While Jet capitulated, American Airlines had taken the bull by the horns.
It was one of the most brazen examples of a trade union leader cocking a snook at not only the management of a company but the entire legal system. Even as the conciliation proceedings to end the Jet Airways stand-off was going on, Captain Sam Thomas, joint secretary of the National Aviators’ Guild, the union of Jet Pilots, told this newspaper in an interview that the pilots were not on strike. “All of a sudden, 400 people can fall ill due to food poisoning. We can get medical certificates to prove our illness”.
Thomas was answering a question relating to the “sick-out” — the official term for mass sick leave by Jet pilots that crippled India’s largest private airline for five days. Thomas not only got away with such statements, but was also successful in forcing the airline management to eat its words (Jet Chairman Naresh Goyal had called them terrorists and had vowed to fight to the finish) and reinstate him and three of his colleagues who were earlier sacked for forming a union. The “food poisoning” effect was invisible after that as the pilots returned to work almost immediately.
The Jet fiasco showed once again how airline managements in India are helpless when it comes to dealing with pilots. Jet had initially tried to call the bluff by sending doctors to pilots’ residences — 22 of them were examined and a majority of them were asked to resume duty as they were found medically fit. But the airline stopped the futile exercise as air safety experts said a pilot who feels that he is under any kind of stress can decline to fly, in the interest of flight safety. Some countries do accept a pilot’s word when he says he feels he is not in a mental frame to operate a flight safely.
An industrial action by unions is termed a sick-out when all, or a significant number of union members call in sick on the same day. They haven’t broken any rules, because they just use sick leave that was allotted to them. However, the sudden loss of so many employees all on one day can show the employer just what it would be like if they really went on strike.
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Despite its potent force, sick-outs by airline pilots have been relatively rare in the US not because of any consideration for passengers but because one airline refused to cow down to such threats and chose to take the fight to the union’s camp.
A few years back, American Airlines was crippled by a 10-day sick-out that resulted in the cancellation of more than 6,600 flights. The dispute centered on the purchase of Reno Air — an action termed by the pilots as a violation of their contract. The pilots were worried that the management would use Reno’s relatively lower-paid crew to fly American Airlines’ planes.
When negotiations with unions failed, American decided to take the bull by the horns and sued the union for the illegal action that resulted in a loss of around $225 million.
The Federal Judge issued a temporary restraining order, but the number of pilots on the sick list rose even higher. The union said its members could provide medical certificates to prove their illness due to food poisoning — something that is strikingly similar to what Jet’s Sam Thomas said.
But while Thomas was “rewarded” for his actions in India, the US judge found the union in contempt and imposed a $45 million fine (more than the net assets of the union) on it. He also made the leadership personally liable to pay part of the damages. The US Supreme Court later rejected an appeal by the union and let stand the fine imposed against it for refusing to halt the sick-out.
While many said Jet Airways should have gone the American Airlines way and fought the pilots, it was perhaps easier said than done. Given its precarious financial position and the protracted legal tangle, the airline just could not afford to let the dispute continue for long.
Airlines in many countries have faced the same dilemma when they faced sick-outs by pilots. Northwest Airlines, for example, had to cancel 830 flights over four days a few years back after many pilots called in sick following the management’s decision to cut wages by 40 per cent while increasing their flying times as much as 90 hours per month. The airline could not do anything when the pilot’s union said it was not an organised sick-out and that the pilots were stressed out. Taking a moral high ground, the union said passenger safety was the main concern of the pilots as it is not safe to fly when the flight crew is fatigued or tired. Logic that was hard to beat.
Or, take the case of Caribbean airline LIAT, which lost over $150,000 in May this year as a result of a sick-out action by pilots. The move taken to press home the pilots’ demand for better salaries grounded several aircraft and forced the airline to compensate passengers affected by flight cancellations across its route system.