Amerijet On Strike!

News release copy and pasted from that other forum:


Five Years Of Bad Faith Bargaining By Amerijet Results In Strike For Major South Florida Cargo Airline
Caribbean Islands and South America to Suffer brunt as critical air cargo service will be lost.​

Ft. Lauderdale, FL

August 27, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



Despite a five year attempt to secure a contract, the pilots and flight engineers of Amerijet International (Amerijet) have now gone on strike, according to the Airline Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The crewmembers of the Ft. Lauderdale based all cargo airline have been attempting to negotiate for a first contract since early in 2004. During the over five and a half years time, they have faced management based attempts to decertify the union, unilateral wage and benefit cuts and increased pressure to remove the legally elected union from the property. The refusal by the management of Amerijet to engage in good faith bargaining resulted in the appointment of a Federal mediator by the National Mediation Board (NMB) two years ago, and their continued bad faith bargaining led to the imposition of a 30 day cooling off period by the NMB, the expiration of which allows either party to engage in self help activities if an agreement is not reached. The 30 day cooling off period expired Thursday morning at 12:01 am. “The NMB very rarely imposes cooling off periods and mediation “releases” enabling labor unions to engage in self help activities. The NMB’s decision to impose such a cooling off period and release reflects Amerijet’s complete bad faith conduct throughout this over 5 year ordeal,” said Daisy Gonzalez, a Teamsters spokesperson. Over the last several days, the NMB, along with the union, continued to urge management to respond in good faith and come to an agreement. Late last night, Amerijet management broke off further negotiations and walked out of the NMB-sponsored contract talks. The key hang up in the contract talks involved Amerijet’s insistence on a five year contract without any raise in the last 20 months of the contract’s term. The Company also refused the Union’s demand to restore severe wage and benefit cuts that the Company imposed earlier this year, during a previous NMB-directed negotiating meeting in Washington, DC.

“In addition to operating the ‘Zero G’ aircraft that charges passengers five thousand dollars for a weightless flight experience, Amerijet pilots and flight engineers also fly Boeing 727 jets, and operate a vital air cargo link to many Caribbean islands and nations carrying the vital goods of individuals and companies who rely on this air bridge to provide critical air service in the region to and from the United States,” stated Gonzalez. “Prior to suffering a unilateral 10% wage cut imposed in March, 2009, the Amerijet pilots and flight engineers had been working at the same pay rate since 1999; a pay rate that is not only at or below the poverty level, it is almost identical to the pay of the regional pilots who were killed in the crash of Colgan Air 3407 in Buffalo this year. The average Amerijet first officer’s pay was $36,000 a year before the ten percent cut earlier this year,” said Gonzalez who also noted that Amerijet does not even provide basic sanitary facilities on the airplanes and does not provide food and water to their pilot and flight engineers who are flying long, hot and exhausting duty days throughout the Caribbean and South America. “Amerijet’s refusal to provide for even basic physiological needs and their insistence that even further pay penalties be imposed on the pilots and flight engineers if they call in sick for a flight is a testament to the mindset that has created the problems facing the airline industry and the need for change,” Gonzalez continued. Federal Aviation Regulations specifically prohibit crewmembers from flying while sick, a factor that has been cited as a potential contributing factor in the Buffalo crash that killed fifty seven people earlier this year.

The Teamsters proposed a four year contract with a reinstatement of the arbitrary ten percent (10%) wage cut imposed earlier this year by the Company in its continued effort to force the crewmembers to dump the union, a $250 lump sum payment on signing of a contract, and three percent (3%) pay raises for the three following years. Amerijet’s final offer was a five year demand with no raise in the final twenty months of the contract; along with the further imposition of a five (5) hour per day pay cut for any crewmember who called in sick for a trip.

“In the end, the losers here are not just the customers, but the countries of the Caribbean that count on critical and timely air cargo service as well,” said Gonzalez. “Time critical shipments will be lost due to the refusal of an airline management who puts their personal gain ahead of their customers. We have received commitments from other air cargo carrier pilot groups and other transport-related unions stating that they will honor the Amerijet pilots and flight engineers picket lines.

Businesses unrelated to Amerijet will also be affected as other union members in all likelihood will refuse to cross those lines to deliver other goods and packages. It is truly unfortunate that Amerijet is such a bad corporate neighbor to many South Florida companies.”

The Airline Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 769 represents the flight deck crewmembers employed by Amerijet International; a Ft. Lauderdale based cargo company that operates primarily to and from the Miami International Airport and the Caribbean Islands and South America. Teamsters Local 769 represents over 8,000 employees and families throughout South Florida.


###




CONTACT PERSON: Daisy Gonzalez
Business Representative
Teamsters Local Union No. 769
321-536-7077
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Give them hell. It doesn't sound like the crew members demands are that extreme. I have to respect any pilot group that goes on strike in this environment.
 
I'm surprised they took so long to strike. Sounds like they've been putting up with a lot of crap for a very long time.
 
this is impressive, i wonder what the outcome will be, my guess is that some jobs will be lost. Im not saying that they shouldn't strike, but how could this possibly boost business or even maintain the level that they had pre-strike?:dunno: im sure amerijet will eat it pretty bad, i just hope every union member can keep food on the table during the strike and after. sound like a serious battle.
 
