I think it would be a huge miscalculation on everyone's part to assume that threat was only aimed at management. Amazon is the last company to want workers to be at or near the top of the payscale.

 

Winner. This was solely directed at the pilots. If anyone believes Atlas MGMT is going to hand over a CBA right now, no way. In fact, this just got longer. Dig in boys. Years left to fight

 

I agree with boeingdvr. Company executives don’t negotiate with each other through the media. This was aimed solely at the pilots. Jeff B must be getting tired of the protestors, sign trucks, etc. Bring back the banner tow plane. That will surely get noticed.

 

Negotiations at ABX went south. Soapy sang the same old song. Well I guess BeZos will be sending his threats to ATSG next. Let the games continue.

 

100% ABX will lose the Amazon flying! 6 planes easy to replace. I can only imagine the amount of pilots to go elsewhere or retirement over the summer will jump to an all time high.

 

I’m a pretty noob pilot still so pardon the forthcoming question if this is common knowledge in the industry: short of a strike of some kind, what is entailed with fighting for a better contract? I presume periodic negotiations back and forth, the periodic picketing (maybe?) and not much else?

 

Periodic "negotiations", yes - both sides walk into a room, and nothing happens. Why does nothing happen? Because government, through the Railway Labor Act, has placed their finger on the scale in favor of management by prohibiting any self help (strikes or other job actions) until given explicit permission to do so by the National Mediation Board. When there is upward pressure on pay and benefits as is the case now, there is absolutely no incentive for management to give an inch until they are threatened with the prospect of the union being released by the NMB to self help, and that takes years.

You would think that the increasing instances of training no-shows, early dropouts, washouts, and high turnover as pilots leave for greener pastures would be an incentive to move, but so far, it hasn't been.

I think that passenger airlines, especially the bigger names, have an easier time of it because they can make a big show of their informational picketing - they get big news coverage, everybody recognizes the big names, and it's bad PR for the airline. Nobody has ever heard of Atlas (or any of the others), and nobody cares.

There has recently been a direct connection to Amazon as somebody asked Jeff Bezos about the situation, and his response indicated that he doesn't care - he told both sides to get it together, or he would move his business somewhere else.

Ask your Congressional representatives to fix the RLA - to take government's finger off of the scale and allow the market to work unimpeded.

 

this is a key point! this is why the crash in Houston got about a days worth or national news coverage. If that had been a passenger 767 from one of the majors it would have been on every TV for weeks look at the 737-MAX its still in the news because passengers died.

 

Atlas flies a lot of AMC flights. That could have been 255 soldiers in an Atlas 767. That would have gotten continuous, long-lasting attention. That fact should cause AMC to be taking a serious look at Atlas's situation.

When the probably-horrendous NTSB report comes out, there will be renewed attention.

Instead of towing banners, pilots should be writing their representatives and the media about their concern for the troops.

The RLA isn't going anywhere, because the public won't stand for pilots making $100K+ per year ruining their Christmas by disrupting passenger travel or deliveries. That ABX would intentionally time their strike (ruled not permissible) in the middle of Peak with no regard for the general public significantly set back the cause of softening the RLA. Executive action to bolster the NMB's numbers to permit more-frequent scheduling of sessions might, however, be something to push for.

 

No, ABX pilots struck immediately in response to managements actions, it wasn’t delayed in any way until the 4th quarter for a bigger impact.