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Pilots Agree hanging in therefrom the September 1998 issue of The Wheelhouse Report The Pilots Agree work stoppage officially ended on 03 August. When it began four months earlier, the intent was to force companies to the bargaining table. You could say it didn't work. Management did not come to the table, and so far the Pilots Agree Association has not been legally recognized as a collective bargaining agent at any company. But the PA leadership prefers to say that the strike "did not have the desired effect." It didn't work as planned, but it did have some effect. You might see that effect in your paycheck. Pay has gone up at many companies, in part because of the strike. (This could be argued till the cows come home. There was a labor shortage before the strike. But if several hundred pilots walk off, that makes the shortage that much worse, so it has an effect.) But the desired effect was to be recognized as a collective bargaining agent. They went about it the wrong way, and lost a lot of support. Most people can't afford to stay on strike for four months. Even hard-core supporters went back to work before 03 August. So now Pilots Agree has changed tactics. They're getting pilots to sign "pledge cards." Signing a pledge card means you want to be represented by Pilots Agree. Once PA gets cards from 30 percent of the pilots at any one company, they can go to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and demand a representation election. The NLRB will hold an election at that company, and if 51 percent of the pilots vote "yes," then PA will be recognized as the bargaining agent at that company. So if you sign a pledge card, you're saying you want an election held at your company. At least one outfit (ARTCO) has implied that they can find out who signed the pledge cards, but Pilots Agree insists it's strictly confidential. The latest word is that they already have 30 percent at several companies, and maybe 50 percent here and there. That can't be verified yet, because PA hasn't sent the cards on to the NLRB. If and when that does happen, The Wheelhouse Report will verify it with the NLRB, and you'll read it here. Meanwhile, pilots who were fired in April are getting their day in court. The companies figured they could get away with threatening and firing pilots because pilots are supervisors, not protected by federal labor law. Well, the NLRB thinks we're not supervisors, although it's decided on a company-by-company basis. The NLRB has taken several companies to court, and the companies seem to be losing. What that means is that pilots who were fired can sue to get their jobs back, with back pay. Whenever a pilot wins in court, it means pilots at that company are protected by federal labor law. Pilots Agree president Dickey Mathes says they haven't lost a case yet. The legal stuff takes a lot of money. There are reportedly close to 500 dues-paying members of Pilots Agree. Dues are $25 per month, plus a $100 initiation fee. That would only give them about $125,000, which doesn't buy a lot of lawyers. No, most of the money has come from the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots (MM&P). They've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in this organizing campaign. If it's a lost cause, they don't know it. If the MM&P money hadn't been there, PA would have folded within a few weeks. But it was; they didn't; and the lawyers are charging on. One small problem: The vast majority of pilots on the rivers and canals don't seem to be interested. |
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