ChristheCFII said:
I'm surprised they took so long to strike. Sounds like they've been putting up with a lot of crap for a very long time.
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An airline pilot union isn't like a shoe factory union.

Pilots at a 121 airline can't strike until they have gone through all the steps required by the Railway Labor Act. If they can't agree on a contract, then they must go before the National Mediation Board. If the NMB agrees that they can't come to a agreement, then the NMB will release the union to strike.

Its a major handicap to pilot unions, but it also protects the public from major airlines shutting down without a serious reason.

I'm sure PCL will be along shortly to explain in much greater detail.
 
So - question here. Say Atlas or someone else picks up the work - do the Atlas pilots refuse to fly it? How does all of that work? Who would determine who is flying work that should have been flown by Amerijet (assuming they can't find scabs)?
 
if one was to cross the line or if amerijet started hiring and one was able to land a job. Would that person who crossed the line or got hired flush their whole career down the toilet?
 
ahsmatt7 said:
if one was to cross the line or if amerijet started hiring and one was able to land a job. Would that person who crossed the line or got hired flush their whole career down the toilet?
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Replacing/working struck work, or crossing a designated picket line would make one a scab, by definition.

What I'm wondering is, because this is Teamsters, would said scab appear in the "scab books" of ALPA pilots?
 
The scab list is not published by ALPA, but rather a third party. I Don't know if there are any non-ALPA strikes that had scabs but it certainly would not prevent the person that published the list from including amerijet scabs if there becomes any.

I believe the title of the document is "jumpseat protection list" or something to that affect anyways, and includes people that were not tecnically scabs but interviewed, and were placed into a training pool while the strike was still in effect, and so forth.
 
MikeD said:
Replacing/working struck work, or crossing a designated picket line would make one a scab, by definition.
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I wonder about that. Say there's a factory that had a contract with Amerijet, and now their stuff isn't getting shipped. So the factory inks a deal with another another operator whose union has nothing to complain about up to that point. Is that still replacing struck work?
 
OldTownPilot said:
The scab list is not published by ALPA, but rather a third party. I Don't know if there are any non-ALPA strikes that had scabs but it certainly would not prevent the person that published the list from including amerijet scabs if there becomes any.

I believe the title of the document is "jumpseat protection list" or something to that affect anyways, and includes people that were not tecnically scabs but interviewed, and were placed into a training pool while the strike was still in effect, and so forth.
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Now thats weird. I've heard both things.....that it is an ALPA generated list, and that it isn't an ALPA generated list.

So it isn't?
 
I believe it is generated by a person or persons who may be ALPA volunteers but they are not generating it as part of their official union work at ALPA.
 
MikeD said:
Now thats weird. I've heard both things.....that it is an ALPA generated list, and that it isn't an ALPA generated list.

So it isn't?
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I dont know the entire history of "the list". but I believe ALPA created/maintained the first list, and then there was a lawsuit or two over it, and the judge said no more list making. Some one from within ALPA took on list making as their own project 'independent' of alpa, and thus you have the list of today. You'd probaly want to ask Todd, to some one else that has a lot more intamate knowledge of that list, but that might be the one minute version of the history of it.
 
Minuteman said:
I wonder about that. Say there's a factory that had a contract with Amerijet, and now their stuff isn't getting shipped. So the factory inks a deal with another another operator whose union has nothing to complain about up to that point. Is that still replacing struck work?
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Guess who flew all of Comair's passengers back in 2001? The answer isn't nobody and the passengers went back home and cancelled their plans.


Every other airline out there. The pilots never knew that some of the pax were rebooked from a comair flight. So by your logic just about anyone that was a 121 pilot that flew into a comair served airport in '01 is a scab.

That was from an earlier thread that I wrote. It will get contracted out to another airline. It will still get moved just like the Comair pax in '01, albeit not when they wanted to just like the Comair pax in '01. Other pilots won't know the difference just like Comair in '01.
 
OldTownPilot said:
Guess who flew all of Comair's passengers back in 2001? The answer isn't nobody and the passengers went back home and cancelled their plans.


Every other airline out there. The pilots never knew that some of the pax were rebooked from a comair flight. So by your logic just about anyone that was a 121 pilot that flew into a comair served airport in '01 is a scab.

That was from an earlier thread that I wrote. It will get contracted out to another airline. It will still get moved just like the Comair pax in '01, albeit not when they wanted to just like the Comair pax in '01. Other pilots won't know the difference just like Comair in '01.
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Yet that's what Post #5 of the following thread is trying to contend:

http://forums.jetcareers.com/freight-pilots-ootsk/92752-amerijet-furlough.html
 
OldTownPilot said:
Guess who flew all of Comair's passengers back in 2001? The answer isn't nobody and the passengers went back home and cancelled their plans.


Every other airline out there. The pilots never knew that some of the pax were rebooked from a comair flight. So by your logic just about anyone that was a 121 pilot that flew into a comair served airport in '01 is a scab.

That was from an earlier thread that I wrote. It will get contracted out to another airline. It will still get moved just like the Comair pax in '01, albeit not when they wanted to just like the Comair pax in '01. Other pilots won't know the difference just like Comair in '01.
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Was comair profiting from these passengers rebooked on another airline?
 
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