Today the ABX pilots and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Airline Division and its local affiliate, Teamsters Local 1224 (the “Union”) commenced a lawful strike against ABX. The ABX Pilots have established primary picket lines at CVG and ILN.
Over the last at least 18 months, while intentionally understaffing its growing operations, ABX has just as intentionally and repeatedly ignored and suspended, if not downright repudiated, explicit contractual work rules relating to the ABX pilots’ scheduling and vacation rights and protections.
ABX has not made any effort to justify its actions. Instead, ABX recently filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Union in a transparent ploy to get a federal judge to bail it out from what it has acknowledged is a staffing crisis. Recognizing that ABX’s staffing crisis is one that is entirely of its own making, the federal court quickly saw through ABX’s deception and dismissed the case. Despite losing in court, ABX has stubbornly refused to restore the contractual scheduling and vacation rights and protections that it unilaterally and illegally changed. In the face of ABX’s continued refusal to cure those violations, the Union and the ABX Pilots were left with no choice other than to commence a status quo strike against ABX.
The Union’s and the ABX Pilots’ strike is what is known as a “status quo strike.” By law, carriers, including ABX, are prohibited from altering contractual rates of pay, rules and working conditions and established past practices while they remain subject to the jurisdiction of the NMB and continue to negotiate with the employees and their union over the amendment of their collective bargaining agreement. This requirement is known as the duty to maintain the status quo.
When a carrier unilaterally makes substantive changes to wages or terms and conditions of employment that are contrary to an existing contract, the dispute is characterized as a “major dispute” over which a union may lawfully engage in a status quo strike. As its name suggests, a status quo strike is for the sole purpose of forcing the carrier to restore the status quo. A union can lawfully engage in a status quo strike even if the collective bargaining agreement contains a no-strike clause. Once the carrier “cures” its status quo violation and “restores the status quo,” however, the union must stop the strike.
In summary, therefore, the Union’s and the ABX pilots’ status quo strike against ABX is lawful. The only dispute involved here is a lawful strike by the Union and the ABX pilots and against ABX and only ABX