It was revealed this week that an American Airlines mechanic was charged with sabotaging a flight from Miami, then he was arrested. This kind of action hurts their cause.
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American Airlines Mechanic Causes Damage
Allegedly, on July 17th, Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, a 60-year old mechanic for American Airlines in their Miami base, inserted a foam obstruction into a key sensor in the nosecone of the aircraft. He was arrested for the offense last week and appeared in court.
The FBI and federal air marshals conducted the investiagtion which utilized video surveillance cameras showing Alani entering the nosecone. He was identified by co-workers; he walks with a limp which assisted in identifying him.
Unbelievably Unconscionable Act
Alani was reportedly motivated to take matters into his own hands, frustrated by stalled mechanics union contract negotiations. While the pilots did their job and aborted take-off as the air data sensor alerted them during the engine spool up on the runway, had they missed the alarm, things could have been worse.
“…if the plane had taken off that day from MIA, the pilots would have had to operate the aircraft manually because the ADM system would not have received any computer data.” – Jay Weaver, Miami Herald
Of course, pilots can operate the airplane manually. And no, he didn’t sever a brake line or something that directly would have harmed passengers, but this sort of damage adds unnecessary risk. Both American mechanics unions have condemned the actions in a joint statement.
This Hurts Their Otherwise Just Cause
With contract mediation set to reconvene on September 16th, this only strengthens management’s position that Mechanics actions caused serious harm to the carrier and, in this instance, could have cost lives.
The mechanic claimed he could not afford an attorney to represent him but disclosed making $84-96,000/year. While the employee was making nearly six figures, he was upset about limited overtime. It certainly doesn’t garner sympathy for the plight of the working class.
Union member actions have been something most of the public could get behind simply because American Airlines management had been so reprehensible in their approach. American sued their own employees (shortly after previously denying it), they appeared to have a judge in their pocket rubber-stamping court orders their legal team had written, and had promised a best-in-class contract but has yet to deliver one. You don’t have to be pro-union to want to root for mechanics who aren’t going to take it anymore.
Compared with other instances of industrial action, this is a fairly subdued approach. If anything, planes were safer rather than more dangerous because they were getting maintenance work more often as opposed to flying equipment that didn’t need to be urgently repaired.
Conclusion
Mechanics deserve a contract and if that means slowing down operations until American Airlines management wakes up, so be it. But Alani went too far, way too far, and if convicted should serve the maximum penalty offered. If true, his act was intentional, planned in advance, and counter to everything mechanics stand for. Alani may have thought he was helping the cause at the time but his actions have forced the unions to tuck their tails, may have turned the public against the cause, and ultimately worsened their bargaining position in the eyes of the mediators.
What do you think? Was this simply a step too far? Will it have a material effect on future judgements or court orders?
He has been charged with a very serious crime. People who are charged with very serious crimes often lie about their motivation in committing the alleged crime. It is entirely possible he is using the union fight as an excuse and he actually intended to bring the plane down.
I know very little about the job he had but I would suspect if he was only trying to create a nuisance he could have committed a far more benign act. I am assuming this would have been entirely possible due to his training and knowledge of the aircraft.
Kyle – you know what is reprehensible? Your downplaying the role the TWU and IAM have played in This matter. Claiming without a bit of evidence that an Article III Judge in the USDC is a rubber stamp just adds insult to injury.
Here are the facts – the unions encouraged their members to engage in an illegal job action. First there was a preliminary injunction – then it was made permanent. That didn’t happen in a vacuum – it was a result of ILLEGAL actions. Part of what the court found was that the unions had made it clear to their members that they should not take overtime.
Seems odd that this idiot who got arrested was upset about not having overtime – I bet that was if you and I had the facts in front of us we would find nearly unlimited opportunities to take overtime assignments in MIA – they go unfilled because the Unions have imposed an illegal moratorium on accepting those assignments.
