August, 2005. The Mechanics union at NWA (AMFA) went on strike. Previously, ALPA tried to get AMFA to join a labor coalition with the other unions at NWA, but AMFA rejected those offers.

When the NWA MEC chair met with Delle-Femmine, and the AMFA lawyer (Seham), ALPA was told the mechanics had intel from the training center where the scab mechanics were being trained. The intel showed many of the scab mechanics were failing background checks, so there was no risk of NWA being able to operate.

ALPA had the ability to sympathy strike in support of any of the unions on the property, but as the cooling off period played out, AMFA pumped up the rhetoric that predicted the pay raises the mechanics were demanding would be offset by pay cuts by pilots. A few days prior to the end of the cooling off period, ALPA advised all pilots that they would be permitted to honor the AMFA picket line if they chose, with no threat of reprisal, but that there was no pay for trips missed. (That is from the arbitrators ruling in 1981)

100% of the pilots crossed the picket line over the next 15 months, including Carl and myself.

I think the quality of the legal advice they got from Seham was lacking.

You can read about it here.

http://teamster.org/sites/teamster.o...ines(2008).pdf