitutionality of the RLA in situations like this - why the hell couldn't an independent group of people freely associate?
I don't know - I don't have a dog in this fight other than that this monkeys with the set point for wages and work rules industry wide. I'm also very much not a lawyer - but it strikes me as fundamentally wrong that a group of people can't legally decide to not work. @JTrain - what is the constitutionality of the RLA? Has it even been tested?
SlumTodd_Millionaire
Most Hated Member
I think that's just been explained to you by several people. Regionals are contractors. Don't show up to work, lose the contract work, company goes out of business. How'd that work stoppage work for you? But it gets even more basic than that: only a few people won't show up, not everyone, so those few people will get fired. Again, nothing gained.
No one is stopping you from freely associating. You can associate with whoever you wish. And then you'll get fired. The constitution protects you from your government, not from your employer.
BobDDuck
Island Bus Driver
Keep in mind that it's not actually as bad as most people make it out to be. Yes, the first few years are low pay. Yes, your schedule tends to get jerked around. Yes, the company may treat you like just a number.
That said, after a year or so you are making ok money (enough to live on anyway) and you in general get more days off than your neighbor who works in an office.
Pilots like to complain. Sometimes there are valid things to complain about (AmeriJet's lack of toilets on their 4+ hour flights) and sometimes there aren't.
Think of mainline like a home owner and, say, Endeavor is a contractor.
The homeowner says, "We want a deck built".
The contractor says, "We'll bid to build it at $25,000"
The homeowner says, "Ok, uhhh, DOOWIT!"
The contractor find the employees to do the job and has a vested interested to do it for $25,000-X whereas the smaller the "X", the more the profit the contractor receives.
Construction costs have risen, trying to find workers is generally more difficult and if the workers just stop showing up to work, the contractor has no more leverage with the homeowner as he'll just cancel the project and put it back out for bidding.
More simply put, you don't show up to work on the first, you're not striking, you're just not showing up for work and the parent carrier doesn't care because they'll just 'fill in' with their own equipment or "up gauge". There's no strike so up gauging isn't 'scabbing'.
Again, people can do what they want, but at the end of the day, you're going to be out of a job and you have no legal protections whatsoever because, at best, it's abuse of sick leave and as much as the webmaster says all of his logs are anonymous, as a fellow webmaster, anonymity on the internet is pure fool's gold.
It doesn't exist.
surreal1221
Well-Known Member
The wood was more like "cost of goods sold", the homeowner is the mainline carrier and the contractor is the regional.
I'm absolutely all for bringing the cash and prizes up to an more professional level, however, if you don't approach it correctly and legally, you're just going to screw yourself.
I'm absolutely all for bringing the cash and prizes up to an more professional level, however, if you don't approach it correctly and legally, you're just going to screw yourself.