Approximately 250 pilots working for ABX Air went on strike Tuesday morning, refusing to fly scheduled routes, including those for the airline’s major customers, DHL and Amazon.
Pilots working for Wilmington, Ohio-based cargo carrier ABX Air, a subsidiary of Air Transport Services Group (ATSG), went on strike Tuesday morning.
The strike against ABX Air involves about 250 pilots who are refusing to fly scheduled routes, including those for the airline’s major customers, DHL and Amazon, according to the Airline Professionals Association (APA) of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 1224.
Striking pilots are picketing outside ABX Air’s headquarters and outside DHL’s North American Hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
ABX Air operates 45 flights a day for DHL and 35 flights a day for Amazon.
The union said that for nearly 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,” the union said.
ABX Air has been forcing its pilots to fly, refusing to recall pilots who had been furloughed as a result of DHL’s termination of North American operations several years ago, because it would have had to pay them at the top of the pilots’ wage scale, as required by the pilots’ contract. Instead, the airline has 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, the union said.
“Our airline is facing a staffing crisis because ABX and ATSG executives knew they needed more pilots but chose to put our customers, our fellow employees and our shareholders at risk in a vain attempt to save a buck,” said ABX Air Captain Tim Jewell. “ABX Air needs to restore the status quo and hire enough pilots so we can get the job done.”
ATSG said Tuesday it is “taking steps to resolve and end an illegal work stoppage.” ABX Air and the union participated in a conference with U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Black late Tuesday afternoon to consider a complaint for injunctive relief that ABX Air filed earlier Tuesday. ATSG said the complaint seeks to enjoin an illegal work stoppage by its pilots.
The Judge said the union is required to file its answer to the complaint no later than noon Wednesday, prior to issuing a ruling of the merits, ATSG said.
“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.
“ABX Air is notifying its customers and other affected parties about temporary interruptions in ABX’s flight operations, allowing them to adjust their networks until pilots return to work and normal flight operations resume,” he added. “We stand ready to assist our customers in any way we can to minimize any impact on their own operations during this critical holiday period.”
The last pilot strike that occurred in the U.S. was in 2010 when Spirit Air pilots walked off the job.
ABX pilot strike impacts DHL, Amazon shipments
