ATI’s pilots are taking a much less antagonistic tone in hopes of bringing Amazon to the negotiating desk. “What we don’t want to do is affect our customers,” says Sterling. “We’ve done a lot to protect our obsession with Amazon.” However, he says the intransigence of ATSG’s administration has left the pilots with no selection however to name a strike.

“This side of Amazon’s network is the most vulnerable to labor strikes,” says Marc Wulfraat, president of logistics consultancy MWPVL. If drivers or warehouse staff strike, the corporate can shift the stream of merchandise and packages to one in all its many close by warehouses, however airports are fewer in quantity and farther aside.

Amazon might compensate for a walkout at ATI by shifting quantity to different air carriers below the Amazon Air umbrella, however provided that they’ve the capability to deal with the inflow at the entire airports. It might additionally transport a few of its packages by truck as a substitute, which it did through the temporary 2016 strike. However, this might lead to slower delivery instances and diminished service, says Wulfraat, which flies within the face of Amazon’s mantra of buyer obsession.

Pilots even have the benefit of being typically in a powerful place throughout the airline trade. “It’s still a very, very hot job market” for pilots, says Geoff Murray, a associate who works on aerospace at administration consultancy Oliver Wyman. Plummeting demand for passenger pilots through the pandemic despatched many into early retirement, worsening an present pilot scarcity that acquired extra acute because the trade bounced again. Wages have soared. Oliver Wyman estimates that captains’ pay on the US mainline carriers, corresponding to Delta and UPS, has elevated 46 p.c since 2020, whereas regional carriers have elevated pay by 86 p.c.

Pilot Drew Patterson got here to ATI in 2021, attracted by the work-life stability the airline supplied, however because the provider misplaced pilots, he has seen his workload creep up and his schedule develop into extra unpredictable. With fewer crews to function the identical variety of flights, “everybody else’s schedule gets compressed,” he says. “Sometimes you can be away from home for a long time.”

Long-term, he thinks Amazon’s continued progress needs to be an excellent factor for ATI and its staff, so he’s been keen to stay it out. But he’s not so certain all of his colleagues will really feel the identical about present circumstances on the firm.

“All of this has a real house-of-cards feeling to it,” says Sterling. “We just can’t sustain what we’re doing.”