Pilots On The Picket Line
How tough is it? Well, on Friday you might have run into FedEx pilots picketing outside your local FedEx Kinko’s store when you stopped by for some copies. The pilots, who are members of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), have been working without a contract for more than a year. They say the company’s record profits now are going only to executives and investors, while workers no longer get a share. Meanwhile, pilots at Delta Air Lines are threatening to strike if the company succeeds in an effort to void their contract in bankruptcy court. A pilot strike would be equivalent to “murder-suicide,” the company said Monday, since it would likely shut down the carrier and put it out of business for good. Monday, Northwest Airlines pilots chose a different strategy. Northwest pilots agreed to take a 24-percent “temporary” pay cut, on top of a 15-percent reduction from a year ago. The agreement gives the pilots two more months in which to negotiate a longer-term agreement.
