“Following a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, pilots are returning to work with continued calls for the company to address the staffing crisis that has led to this strike,” the post stated.
UPDATE @ 7:15 p.m. (Nov. 23):
ABX Air pilots were expected to return to work tonight after a ruling in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati that the pilots must resolve work scheduling issues under terms of the labor agreement between ABX Air and the Airline Professionals Association International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 1224.
John Starkovich, president of ABX Air based in Wilmington, said he expects flight operations to resume immediately.
“I am pleased that the court continues to recognize the value to all parties from continuing to work out remaining differences in negotiations and through arbitration,” Starkovich stated in a release from the company. “We intend to resume those discussions at the appropriate time and place in order to find solutions that are in the best interests of our customers, shareholders and employees.”
UPDATE @ 1 p.m. (Nov. 23):
Day two of a pilots strike against Wilmington’s ABX Air was waged on the picket line and in federal court.
Late Tuesday, a federal judge in Cincinnati gave a union of striking air cargo pilots until noon Wednesday to respond to ABX Air’s motion for a restraining order against the union. The union filed its response at about noon.
“Local 1224 has made clear that the strike will cease when the company resumes compliance with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement and the status quo,” attorneys for the Teamsters wrote.
“The law permits a union to engage in self-help, including a strike, immediately if the employer violates the status quo during a major dispute,” the union’s attorneys said.
The union argues that ABX Air is forcing pilots to fly far too often, saying the company’s “actions in changing clear and unequivocal scheduling and staffing protections specifically afforded to the pilots under the parties’ contract constitutes a violation of the Railway Labor Act.”
The strike is happening just as online retail giant Amazon has struck up a relationship with ABX Air corporate parent Air Transport Services Group — and during Black Friday shopping week.
UPDATE @ 9:55 p.m.: A judge will hold an evidentiary hearing Wednesday afternoon on the request for a temporary restraining order that would force striking cargo pilots to end their strike against an air cargo airline in the final shopping weeks before Christmas.
The site for the hearing will be the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, in Cincinnati.
The judge in the case required that the striking union must file its answer to the airline’s complaint no later than noon today, a statement from air cargo airline ABX Air said Tuesday evening.
In the meantime, ABX Air continues to speak with the union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 1224, the airline said.
FIRST REPORT
A cargo airline whose pilots are striking is hoping a federal judge will tell striking pilots to return to their jobs in the crucial shopping and shipping weeks before Christmas, the airline said.
“Complaint has been filed waiting for a time slot with the judge,” Joe Hete, president and chief executive of ATSG Inc., said in an email at about 2:45 p.m. Tuesday.
At 4:35 p.m., Hete said he was still waiting to hear from the court.
Air Transport Services Group, Inc. (ATSG) Tuesday said one of its two airline subsidiaries, ABX Air, Inc., is taking “multiple steps” to end what it calls an “illegal work stoppage” started early Tuesday by its pilots represented by the Airline Professionals Association of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 1224.
“We will seek a court order later today to restore the status quo operating environment, even as we continue discussions with union representatives about specific issues of concern,” the company said in a statement.
In an interview early Tuesday, Hete said he hoped the strike would not last long.
“Hopefully not very long,” Hete said. “Hopefully, sane minds will prevail, and we’ll get this resolved shortly.”
“We expect the court will uphold our position that the actions taken by the union to refuse work assignments is not legal, and the issues involved constitute a minor dispute to be resolved via arbitration under terms of our current labor agreements,” ABX Air President John Starkovich said in the statement.
Hete told this news outlet that an order will be sought in Cincinnati’s U.S. District Court.
About 250 pilots who fly for the cargo carrier ABX Air, which operates flights for Amazon and DHL, went on strike Tuesday in Wilmington. According to a public relations firm for the union, the move cancelled about 75 flights.
The cargo carrier operates 45 flights a day for DHL and 35 for Amazon.
“We work with a variety of carriers and are confident in our ability to serve customers,” Kelly Cheeseman, a spokeswoman for Amazon, said in a statement sent to the Dayton Daily News.
Earlier this month, a federal court judge rejected a request by ABX Air for a temporary restraining order against its pilots and their union, the Teamsters noted in a release from Berlin Rosen, the union’s public relations firm.
Judge Timothy S. Black of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio wrote that he denied the restraining order because the “court lacks jurisdiction over plaintiff’s claims because this matter represents a ‘minor dispute’ under the RLA (Railway Labor Act) that must be addressed through dispute resolution procedures before the System Board of Arbitration, as provided for by statute and contract,” according to a Nov. 8 story by American Shipper.
Pilots will picket outside ABX Air’s headquarters in Wilmington and outside DHL’s North American hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport.
The strike has holiday shoppers worried, and we’re working to learn how this could impact shipping from Amazon and DHL.
Pilots said they are picketing because they are being forced to work for emergency assignments on their off time.
ATSG’s subsidiaries include ABX Air, Inc.; Airborne Global Solutions, Inc.; Air Transport International, Inc.; Cargo Aircraft Management, Inc. and other companies.
Last month, the Teamsters asked the National Mediation Board to investigate ATSG.
ATSG owns ABX Air and Air Transport International Inc. The union contends the ATSG operates the two carriers as a single transportation system while “maintaining a facade of two separate carriers,” the union said in a statement.
“Historically, airline holding companies have owned and operated multiple airline subsidiaries and kept them separate from one another for various reasons, some of which were designed to artificially suppress labor costs and conditions. The historical model no longer works due to vastly changed economic conditions affecting the airline industry, including the increasingly dire shortage of pilots across the world, which are now straining airlines’ ability to efficiently, effectively and safely serve their customers,” the Teamsters said in an Oct. 27 statement.
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