Originally Posted by
Mason32
Agreed to a point. The union can not "ORGANIZE" a JOB ACTION. That being said, there is nothing that says a union can not email, snail mail, or communicate with their members reminding them that open time is volutary. This in fact happens fairly often.
The company knows that when push comes to shove, if it ever ended up in front of a judge, the primary issues are such that the company can not win. But, they can make the union spend a ton of money defending against a claim.
Not entirely correct...
In the past, unions have been held legally liable for ANY "job action"...whether it is a strike, slowdown, sick-out, work-to-rules, etc. APA ended up owing AA managemnet millions over something like this
Basically, any change in established labor behavior which negatively impacts manegement and can be shown to have been organized in any fashion, by anyone, will be blamed on the union.
Basically the union is held responsible for not only not instigating illegal actions, but also for PREVENTING them.
A union could get off the hook if it can show that it did not instigate the action, and tried to stop it (by warning members). But it is almost guilty until proven innocent in these cases because it is assumed that it DOES control it's members actions in any labor context.
This is why unions are generally down on unofficial actions.
Now if everbody just decides not to pick up open time, that's great as long as the company can't dig up an email campaign, or other organizing effort. Even a posting on APC or FI would count as organization.
This is your United States Railway Labor Act in action...