A federal judge in northern Texas has granted American Airlines (AA), a temporary restraining order against two unions - the Transport Workers Union of America and the International Association of Machinists (TWU-IAM) - to block an alleged work slowdown by their members.
The TWU-IAM Association - which represents more than 30,000 employees in 12 work groups including mechanics, baggage handlers and airport ramp workers - have been told by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, to issue a notice to their workers to no longer continue activities such as slowing aircraft repairs (or indeed slowing any part of their job performance), refusing to work overtime or on assignments away from their normal location, or any other actions that would negatively impact AA’s operations.
In documents filed with the Court, AA maintained that the union’s “illegal conduct has dramatically escalated and has become devastating to the airline’s operations, customers and employees.” The airline claimed that before the union began their alleged campaign, staffing overtime or field trips had not been an issue, yet since February of this year there had been periods with no overtime shifts worked and no field trips undertaken. As a result, since filing the original lawsuit in May, the airline have had to cancel 722 flights over 23 days, disrupting travel plans of around 175,000 passengers.
AA therefore argued for the temporary restraining order, deciding that the trial due to commence July 1st was too long to wait. Court documents stated “illegal conduct has dramatically escalated” and that it is “creating an operational crisis causing significant damage to American, the traveling public and American’s employees.”
The slowdown, according to AA, was instigated by the union as a method of strengthening their position in new contract talks that began in late 2015. TWU-IAM is the only major union that has not been able to agree contracts with the airline - regarding issues such as compensation and health and retirement benefits - since their merger with US Airways in 2013. The union have however denied encouraging any slowdown, claiming that it is a result of low worker morale, partly caused by a plan to outsource thousands of US jet mechanic jobs to South America.
