El Al: If pilots quit, all flights will be grounded
Resignation of the pilots, who also serve as supervisors, may cancel all company flights; the pilots' union: 'The management keeps placing the blame on us over its own failures'; El Al appeals to the court, requesting 'urgent temporary reliefs.'
The petition was filed before the resignation letters could come into effect. According to the airline, the letters were submitted to the company in a collective manner by a few of its supervising pilots, asking to end their roles as supervisors.
El Al stated, "Such an occurrence would incur much damage to the company, which they couldn't even begin to estimate. Therefore, the airline appealed to the court, asking them to issue an order stating that the supervisors' resignation would entail an unlawful strike."
Technically flights could take off without supervisors but without a captain, the company would have to ground them. According to assessments, the captain are being pressured into resigning.
El Al further claimed that "as part of their agreement with the pilots, they undertook to maintain silence on the matter. Despite the fact, additional disruptions continued to occur, which led to a temporary injunction issued by the court on February 6, compelling the pilot representatives to exercise their authority in order to enforce complete silence and orderly work. The company has also been using all of its available tools to make sure flights run their scheduled course."
In response to El Al's claims, the head of the Histadrut Avi Nissenkorn said that the pilots' union hasn't blown up negotiations, nor have they recanted from the agreements reached over the last few days. According to Nissenkorn, the unions' representatives haven't disparaged or abandoned the meeting that took place on Monday: "El Al Airlines is dear and important to us all. I ask the sides to return to the negotiating table and bring the dispute to an end."
The union responded by stating that "the El Al fleet managers and captains, board members who do not belong to the pilots' union, have all expressed lack of confidence in the CEO David Maimon and in his methods of management… A CEO who manages a company through court orders and injunctions is a failed CEO who does not know how to direct."
