ABX Air pilots return to work after brief strike

While the possibility of a prolonged work stoppage for 250 pilots at ABX Air, a subsidiary of Air Transport Services Group, loomed large when they went on strike on Tuesday, November 22, it was short-lived following a court ruling the next day.

That next day, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S.  Black said that the striking pilots must resolve differences with ABX Air through arbitration and other provisions of their labor agreement.  And he added that the disagreements between the pilots and their union, the Airline Professionals Association of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 1224, related to work scheduling issues are a “minor dispute” and need to be resolved under the terms of the labor agreement between ABX Air and the Teamsters.

When the pilots initially went on strike, they stated they refused to fly scheduled routes for ABX customers, including DHL and Amazon.

In explaining the rationale for going on strike, the union said that for almost two years ABX Air has been significantly understaffed, resulting in pilots continuously being forced to work ‘emergency’ assignments on their off time.

“The situation has risen to the level where the company is illegally violating its contract with pilots by not allowing them to take contractually obligated compensatory time for the forced extra work,” it said. “Throughout the year and now, especially during the 4th quarter, ABX has been forcing its pilots to fly flights because it had intentionally short-staffed its operations in the face of increased customer demands. ABX refused to recall pilots who had been furloughed as a result of DHL’s termination of North American operations several years ago.  ABX refused to recall those pilots because it did not want to bring them back and pay them at the top of the pilots’ wage scale, as required by the pilots’ contract.  ABX instead extinguished those pilots’ recall rights earlier this year and then tried to hire new pilots who would be paid at the bottom of the pilots’ wage scale.  ABX management has acknowledged that its penny-wise, pound foolish scheme backfired, as it waited too long to start hiring additional pilots and actually hired too few pilots.  Since then, ABX has been forcing its pilots to fly additional trips and disrupting their schedules in an effort to climb out from the staffing hole it dug for itself.”

And when the brief strike commenced, the union said that around 75 flights have already been cancelled while also noting that the strike could have had a major impact on delivery operations for ABX customers, including DHL and Amazon. It operates 45 daily flights for DHL and said that it was likely Amazon customers would experience delays and disruptions.

 “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,” John Starkovich, President of ABX Air, said in a statement. “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.”

The executive also said he expected ABX Air flight operations to resume  effective immediately. 

From the perspective of the Teamsters, Rick Ziebarth, ABX pilot and executive council chairman for the Teamsters Local 1224, said that it is a matter of ABX pilots being committed to serving its customers with integrity and wanting ABX executives to treat them with the same respect.

“ABX Air’s failure to address the staffing crisis hurts our families and compromises our ability to do our jobs and meet the needs of Amazon, DHL, and other customers,” he said. “We do not agree with the Judge’s decision to keep us from striking, as we believe the company’s actions represent a clear violation of the status quo as outlined by the Railway Labor Act. Rather than spend more time in court, what we’d really like is for ABX to stop the ‘emergency’ assignments and take real steps to hire and retain the number of skilled pilots we need to keep up with our customers.”

This strike also brielfly impacted other air operations out of DHL’s Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) distribution center, with grounded flights, due to pilots from Atlas Air, Southern Air, Kalitta Air, and Polar Air not crossing the picket line. 

Earlier this year, Amazon Fulfillment Services said it would lease 20 Boeing 767 freighter aircraft from ATSG’s Cargo Aircraft Management, with the aircraft operated by ABX Air and Air Transport International, ATSG’s airlines, with gateway and logistics services provided by ATSG’s LGSTX Services. ATSG said the leases for the aircraft will range from five-to-seven years, and the agreement covering operation of the aircraft is for five years.

DHL’s reaction to the strike last week was brief but direct, with a spokesperson telling LM that “[d]ue to a work stoppage affecting our airline partners, inbound deliveries to portions of the Americas will be delayed today. We are continuing to monitor the situation.”

Stifel analyst David Ross said in a research note that the temporary restraining order returning ABX pilots back to work is in effect until December 7, at which point the federal judge indicated he would be willing to extend the order, adding that if the union formally files a grievance it should quickly move to arbitration.

“While we believe some backlog from last week's disturbance remains, most has been worked off. ATSG's smaller airline, ATI, ran its normal flights plus a little more, and the company also ran extra block hours over Thanksgiving and the weekend that would normally have seen minimal operations, Ross noted. “And while some costs were just delayed, there were