What kills me is the bulk of people who spout off with an opinion without having any first hand knowledge of what is really going on in this building or local.
Everything is not the same company wide, nor are we all governed by the same contractual language.
What I do believe is that if the company did have an air tight case, they wouldn't be waffling around with their decision.
This is a company that routinely throws poop against the wall to see if it sticks.
This is also a company that rushes to the scene of an accident to cover up the company logo, as they hate negative publicity.
Maybe 60 Minutes need to take a look at this story?
60 Minutes is a joke. They are corporate pawns.
I researched their contract a bit. Like most contracts there is contradictory language about the situation, that's a result of our union having no idea what legalese is or how to properly coordinate language about the same event that can be mentioned in different ways across 5 different articles.
It could go either way, really, but the weight of the language is against them. The BA made the right decision at the wrong time, the local should have given notice of intent to strike on that day rather than the drivers walking out, then struck the following week. It's all because the BA was caught up in the moment. Their grievances are backlogged at national, they have a strong case of constant harassment and wrongful termination, the intent to strike would have been completely by the book. Now, they did have nationals that same weekend and if they had issued intent then the company would have attempted to resolve the backlogged grievances at the national in Florida which would have meant the strike couldn't happen, but that would have been a major step in the right direction. That driver who was fired that day still wouldn't have his job back (yet - he would, because he was fired with no rep), and the harassment probably wouldn't have stopped, but if the company had to surrender that many cases at one time to prevent a legitimate strike then their hub's management would have been issued some commands on high to iron their pants and press their shirts, because things are going by the book until the union heat died down.
This is all my opinion, supported by facts out of their supplement. If you disagree, let's not get emotional about it like people tend to do on the other related threads.