You can take whatever side you want in these contract negotiations – and it is clear whose side you are on – that does not give you carte blanche to ignore facts – make unfounded accusations and cast blame at AA
This whole mess is 100% the bad faith actions and illegal conduct of the TWU & IAM. This is the bloody war promised by that idiot John Samuelson promised in his temper tantrum to AA’s president. Looks like at least one believer will have decades in prison to think about it. What a rube – I hope he spends the rest of his life in jail. He absolutely put hundreds of lives in danger. All in the name of supporting an illegal job action.
If you follow the link on the rubber-stamping comment, you’ll see that the judge used the order as written by the American Airlines attorneys with one change: he crossed out the word “proposed” and signed it. If you were in a divorce proceeding and both sides presented their ideal outcome and the judge literally took your ex-partner’s without making a single change, I think you’d use the same language. If that’s not rubber-stamping maybe you can tell me what would be. And you stated that I didn’t include evidence – but I did – a link to the exact document.
But to be exceedingly clear, I didn’t support Alani and his actions in any way. I included a joint statement by both unions condemning the act and I even suggested that it could have cost lives.
I also said that while he was upset about overtime, that he made nearly six figures. So we agree about him not needing overtime, he certainly wasn’t hand-to-mouth.
I’m not confident you read the post.
After hearing arguments from both sides, a judge will render his or her decision – and typically the order based on that decision will be prepared by the attorney for the prevailing party. Opposing counsel has an opportunity to make sure the proposed order reflects the decision. This is the way it is done.
First,
The mechanic’s actions were undeniably criminal. For which he’s going to pay the price and he’s going to deserve it.
Second,
He has hurt as you note rather than helped the mechanics cause. Though in the end I would expect the effect to be negligible. Even if we saw mass public outrage (and that doesn’t seem to be happening) we tend to forget stuff like this very quickly and given the timeline for getting a contract done it would quickly be old news.
Third
@Claire technically you are correct in calling the mechanics actions illegal. Labor law calls for status quo during contract negotiations which in part means that people should continue to behave as they have in the past. However what the law cannot control is individual actions nor can it override regulations governing aircraft maintenance.
What do I mean by that? Mechanics cannot be told by a judge to ignore maintenance discrepancies. If they find something wrong they have to deal with it accordingly. If that individual mechanic is applying a little extra diligence in looking for those discrepancies there is nothing that can be done to stop it. If that individual mechanic is unhappy with his employer and trapped by labor law the judge cannot compel him to work harder or faster. Finally if he has the right under his contract to do or not do certain things like accept voluntary overtime the judge can’t compel him to do otherwise.
Now of course when the union can be shown to have incited an illegal action (like telling everyone not to accept open time) the judge can act. But when a group of people individually decide to change their behavior frankly there is nothing that can be done about it. Trying to fine individual mechanics when they exercise their right to (for example) not perform voluntary overtime isn’t going to stick.
William is exactly right – federal judges typically have the prevailing party draft the order – and parties almost always submit a proposed order with their filings to speed the process.
I also agree with 121pilot – that the order can’t prevent mechanics from identifying and repairing discrepancies. That has not need the biggest driver of this case if you read the court documents. The slowdown was a result of a concerted refusal to go on road trips – or pick up open time and OT.
That is my point with this guy who was arrested. He was pissed that he could not pick up open shifts – not because they didn’t exist – but because his union “brothers and sisters” would punish him for doing so. That is the exact situation that the permanent injunction covered.
Cranky Flier made a very interesting point about this. That in the end this may hurt American more than it does the mechanics. Because customers are beginning to think that if the situation (which has been bad already) is bad enough that mechanics are sabotaging planes it’s an even bigger reason to avoid flying American until this is over.
“Mechanics deserve a contract and if that means slowing down operations until American Airlines management wakes up, so be it.”
What an unbelievably callous thing to say. It is not the traveling public’s fault – why should we be punished for this?
The mechanics can kiss my posterior for constantly delaying and canceling my flights. I have no sympathy for them whatsoever if that’s their tactic. And, frankly, their union leaders deserve to have a rogue employee trying to sabotage an aircraft. They’ve been practically begging for it.
No one deserves sabotage that could jeopardize an airplane. I also wrote a post regarding union leadership and how they perhaps are not best serving their membership.