The UPS pilots want to be released from federal mediation, but the National Mediation Board will not clear them for take-off. The pilots’ union had threatened a strike within 30 days, if they the NMB had granted their request.
The Federal Railway Labor Act prohibits pilots from striking, if they are involved in federal mediation. The federal mediator has now called for an indefinite recess and, as a result, the union said that it sees itself edging closer to a strike.
The union’s argument is that, unlike commercial passenger carriers, UPS is highly profitable and so should increase the wages of its pilots. While UPS said it plans to increase the wages of its nearly 2,500 pilots, the company has other issues that need to be settled.
In my more than 30 years of my experience as a labor relations attorney, I have frequently heard the argument that the company is “highly profitable,” therefore it can pay workers higher wages, increase medical benefits, and add generously to pensions. It is not so simple. Management works with complicated formulas to determine how every dime of a company is spent and invested. It also must anticipate how it will remain competitive, especially when, as in the case of UPS, competitive airlines are using non-union pilots. UPS has been extremely generous to its employees, and unions cannot always put out their hands, demanding more. Sometimes more is not only more than enough, it’s excessive
