Court bars United pilots from 'sickouts,' disruptive behavior

CHICAGO, Nov 18, 2008 (Chicago Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- UAUA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- A federal court agreed to grant United Airline's July request for a preliminary injunction that prohibits the carrier's unionized pilots from engaging in the kind of disruptive behaviors that forced the carrier to cancel hundreds of flights last summer.

The injunction marks a legal victory for the UAL Corp. unit, in that it puts pressure on the Air Line Pilots Association to make sure United pilots don't revive the costly "sickout" that caused United to go to court in late July.

As a practical matter, however, the job action by a minority of the carrier's pilots reached its peak during eight days in late summer, and the disruptions declined significantly after United filed its lawsuit.

The carrier didn't say what impact, if any, it expects U.S. District Judge Joan H. Lefkow's ruling to have on its day-to-day operations.

In a terse statement, ALPA confirmed Tuesday that it will "comply fully" with the judge's pending injunction, but said union officials would have no further comment.

The tussle between United and its pilots revolves around nuances in the federal Railway Labor Act, which governs relations between unions and employers involved in the transportation sector. The act dates back to the era when a strike or work slowdown by railroad workers could threaten the nation's economy, and it has a dense set of rules governing transport workers' contract negotiations, as well as the circumstances under which a strike can be called.

United contends that the sickout of last July was part of a broader effort by the pilot union to put pressure on the company, through a variety of actions which, while not technically a strike, nonetheless made operations more difficult for the airline. When pilots "fly to rule," for example, they can make use of variety of tiny technical issues that allow them to refuse to accept a perfectly sound aircraft as flightworthy.

If pilots decide as a group to refuse the overtime assignments that airlines frequently must use, they can force carriers to cancel flights - causing economic damage to their employer without a strike.

Also, like police officers who flout no-strike regulations by conducting a "blue flu" sickout, pilots can throw a wrench into an airline's operations by phoning in sick in large numbers.

Judge Lefkow said in her 85-page ruling on Tuesday that ALPA was "directly involved in instigating a sickout among United's junior pilots in July," and that the union had also, through a variety of coded statements provided a "signal that ALPA's members should engage in conduct that would increase flight delays and cancellations, as well as the airline's operating costs."

The issues with United pilots crested this summer, when the carrier announced capacity cutbacks that would ground 100 aircraft at summer's end, and eliminate the jobs of more than 900 unionized flight-crew members.

In response, pilots began calling in sick in growing numbers, and the shortage of pilots became so severe in July that United was forced to cancel hundreds of flights.

The carrier responded by filing a lawsuit against the union, asking Judge Lefkow to issue an order blocking ALPA from fostering what the airline contends was a concerted, illegal job action by the unhappy pilots.

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United contends that the pilots union can control its members, but hadn't reined them in from the sickout. The union responded that United's "reckless" lawsuit hadn't produced any evidence that the union had countenanced a concerted action, but instead had "simply pieced together a series of surmises and suspicions" that didn't warrant a court action.

Judge Lefkow didn't buy that contention. Even if the union hadn't helped instigate the job action, she wrote, "ALPA has violated its duty to exert every reasonable effort to stop the disruption to United's operations." Although the union was aware of the pilots' slowdown effort, the judge said, it did nothing to discourage the conduct.

"On the contrary," Judge Lefkow said, "ALPA continued to publish the sorts of communications and directives that were intended to encourage United pilots to engage in a slowdown campaign."

United said it now will seek to have the court replace the temporary injunction with a permanent one.

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