World Airways Pilots on Strike!
TALKS BETWEEN WORLD AIRWAYS PILOTS AND COMPANY FAIL
COMPANY REFUSED TO BARGAIN IN GOOD FAITH ON JOB SECURITY
WASHINGTON, DC –Jan.28th– The Negotiating Committee for the pilots of World Airways report early this morning that talks between themselves and World Airways under the auspices of the National Mediation Board (NMB) have failed and that the parties are released to seek self-help.
“We have spent the entire week bargaining in good faith with the company while protecting the future of our pilots,” said Captain Luis Carmona, Executive Council Chairman of the World Airways Pilots’ union. “But World Airway’s management refuses to understand or comprehend how important job security is to this pilot group.”
The unresolved issues in addition to job security are adequate medical and life insurance and genuine compensation increases—not those that are negated by increased benefit costs. The parties have been negotiating a new contract since June 2003, when the pilots’ current collective bargaining agreement became amendable.
On December 28, 2005, the NMB notified the pilot’s union they were in a 30-day cooling-off period because in the judgment of the Board “all practical methods” for resolving the dispute between the two parties has been exhausted.
The release from the board states that after 12:01 AM on January 28, 2006, the more than 400 pilots, members of Teamsters Local 986 in El Monte, California, and World Airways, Inc. are free to exercise self-help—which can include a strike.
A subsidiary of World Air Holdings, Inc., World Airways is the largest commercial carrier of US military personnel. The airline also provides cargo services for various companys.”
The pilots, who became Teamsters in 1967, are among approximately 40,000 members of the Teamsters Airline Division.