This is a story about scabbing.
No, it's not about your run of the mill, garden variety domestic scabs, but of elite, highly paid international scabs. These worthies are truly a race apart (sui generis), the cream of the crop. Granted, it can be argued that those that are concerned about scabbing on the basis of principle, rather than simply being intimidated by their "brothers", are a distinct minority in the pilot population. For those, the following is offered to increase their knowledge of the subject.
True principle, on the part of any pilot group, is ever to be encouraged.
Having said this, it should be noted that there has never been anything written about the alleged strikebreaking activities of the mainline pilots at United Airlines within Australia in 1989-1990. Though UAL pilots will deny the allegation when asked, these denials will swiftly melt into rationalizations after they are confronted by the facts. It's a dirty little secret within the industry, and to some extent UAL, that this most militant of pilot unions had a significant number of their most senior pilots hauling domestic passengers within Australia in the face of mass resignations by the pilots at Ansett and Australian Airlines.
After the Ansett and Australian pilots (represented by The Australian Federation of Airline Pilots AFAP) had resigned in 1989, there was a significant shortfall of uplift capacity within Australia. Since these were voluntary resignations, and by definition not a strike since literally no strike had been called, there was no longer any labor protections afforded to the union or its members as should be obvious. Thus, there was no longer any reason to retain potential positions for these pilots since they had simply quit.
Obviously, there was a shortage of seats within the country even with the Australian Air Force providing every appropriate aircraft to alleviate the emergency. For that reason, the airline companies, and the Australian government (which was run by the Labor Party at the time) arranged charter operations with a number of carriers from all over the world for domestic use. This would not have been possible without the waiver of all cabotage laws within the country which the government quickly provided.
Soon the Australian Air Force aircraft were joined by such airlines as America West, Monarch, Air 2000 as well as others. Even Qantas aircraft and pilots, who were legally barred from such domestic service, (and interestingly enough were also represented by AFAP), began hauling domestic passengers on routes within the country (whimsically referred to as "hardship charters" by Qantas pilots). Even with these aircraft operating, the country was still woefully short of their former capacity.
It was decided that the international carriers, that were only allowed to haul international passengers within the country, would now be allowed to carry domestic passengers as well.
This was where United Air Lines entered the picture. UAL operated a domestic segment within Australia between Sydney and Melbourne then back to Sydney before returning to Los Angeles on their 747-400's. Though the majority of pilots at UAL were quick to deride the America West charter pilots, the harassment quickly ceased when the actions of their own pilots was publicized within the United States.
It's difficult to believe that the UAL-MEC was unaware of the role their pilots were playing, but apparently the members of the MEC had their own "personal financial agenda" with which they were extremely concerned at the time.
As soon as the news regarding the UAL pilots hauling domestic passengers began to "leak out", the controversy swiftly became a "non-issue". Indeed, with a little research done at the UAL Melbourne station level, and a few letters to Australia's equivalent of the FAA it quickly became apparent that these UAL segments were hauling even more passengers than the two America West aircraft operating at their maximum levels of utilization.
Eventually, the domestic authorization for international carriers such as UAL was removed as the domestic cockpits were filled by retired Ansett and Australian, as well as Eastern and Braniff pilots hired from overseas. Within six months, all of the charter aircraft and crews were released and they returned to their respective countries.
For those in the know at UAL, the role of their pilots was never publicized within or outside of the company. Even though UAL pilots had provided a major service to the airlines and government of Australia, they did considerable damage to the interests of the AFAP pilots that had submitted their resignations without ever going on strike. It was an interesting role for UAL pilots who are usually the first to browbeat pilots from other companies who aren't perceived (by UAL pilots), as conducting themselves in a pro-labor manner. It's been said, "If you pay most of the dues, you get to make the rules".
The truth is out there, but you sometimes have to dig to find it.