Posted on: Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Flight attendants to vote on nationwide strike
By Allison Schlesinger
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — The board of the nation's largest flight attendants union authorized a national strike yesterday after its president accused the airline industry of using the bankruptcy process to cut workers' pay and eliminate other benefits.
Airlines such as UAL Corp.'s United and US Airways Group Inc. are using the bankruptcy process to cancel union contracts and impose deep pay cuts that are threatening flight attendants' careers, said Patricia Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants.
She also noted that the bankruptcy process is being used to terminate pension plans and eliminate health coverage for retirees.
"Our entire industry is in turmoil, and the careers of our flight attendants all hang in the balance," Friend said yesterday in Pittsburgh. "Almost everywhere we look, flight attendants are being forced to work longer hours with reduced rest time, and all for ever-decreasing wages. This must stop."
The union, which represents 46,000 members employed by 26 airlines, said it will immediately start the process of taking strike votes at four airlines — United, US Airways, ATA Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines — and will tally the votes by the end of December.
Josh Gotbaum, Hawaiian Airlines' bankruptcy trustee, noted that the situation at Hawaiian is "very different" than at its Mainland counterparts.
"Hawaiian Airlines is doing better than the Mainland carriers in large part due to Hawaiian's employees. That means Hawaiian's employees ought to get better contracts than the others," Gotbaum said.
The airline is not talking about terminating pension plans or cutting wages, he added.
Local AFA representatives could not be reached for comment.
US Airways on Friday asked a bankruptcy judge to cancel the collective-bargaining agreement for flight attendants and several other unions. The airline then wants to impose a 15 percent pay cut on the flight attendants, with no pay raise until 2008, and eliminate their pension plan.
The judge has scheduled a hearing on the motion for the beginning of December and has 30 days to make a decision.
If the judge cancels the collective-bargaining agreement, then US Airways attendants will be on strike and "will be supported by their sister and brother flight attendants within the AFA," Friend said.
It was unclear yesterday how many flight attendants — and from what airlines — would strike if US Airways attendants were to strike.
"Abrogating a contract at one carrier would put enormous pressure on other airlines in Chapter 11 to do the same," said union spokesman David Kameras.
The union would probably respond with "our trademark chaos strike tactic, which involves intermittent strikes without notice as to flight, time, day, airport," Kameras added.
US Airways spokesman David A. Castelveter said the airline continues to negotiate.
"We understand the union's frustration with what has happened to the legacy airlines and the impact it has had on flight attendant careers," Castelveter said. "A strike, however, by law is not permitted under these circumstances. It would ground this airline and send approximately 5,400 flight attendants to the unemployment lines."
US Airways says it needs pay cuts to avoid liquidation and transform itself into a low-fare carrier like JetBlue Airways Corp. and America West Holdings Corp.
The judge presiding over US Airways' bankruptcy already has imposed temporary pay cuts of 21 percent on the flight attendants and some other union workers, comparing the airline's situation to "a ticking fiscal time bomb."
United is seeking another round of pay and benefit cuts from its union workers, including $140 million in annual concessions from the flight attendants on top of $314 million it has already secured, the union said.
At Delta Air Lines Inc., which is in danger of bankruptcy, flight attendants are not unionized.
