Possible Midwest Strike

MusketeerMan

Well-Known Member
So, if the Midwest pilots strike and us pilots at RAH that are flying some of our planes in Midwest colors choose not to cross the picket line...can't our company simply terminate us for not showing up to work? This situation sucks. I didn't bid MCI, even though it would have given me a one legger home, but I will still be doing a lot of the flying as they're having CMH based flight crews fly both Airways routes and Midwest routes.

I'm not looking forward to the reception..just am hopeful that the Midwest pilot group knows this was thrown upon us as well. I won't blame them either way though, they are getting screwed. All I have to do is put myself in their shoes and it's easy to know how pissed I'd be.

But back to the topic here...has it happened before where a mainline carrier has striked and the regional feeder for them still flies? What happens in this situation? Any history I can look at?
 
I think there is a clause in the CBA (prolly section 1) that allows you guys to honor a picket line.

I can't remember as my memory is fuzzy since I'm dumping that CBA for a new one....
 
My guess is there is a good chance, if Midwest stikes, the whole operation would be shut down. What would the feeders feed?
 
My guess is there is a good chance, if Midwest stikes, the whole operation would be shut down. What would the feeders feed?

A lot of our routes aren't really feeders...MCI to a city and back or MKE to a city and back...and they're adding longer routes in November. We'll see..
 
That sure would be a decent show of solidarity from the RAH pilot group. Pretty unselfish to say the least.
 
Its in the contract that we dont have to cross a picket line. The union has reaffirmed this as well.
 
My guess is there is a good chance, if Midwest stikes, the whole operation would be shut down. What would the feeders feed?

Either that, or they might shut it down for a while, then suddenly award some routes to RAH or Skywest after they've entered "bankruptcy re-organization."

What do the union leaders say about it? I know when Mesaba was potentially going to strike, we had hotlines, flow charts and everything under the sun to help us determine if we were going to be flying struck work or not. If we weren't sure, there was an ALPA rep we could call 24/7 to check with. If we didn't feel comfortable, call 'em and then they'd tell us if we could fly it or not. Thankfully, we never had to use those resources, but it was nice knowing they were in place.
 
Under the RLA, I don't think the Midwest pilots can legally strike. Of course, if a bankruptcy occurs and a contract is gutted that's a situation that has never been legally tested...and judges have refused to rule upon.

Outside of bankruptcy, I'm inclined to say a Midwest strike would be illegal and you wouldn't be held to honor it.
 
Also, there is a big difference (legally) in crossing a picket line to do your own flying and crossing a picket line to fly struck work. The problem of course is with how integrated RJs are in the mainline feed it is very difficult to tell which flying you'd be doing.
 
All our union has done is sent a poorly written letter to our CEO, which when it came off the fax machine was probably balled up and thrown in the trash.:rolleyes:

Colgan guys, watch this one very carefully. Could show some huge differences b/w the IBT and ALPA.....
 
Under the RLA, I don't think the Midwest pilots can legally strike. Of course, if a bankruptcy occurs and a contract is gutted that's a situation that has never been legally tested...and judges have refused to rule upon.

Outside of bankruptcy, I'm inclined to say a Midwest strike would be illegal and you wouldn't be held to honor it.

How hard would it be for all 113 pilots to strike. Yes, the new plan calls for 113 pilots for 9 717's.
 
As B767Driver pointed out, a strike at this point would likely be illegal, so you won't be faced with this decision anyway, most likely. However, if a strike were to somehow occur (in bankruptcy with an 1113 filing, for example), then the MEH MEC will pass a resolution that defines struck work and distribute it to all pilot groups that would be affected, including yours. That definition of struck work would most likely allow you to continue flying routes you have already been flying, as long as you don't increase the number of flights. Any new routes or increased frequencies would likely be considered struck work. But again, this is all up to the MEC to determine. The RLA allows for sympathy strikes (at least that's ALPA's current interpretation until a judge rules otherwise), so as a labor group under the RLA, you would be protected if you honored the strike, assuming your IBT unit chooses to honor it.

Clear as mud? :)
 
I don't think Midwest will be around much longer. It's very unfortunate. Very good airline. You can't run an airline with regional jets,(which is what they're doing) which we all know now courtesy ACA ExpressJet.
 
I don't think Midwest will be around much longer. It's very unfortunate. Very good airline. You can't run an airline with regional jets,(which is what they're doing) which we all know now courtesy ACA ExpressJet.

I didn't think they were that much different from AirTran pre-737 days. AirTran might have had a better cost structure set up and served leisure markets, though.

What they're calling for is a 6:1 ratio (about) on crews:airplanes. With only 9 airframes, it wouldn't take much of a flu epidemic to cancel a lot of flights if the guys scheduled "off" those days didn't answer their phones. Not that the union would recommend such an illegal action.
 
I didn't think they were that much different from AirTran pre-737 days. AirTran might have had a better cost structure set up and served leisure markets, though.

Completely different business model. When we started up, we didn't even have first class seating, which was always a trademark of Midwest with their single-class business class cabin. We've only had business class for about 8 or 9 years, if I remember right. Midwest was also very big on the "frills," especially before 9/11. They had fancy steak dinners on fine china, for example. It was really a throw-back to the days of PanAm and Eastern in their glory days. AirTran has always been more of a "low cost carrier," with few frills. That's changed somewhat as we've added first class seating, XM radio, a frequent flyer program, etc..., but the business model is still quite different than Midwest's.
 
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