The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.17           May 3, 1999 
 
 
In Antiunion Move, Judge Fines American Airlines Pilots  

BY MEGAN ARNEY
In a dangerous precedent for the whole labor movement that directly attacks the right of workers to strike, a federal judge ordered the Allied Pilots Association (APA) to pay American Airlines nearly $46 million for defying his February 10 back-to-work order.

Many members of the APA, which represents 9,200 pilots at American, took part in a sick-out last February that lasted 10 days and severely crippled the country's second-largest airline. They were protesting the company's attempt to introduce a two-tier structure by paying pilots at Reno Air, a small airline American bought in December, less than American pilots. They also demanded that those American pilots who are upgraded to captain's jobs because of the addition of Reno planes and flights be immediately paid the higher wages corresponding to their new positions. The company has insisted the higher pay scale be instituted over the course of the 18 months it will take to "integrate" Reno into American. Currently Reno pilots make about half of what American pilots do.

The astronomical fine, ordered April 15 by Judge Joseph Kendall of the Federal District Court in Dallas, is supposedly compensation for the $50 million the carrier allegedly lost when pilots defied the order. It is one of the largest amounts ever levied against a union in the United States, and is more than the APA's total treasury.

The APA has 15 days to appeal the decision, which it plans to do.

When Kendall, a former cop, first announced his back-to- work order, he unleashed a tirade of attacks and slanders against the pilots and their organization. He charged, "The radical element that appears to be in control of the Allied Pilots Association seems determined to fly American Airlines into the side of the mountain, taking themselves, the company, their co-workers, and their customers with them."

Pilots showed their determination and rejection of the judge's action by calling in sick in greater numbers than before. On February 12 the judge then cited the union for contempt of court and initially fined it $10 million. Kendall also then ruled in favor of the company's demand that the union pay for the financial losses of the company during the sick-out. The union argues the airline lost just $1.4 million to $4.7 million in the days after the contempt of court ruling.

The current fight is the latest in a series of conflicts between American pilots and the company. In the mid-l980s, a two-tier scale was introduced, which paid new hires less. The pilots later fought successfully to get rid of the two-tier. After layoffs and cutbacks throughout the system in the early 1990s, the pilots struck in 1997 against company demands that jeopardized job security. President William Clinton ordered them back to work after just four minutes, under the antiunion Railway Labor Act. Many pilots are still angry about concessions they were forced to accept by the Presidential Emergency Board Clinton then imposed.

 
 
 
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