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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
British Airways pilots began a 48-hour strike on Monday, grounding most of the airline's flights and disrupting thousands of travelers' plans in unprecedented industrial action over a pay dispute.
The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) last month gave the airline notice of three days of industrial action in September, in what is the first ever strike by BA pilots.
Following the strikes on Sept. 9 and 10, another day of industrial action is scheduled for Sept. 27.
BALPA has said that British Airways (BA) should share more of its profits with its pilots. BA has said the strike action is unjustifiable as its pay offer was fair.
Thousands of customers have had to seek alternative travel arrangements, and the airline has come in for criticism over how it handled communications with passengers ahead of the strikes.
"This strike will have cost the company considerably more than the investment needed to settle this dispute," BALPA General Secretary Brian Strutton said in a statement on the eve of the strike.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Thursday September 12 2019, @07:14AM (4 children)
Airline pilots are free to strike, just like anyone else. However, there is a difference from most jobs: they severely impact tens of thousands of innocent people.
In the case of an organized strike like this, I think the union (here, the British Airline Pilots Association) should be held liable for the damage they cause to these third parties. Not in the US sense of absurd punitive damages, but certainly covering the direct costs of meals, hotels, and re-booking on other airlines.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 4, Informative) by kazzie on Thursday September 12 2019, @08:44AM
Ah, you're a fan of the old Taff Vale case [wikipedia.org], then?
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday September 12 2019, @03:51PM
Why the pilots and not the airline? The airline is equally responsible for the events leading up to the strike, and they're the ones with whom customers have a contract.
(Score: 3, Touché) by rondon on Thursday September 12 2019, @05:20PM (1 child)
Don't you believe in personal freedom? Should these pilots not be free to choose not to pilot a plane? And before anyone brings up contracts, the people flying BA do not have a contract with a single one of these pilots, because BA understands that they have to be the middle man in this situation in order to extract maximum wealth from the transaction.
BA is the only one taking on the "risk" associated with grounding flights, because they want the sole ability to divvy those profits as they see fit.
I almost didn't respond because I wasn't sure if your suggestion was in good faith, but perhaps it is so there you go.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday September 12 2019, @10:00PM
It is definitely in good faith, or at least, he was serious when he said it.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...