Infuriated By Labor Dispute, United Pilot Cancels Flight
Passengers on United Airlines Flight 416 from Salt Lake City to Denver were in their seats, waiting to taxi to the runway, when their pilot suddenly announced that "an interpersonal confrontation [has] upset me significantly to the point where I'm not focused enough to fly you to Denver." Apparently, the "interpersonal confrontation" started when the pilot was caught wearing his hat in front of management.
United's pilots are understandably pissed that management is saving costs by axing 1,600 employees while simultaneously funding a $130 million executive cash bath. As a form of Ghandi-esque protest, the pilot's union has asked its members to take off their hats in management's presence—which seems counterintuitive, since we always thought taking your hat off was a sign of respect, not a way to flip a finger to The Man.
Anyway, this poor pilot KEPT HIS HAT ON! He was busted by another flight crew, and was so bent out of shape by the ensuing "interpersonal confrontation" that he decided to cancel his flight—which is much better than flying angry, because you really don't want your pilot cutting off other planes or tailgating.
United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said in an e-mailed statement that the flight was canceled according to company procedures designed to ensure flight crews are prepared to fly. The airline re-accommodated its customers on other flights and will give them "goodwill gestures," which may include miles and travel certificates, she said.
Urbanski declined to identify the pilot or provide details of the incident, but she did not dispute the passenger's account.
"We will conduct a full investigation of the events leading up to the cancellation and take appropriate, necessary action," she wrote in the e-mail.
David Kelly, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents United pilots, said the union won't comment on the incident.
The Federal Aviation Administration says it's up to the airlines to determine when and how pilots can walk away from the cockpit if they feel unfit to fly. "But we'd expect that if the pilots aren't fit to fly, they would not fly," said FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette.
And now we know how airline labor negotiations can directly impact customer service.
United flight canceled after upset pilot refuses to fly [USA Today]
(Photo: Getty)
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Comments:
I hate unions.
What in the world is going on with United?!
@Ein2015
I hate executives.
Seriously, that was a good call. All pilots are REQUIRED to recuse themselves from work if they under any emotionall stress that would interfere with the job. Seriously, would you want your captain stewing over his divorce or missed mortgage payments while you are landing in Chicago in bad weather?
People want to complaint about pissy, upset pilots? Ask how that worked out for EgyptAir 990.
*static* This is you captain speaking. I won't be able to fly you to your destination today because I have my panties in a wad. That is all. *static*
@badgeman46: Agreed.
In a way, he got three revenges at once:
1) by keeping his hat on, he managed to flip his finger against the executives and his union
2) by cancelling the flight, he put the onus back to United to deal with the mess
3) by cancelling the flight claiming his condition, he would not be held liable if an accident did happen.
Of course, the customers won't be happy and given the current situation where airlines are competing with each other on who can do worse, the guy's a complete a-hole and it gives one more reason to avoid flying with United.
OK so the kicker is, ALPA wants United's pilots to take their hat off in the presence of management as a show of protest against management, and apparently this pilot didn't do that, so the interpersonal confrontation had to be with another member of ALPA, not management.
The irony is that he'll probably get nicked by management (the same management he refused to show protest against) for canceling the flight.
The bigger issue here, at least to me is the fact that the airline execs are firing people so they can get some kind of bigger bonus.
Customer service be damned we need to make those rich executives more rich!
@Ein2015: @ohyeahright:
Both are equally at fault. They both drive up the price of products produce here in the US.
Good for him.
Pilots have alot of power though. I was on a flight where they couldn't find a flight attendant and were waiting for another. 90 minutes of delays and myself and the other passengers waiting... out walks the pilot from off the plane and he starts cussing out the front desk.
Needless to say within 5 minutes a flight attendant showed up, pulled from another flight, and was ready to go. From what I over heard it was "I have been waiting there long enough. get me an f-ing flight attendant now this plane isn't waiting any longer".
I now respect my pilots that much more.
@humphrmi:
The irony is that he'll probably get nicked by management (the same management he refused to show protest against) for canceling the flight.
You mean "the irony might be…" - since you just made that up with no evidence / reasoning. It's not actually ironic unless it actually happens.
Unions are now used for keeping the undereducated, overpaid and hold to companies hostage to meet their demands. All things the union was created for are now handled by the government. Yes, we can owe many safety regulations to the union....but they a no longer needed. OSHA now handles all the unions represent. I am leading the way to have the union at the company I work for ousted. they must have at least 25% membership and they are dropping....no thanks to my conferences with those that still members. Our local union president and vice pres were recently fired for clocking each other in when the other was late.....nice show of responsibility and leading by example these assclowns were.
I hope that pilot gets that hat shoved up his ass, the prick. It's not like flying is enough of a hassle.
So that other flight crew that gave the pilot shit should be paying for everyone's flight. When are co-workers going to realize it's there JOB to keep their mouths SHUT and get WORK done?
He violated Rule 22:
Clearly his judgment was not impaired enough to refuse to fly.
If he was truly unfit to fly, he would have not had the judgment to determine that.
Therefore, for having the insight to rescue himself claiming lack of judgment, he is clearly just trying to get out of work.
Man, I should write a book about that or something...
hats off to all [grin].
@humphrmi: I don't know all of the facts, but what I do know about labor law United would be foolish to fire the guy. There is precedent in pilots refusing to fly if they feel they're not capable to do a safe job. He'd have United in court for years for unjustified termination.
Fight Club: We clean your laundry, we serve your food, we fly your planes, don't fuck with us.
I'm fascinated by the fact that this site is used primarily to point out the flaws of huge companies in America and yet, a union, draws such negative comments.
unions sux but executives even more...how much is someone worth. in Sundays Atlanta Journel, CocaCola chief executive is making $21 million per year. $21 million. crap. I am not drinking anymore Coke product/PowerAde. way too much money being made here.
