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Domestic and International Aviation Law  Chapter Seventeen 1)What law governs labor-management relations in the airline industry? 2

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Domestic and International Aviation Law  Chapter Seventeen

1)What law governs labor-management relations in the airline industry?

2. What was Congress’s purpose in enacting that law?

3. What federal administrative agency has the responsibility for overseeing labormanagement relations in the airline industry under that law?

4. Does the statutory and regulatory structure described in your answers to Questions 1–3 above apply to any non-airline aviation companies? Explain.

5. You and your fellow pilots employed by an airline whose pilots are not represented by a union are dissatisfied with your pay scale, working conditions, and other company policies. Many of you have expressed your opinions on these subjects to the company’s management, without result. You believe that there is enough frustration and discontent among the pilots that they would like to be represented by a union. How could a union get the authority to represent the airline’s pilots? Describe.

6. You are an aircraft mechanic for an airline whose mechanics are represented by a labor union. You don’t like unions, don’t want to pay union dues, and would rather negotiate your own deal with management instead of having to be bound by the union’s contract. Can you opt out? Explain.

7.  You are a pilot for a regional airline. Starting the twin-engine turboprop to get some heat to warm the cabin for a predawn departure on a bitterly cold winter morning on an unlighted ramp, you are startled by a loud noise from the vicinity of the left engine and shut it down. It turns out that the company’s ramp agent had left a passenger’s darkcolored bag on the dark ramp near the left engine and the bag (which you had not seen) was sucked into the propeller when you started the engine. The passenger’s bag and contents were ruined, the propeller was damaged requiring repair, and the flight was required to be cancelled because no backup aircraft was available. The company fires you.

a.  If the company’s pilots are represented by a union and working under a contract, do you have some right to appeal that decision? If so, describe the typical appeal procedures provided by such union contracts.

b. Will the union provide you with representation on that appeal? If so, describe

8. A particular airline employee is generally disliked by everyone in the company, labor and management alike. One day the employee violates a company rule and is fired. The employee files a grievance with the System Board of Adjustment under the provisions of the union contract with the company. You are one of the union representatives on the System Board. You and the other union member of the board are walking down the hall in the company’s offices when one of the company’s representatives on the board calls you into his office. The other company member of the board is already there. Closing the door behind you, one of the company board members says: “As long as we are all here, why don’t we have a quick System Board meeting and dispense with that grievance so none of us will have to put up with that jerk anymore?” If the grievance is decided at this impromptu meeting, without notice to the employee, is there anything the employee can do about it? Describe.

9. The contract between the pilot’s union and an air carrier has reached its amendable date. Company management decides that unless pilot salaries are immediately reduced by 25%, the company will be unable to compete effectively against its major competitor (which has the advantage of using cheaper nonunion labor).

a. What procedure must the company follow before it can start issuing smaller paychecks to its pilots? Why?

b. In the first conference between company management and union

representatives, the management negotiator states: “There is no alternative to this 25% pay cut. It is not negotiable. We’re not even going to talk about alternatives. Take it or leave it.” Is this legal? What recourse does the union have if the company takes this position at this stage?

c. If the carrier reduces pilot paychecks without first going through the entire  procedural process that you described in your answer to part a, above, what can the union do about it?

d. The carrier is following the prescribed procedures, but some of the pilots are so

angry that the company would even ask them for this concession that they start a “wildcat” strike (without the union’s authorization). The carrier needs these pilots to return to work to meet the company’s commitments. What can the carrier do about this wildcat strike?