On The Right - Pat Buchanan's China policy; Allied Pilots ordered to pay for sick-out; debate over Columbine High School shootings - Column

National Review, May 31, 1999 by William F. Buckley Jr.

The ruling of the judge rates special attention for several reasons, one of them that the union has to pay $46 million, which is $8 million more than it has in assets. As the chief union officer defiantly commented, though one supposes his eyes were moist when he said it, the day in which money would actually be given from the union to the company was a long way off. The plans, of course, are to begin with an appeal. But if that should fail, the union might be tempted to turn to the company and say something on the order of, Do you really want $46 million from us? In that case, add $146 million to the demands we will be making at the end of the present contract.

Still, the judgment is a milestone of sorts in the history of union accountability. It is one of the largest fines ever assessed. And the sentencing judge endeavored to make it clear that he was acting only out of a sense of duty, that he had nothing against the pilots themselves.

Yes, what about the individual American Airlines pilot?

"Joe, this is Allied Pilots, L.A. branch. You're scheduled to pilot Flight 804, LAX to JFK, tomorrow at ten. Well, you can't take that flight."

"Why not?-is this Al calling?"

"No. This is Henry. Al's sick."

"Gee, I'm sorry about that. Why don't I fly tomorrow?"

"Because you're sick too."

"Me sick? I never felt better in my life!"

"You're sick and you are not flying until I tell you you are no longer sick."

So the judge is genuinely sorry for Joe, who failed to show up in time to fly to New York because he was told to call in sick. Three hundred passengers assembled at the L.A. airport were also made sick. Some of them were less sick than others. Some had to wait only an hour or so to catch the TWA flight. Some missed a connecting flight to Rome. One got to New York too late to say goodbye to her mother, who was terminally sick.

The judge had issued a restraining order after four days, and that order had the effect of making the bug positively virulent, causing a sickness that resulted in the cancellation of 6,600 flights, derailing 600,000 passengers. The arithmetic done by the judge had to do with revenues lost by American Airlines after the restraining order was handed down. Nobody attempted to measure damages done to the disrupted plans of 600,000 people.

The judge may be sad about having to hand down the judgment but, really, he shouldn't be. The disappearance of accountability is a phenomenon of an age in which fewer and fewer people are held responsible for what they do. The list of those delinquencies is topped by the father who refuses to acknowledge his child or tries to duck the expenses of rearing him. In politics accountability can be exercised on Election Day, but there is a gross incongruity in what the voters can do to the politician and what the politician can do to the voters. Sometimes the very idea of accountability is moot. The voters will not again have a chance to "punish" William Clinton even if his Kosovo war ends with American casualties, added to the Kosovar casualties.