How is it possible that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters could use members’ dues to fight a pilot (also dues paying) to deny him his right to an arbitration?
The Teamsters spent pilots’ union dues in an attempt to prevent a terminated pilot from arbitrating his termination, despite that the pilot was paying the costs for his own attorney. How is this legal? More so, does this behavior not contradict the oath each officer signed under the Teamsters Constitution:
“As an officer of this great Union, I will, at all times, act solely in the interests of our members, devote the resources of our Union to furthering their goals, work to maintain a Union that is free of corruption, to preserve and strengthen democratic principles in our Union, and to protect the members’s interests in all dealing with employers. I will never forget that it is the members who put me here, and it is the members whom I will serve.”
Teamsters Should Be Ashamed
Whomever did this violated their oath. Despite the Teamsters having spent union dues to fight the pilot, they lost! Whatever rationale Teamsters believed they were acting upon, by denying this pilot his rights to an arbitration, a Federal Judge determined they were wrong.
Teamsters have been ordered by a federal court to schedule an arbitration for a terminated pilot!
I feel for this pilot because every pilot paying union dues should at minimum receive union support. More so, arbitrators are businessmen and when both the airline and the union want the pilot gone, and they are jointly paying the arbitrator’s salary, what are the odds the pilot will prevail? I hope that if he doesn’t get a fair arbitration he will file a DFR against the union. I’ve seen similar behavior with ALPA, but I thought Teamsters were better. It’s never too late to do the right thing.