@quail: Well I didn't say he'd get fired, there are a lot worse things that United can do than fire him. Like put him on a shitty Embraer flying between O'Hare and Bloomington/Normal.
Honestly I hope he doesn't get any flak from management. He was just trying to do his job, and apparently was getting shit from someone over whether he wore his hat or not, to "show solidarity". Whoever called a pilot who was about to take control of an aircraft to complain to him about his hat-wearing behavior is the problem.
I, personally, would not want a pi$$ed off pilot taking my life into his hands.
this is what happens when you let the employees own the company, United has been on a downward spiral for some time now. I hope there are SERIOUS consequences for the pilot's poor choice in judgment (he forgets to take his own hat off after his union agreed to do so, so he gets mad, and he cancels his flight. And there be some SERIOUS apoligies and refunds to every one on that flight! The airline industry is already bad enough without pilot pulling stunts like this!
@Snowblind: Rule 22? Pardon me, but I have a commercial pilot's license and have been flying since 1993 and I have no idea what you are talking about.
You know, it's a shame because I actually do enjoy United Airlines. I recently got back from a trip to Spain and had absolutely no trouble with both United and Lufthansa (German airline). We never had to wait in the plane long before takeoff. As soon as we taxied away from the terminal, we were taking off. We were able to get off the plane within 5 minutes of landing. For me, it was a great experience and I would fly United again.
@coren: "No, ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife is ironic."
No, actually that would just be unfortunate. And if you would like to use any other examples from Alanis Morissette's song "Ironic" you would probably be wrong as pretty much all her situations are just unfortunate, not ironic.
Anyone got any rule 34 or can produce some rule 35 material on pilot-managment conflicts?
@badgeman46: Simmer down there. It was a joke reference to the book Catch 22. I will though pardon you ;P
It's ironic that the anti-union union member, who didn't want to join the symbolic protest, was the one that cancelled the flight. And it was the pro-union guys that wanted the whining hypocrite to fly the damned plane and service the customers. You know, be professional.
It's not ironic that the Freeper wingnuts blame the union when the opposite is the case. Expected, like a broken record, yes. Ironic? No.
@Ein2015: Here's to that! Down with unions. Why should they be allowed to form cartels and monopolies on labor?
@BabyGorilla: It's mainly the Freeper/Red State types. They got their panties in a bunch because they heard there was a popular site that didn't kowtow to Wal-Mart and established a beachhead about four months ago.
Now they get their panties in a bunch when they get their butts handed to them when they're confronted with logical, fact-based arguments: something that up til now, they've never encountered.
They're a minority, though.
@houston2882: Um, executives receive that kind of compensation because they deserve it. They (usually) earn it through years of dedication and slowly rising through the ranks. They have proven that they (for the most part) are competent enough to handle the daily operations of a huge multinational corporation. How many people do you really think are smart enough to do this job?
Unions on the other hand, pay high school dropouts and unskilled workers $30 an hour to do something that any monkey can be trained to do.
Until monkeys can be trained to review quarterly statements and conduct strategic overviews, executives will continue to make the kind of money they deserve and unions will still be a useless drain on society.
@badgeman46:
Rule 22 as in "Catch 22", not anything related to the FAA.
@humphrmi:
He probably isn't facing reassignment to a shitty route on a shitty plane because the way pilot assignments and certification works. Just because you are rated to fly a 747, doesn't necessarily mean you are certified to fly an Embraer. Commercial plane cockpits, etc can vary vastly, even within families (i.e. a pilot rated to fly a 747-200 may not be rated for a 747-800). A pilot needs to go through all sorts of training and testing to get type rated for a particular plane. It would be silly for United to spend the time and money getting this guy type rated on a lesser plane out of spite. Also, 747 pilots don't grow on trees, and are not a resource that is wasted so frivolously.
As for the pilot in question getting fired, that probably depend on all sorts of factors. Airlines (specially pilots) are very big on seniority. Depending on what the airline wants to accomplish and what its union contract says, they may fire either the most senior (who spend more money on healthcare, are closer to having their pensions vest, are entitled to the highest-paying routes, etc, etc); or the most junior, who are still sucking money being trained (i.e for new types, Captain-ness, etc), or simply because the union contract says "last in-first out" for layoffs.
For the record, I wasn't implying that Embraers or any other planes are "shitty".
@Eric1285: I don't disagree with your first paragraph, until you get to:
Unions on the other hand, pay high school dropouts and unskilled workers $30 an hour to do something that any monkey can be trained to do.
Umm, aren't we talking about union pilots here?
@humphrmi: I'm referring to unions in general. You don't have to be smart to be a pilot. You just have to go through the appropriate training program. Obviously, you have to at least be responsible and willing to work, but those qualities alone should not be enough to guarantee people $30 an hour for a low or no-skill job.
just another instance of pilot belligerence.
i swear, as a passenger, i've never met an airline pilot who didn't act superior and arrogant as shit.
Same deal with truck drivers. Don't piss them off or it's YOU that will pay for it. Take a look at what they did to the price of gas in London.
Don't piss off your pilot.
Well, then maybe we should hire that kid who stocks the shelves at walmart, or the frycook at MickyD's. I'm sure you'd have no problem with them flying the plane.
@corporateamericabites: Seriously. As an engineer, I'm willing to bet that I know a whole lot more about how the plane works than most pilots do. I may not know what all those controls and buttons in your cockpit do, but that doesn't mean you get to pretend you're better than I am.
Jeez, if we're going to claim bullshit excuses, make it somewhat official sounding. Say it was myopic rectitis, where the pilot couldn't see his ass flying that day.