Originally Posted by
Denny Crane
While we were in contract negotiations for "Contract 2000," there was an alledged effort (according to the company) by individual pilots to put pressure on the company by refusing to GS, WS, and YS. According to the company, part of this alleged activity was done on the DALPA webboard. Even though there was no union sanction of this effort, the company decided to sue the union AND 49 individual pilots saying it was a violation of the Railway Labor Act because there was a change in the "status quo" while negotiations were going on. The company sued both Alpa and 49 individual pilots and won an initial injunction against the union and the individual pilots. I don't know how much they sued for but it was a substantial amount, at least to individual pilots. It was later resolved in the final contract of July 2001. This is why there is a screen that you have to "agree to" to sign on to the DALPA weboard now. It's been there ever since the injunction was issued.
This is my understanding of what went on. I was not one of the 49'ers.
Denny
Denny,
You are spot on with your post. The really sad part of this whole affair was the next chapter. Some time during the whole BK era (not quite sure which LOA) Green-slips were changed from 2.0 to 1.5 times pay, and only over over XX hours of credit, of which sick time, vacation etc did not count. To me an average non-lawyer Joe this meant
"No more status quo."
In my unsophisticated world the union could have used the preceding case as precedent for not performing any more additional flying - the company made a change to the status quo. We had guys on furlough and to me, this was a missed opportunity. Overall, I think DALPA has done quite well in the tumultuous decade following 9-11, but I will never understand the above situation. Maybe the senior guys were digging the extra flying and thought it was a way to help soften the drastic pay cuts. Maybe the union was a little gun-shy after the previous court ruling.
Scoop