| |
American Airlines passengers waited in line for hours in hopes of rescheduling flights
|
Judge: American Airlines pilots must return to work
February 10, 1999
Web posted at: 7:28 p.m. EST (0028 GMT)
DALLAS (CNN) -- A federal judge has ordered American
Airlines pilots to return to work on Thursday, ending a sickout that has forced the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights and disrupted the travel plans of about 200,000 passengers since Saturday.
U.S. District Judge Joe Kendall issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday barring the 9,200 pilots from calling in sick en masse, after hearing attorneys for both the airline and the Allied Pilots Association for about four hours. More than a quarter of the pilots called in sick Wednesday, according to the airline.
"It is clear this job action is inappropriate and should stop," the judge said. He warned that the pilots would be held in contempt if they don't return to work.
Kendall chided both sides in the dispute and told them to resume negotiating. "It's silly for us to even be here," he said. "It's like killing a gnat with a sledgehammer."
Airline spokesman Chris Chiames said the airline was pleased with the ruling and that American will now work to return to normal operations.
"We hope the pilots will abide by the judge's order quickly and we'll see an improvement in our schedule tomorrow," he told reporters.
Rich LaVoy, president of the pilots union, said it will urge compliance. "We're going to advise our pilots that they have to abide by what the judge has ordered here," he said.
During a hearing, Dee Kelly, an attorney for American's parent company AMR Corp., said the airline is losing money every day of the sickout, which began Saturday. "They're threatening to bring the airline to a complete halt," Kelly said.
Dispute centered on pilot salaries at acquired airline
Many of American's pilots have been calling in sick and refusing to work overtime to protest the airline's continued use of lower-paid pilots at Reno Air, a small, West Coast carrier that AMR Corp. bought in December. The American pilots say the purchase violates their contract and may cause them to lose assignments and jobs to the Reno Air pilots, who earn about half the $150,000 average annual salary at American.
"When I look at these numbers, we should contact the Centers of Disease Control," the judge said of the pilot sickouts.
The pilots union said the abnormally high number of sick calls is a rational response to the stress the labor dispute causes for individual pilots and noted that safety regulations require pilots to stay home if they consider that they are under too much stress to fly.
In a court filing, American's management argued that the
union's advice to members to stay home if the labor dispute was
causing them stress is a sign the union has been pushing an
illegal sickout.
"Most of our pilots are reporting to work, but those who are
not have created an untenable situation," said American Chairman Donald Carty.
Pilots say American is violating their labor contract, which requires aircraft owned by the airline to be flown by American Air pilots. Federal law bars American pilots from striking over the issue, but they are allowed to refuse overtime and declare themselves "unfit to fly," pilot lingo for a sickout.
The number of cancellations has escalated each day. On Tuesday,
more than 800, or 36 percent of American's 2,250 daily flights, were
canceled, delaying 73,000 travelers. On Wednesday, 990 flights, 44 percent of those scheduled, were canceled after 2,187 of the 9,200 pilots called in sick.
Asked what he would say to the thousands of people left without flights, union president LaVoy said, "We regret that our passengers have gotten into the middle of this dispute."
Passengers stranded across the nation
The slowdown has affected flights at some of the nation's busiest airports, including American Air hubs in New York, Dallas and Miami.
Across the nation, would-be passengers spent hours dozing on
terminal carts stuffed with luggage or slumped in their chairs.
From Miami to San Francisco, blinking blue letters on airport
monitors read "Canceled" beside a long list of destinations.
"If this were to happen in Argentina, they would burn the
airport," said Beatriz Chichizola, a native of Buenos Aires who
waited for hours Tuesday at Los Angeles International Airport.
Mark Smith, a farmer from South Otselic, New York, left nearby
Syracuse for a week-long vacation to Aruba and was stranded Tuesday
with five friends at Kennedy International Airport in New York.
"They've given us the run-around," he said. "We think the
pilots on strike should be fired."
About 75 people waited in line at the American Airlines counter
at San Francisco International Airport -- Dorothy Krumper of
Flanders, New Jersey, among them. Although her flight to New York was canceled, she was smiling and said the airline's employees treated her well.
"They were very nice. I'm being re-ticketed to United," she
said.
Associated Press and Reuters Limited contributed to this report.
|
