Ticket-holders on Allegiant Air flights may be forced to seek other accommodations soon as pilots – members of the Teamsters union – have voted to authorize a strike.

“Airline Professionals Association (APA) Teamsters Local 1224, voted overwhelmingly, 465-8, today to authorize a strike against Allegiant Air,” according to the union.

“This does not mean that a strike is going to happen tomorrow or even next week,” said APA Teamsters Local 1224 President Daniel Wells. “It does, however, mean that the situation is fluid. If Allegiant continues to stonewall in negotiations and continues to disregard the federal court’s injunction ordering it to restore the pilots’ work rules, then a pilot strike at Allegiant Air will be very realistic.”

In early January, the union’s leadership decided to put a formal strike authorization vote out to the membership, based on a deadlock in negotiations and Allegiant Air’s continued failure to abide by a July 2014 federal court injunction directing Allegiant Air to restore the pilots’ work rule protections and benefits to previously negotiated levels. 

“Virtually every pilot voted to authorize a strike,” Wells said. “That speaks volumes.”

With this kind of support, the union intends to move forward by seeking a proffer from the National Mediation Board (NMB) under the Railway Labor Act’s dispute provisions. Once this has been completed, or to the extent that Allegiant remains unwilling to restore the pilots’ work rule protections and benefits, the pilots would be free to conduct a legal strike in the near future.  

The pilots have been in negotiations with Allegiant Air for two years with little to no progress. Their first negotiation session began in December of 2012 – with mediated negotiations beginning in April 2014 – and still the company cannot reach agreement with the union on even the most basic conditions in their negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.

“No one wants to strike,” Wells said. “We would rather be able to make some real progress in direct negotiations. However, the pilots haven’t seen any real progress in over two years.”