Just ahead of what could possibly be a record-breaking summer travel season, pilots from one in all the nation’s biggest airlines marched in picket lines at major airports on Friday as they push for higher pay.
The United Airlines pilots have been working with out a raise for greater than 4 years while negotiating with airline management over a latest contract.
The pilots are unlikely to strike anytime soon, nevertheless.
Federal law makes it very difficult for unions to conduct strikes within the airline industry, and the last walkout at a US carrier was greater than a decade ago.
The coast-to-coast protests by United pilots come on the heels of overwhelming strike-authorization votes by pilots at American Airlines and Southwest Airlines.
United pilots could possibly be the subsequent to vote, in accordance with union officials.
Pilots in any respect three carriers need to match or beat the deal that Delta Air Lines reached with its pilots earlier this yr, which raised pay rates by 34% over 4 years.
Top scale at United for a captain is $369 an hour on two-aisle planes, called “widebodies,” that are generally used on international flights, and $297 an hour on “narrowbodies” akin to Boeing 737s. Airline pilots fly a median of 75 hours per thirty days, in accordance with the Labor Department.
The United Airlines pilots have been working with out a raise for greater than 4 years while negotiating with airline management over a latest contract.REUTERS
United has proposed to match the Delta increase, but which may not be enough for a deal.
“We still have an extended ways to go to resolve a few of the issues on the table,” said Garth Thompson, chair of the United wing of the Air Line Pilots Association.
Thompson said discussion about wages has been held up while the 2 sides negotiate over scheduling, including the union’s want to limit United’s ability to make pilots work on their days off.
United spokesman Joshua Freed said, “We’re continuing to work with the Air Line Pilots Association on the industry-leading deal now we have placed on the table for our world-class pilots.”
Discussions about wages have been held up while the 2 sides negotiate over scheduling, including the union’s want to limit United’s ability to make pilots work on their days off.Getty Images
Pilots argue that United should reward them for helping the airline survive the coronavirus pandemic.
“We made quite just a few sacrifices in the course of the pandemic, and we feel it’s now time for the corporate to step as much as the plate and to offer us a contract, acknowledging the sacrifices and the contributions that now we have made,” said pilot Arzu Delp, as he picketed at San Francisco International Airport.
The Delta contract that United pilots are using as their place to begin will cost Delta $7.2 billion over 4 years.
All airlines are coping with rising labor costs, which could show up in the value of a ticket, but fares are also set by supply and demand, notes Blaise Waguespack, who teaches airline management and marketing at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
United has proposed to match the Delta deal, which increased pay rates by 34% over 4 years, but which may not be enough for a deal.REUTERS
Giselle Ascione, a United passenger in San Francisco, said the airlines are making plenty of money, and “the pilots in addition to the attendants ought to be paid. It’s common sense.”
Even when the airlines and their unions fail to achieve agreements quickly, strikes are unlikely in the subsequent few months — when hundreds of thousands of Americans hope to fly over summer vacation.
Under US law, airline and railroad employees can’t legally strike, and corporations can’t lock them out, until federal mediators determine that further negotiations are pointless.
The National Mediation Board rarely declares a dead end to bargaining, and even when it does, there may be a no-strikes “cooling-off” period during which the White House and Congress can block a walkout.
Even when the airlines and their unions fail to achieve agreements quickly, strikes are unlikely in the subsequent few months — when hundreds of thousands of Americans hope to fly over summer vacation.Getty Images
That’s what President Bill Clinton did minutes after pilots began striking against American in 1997.
In December, President Joe Biden signed a bill that Congress passed to impose contract terms on freight railroad employees, ending a strike threat.
The last strike at a US carrier occurred at Spirit Airlines in 2010.
Thompson, the union leader at United, said his pilots “will proceed to work in 2023” despite challenges including an “aggressive” summer flight schedule.
Pilots argue that United should reward them for helping the airline survive the coronavirus pandemic.Getty Images
Through the years, airline employees have conducted job actions that fell wanting a strike but disrupted flights anyway.
A federal judge fined the American Airlines pilots’ union $45 million for a 1999 sickout that crippled the airline’s operations, although the quantity was later reduced.
In 2019, a federal judge ordered unions representing American’s aircraft mechanics to stop what the airline termed an illegal work slowdown.
Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University, said Congress wouldn’t permit an airline strike due to economic harm it will cause, but unhappy pilots could still cause disruptions in other ways.
“They at all times have ‘work to rule.’ They might say, ‘We’re not working any additional time,’” Wheaton said. “I don’t anticipate the pilots attempting to screw up travel for everyone intentionally, but bargaining is about leverage and power … having the power to try this could be a negotiating tactic.”
Airlines are vulnerable to work-to-rule protests because they rely upon finding pilots and flight attendants to select up extra shifts during peak travel periods.
Whatever the legal hurdles to a walkout, unions consider that strike votes give them leverage during bargaining, and so they have change into more common.
A shortage of pilots can also be putting those unions in particularly strong bargaining position.
Airlines are vulnerable to work-to-rule protests because they rely upon finding pilots and flight attendants to select up extra shifts during peak travel periods.Getty Images
Chicago-based United has roughly 14,000 pilots, and the union expects not less than 2,000 will picket Friday at 10 airports from Newark, Recent Jersey, to Los Angeles.
The union can also be distributing leaflets that highlight the pilots’ desire for higher work-life balance of their scheduling but make no mention of pay.
