As Pay Falls, Airlines Struggle to Fill Jobs

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

May 16, 2007

As Pay Falls, Airlines Struggle to Fill Jobs
Tighter Staffing Makes Morale 'Severely Tested'; Why Your Flight Is Late
By MELANIE TROTTMAN and SUSAN CAREY
May 16, 2007; Page A1

Wrestling suitcases on and off planes got so grueling late last year for Southwest Airlines Co.'s 350 ramp workers in Chicago that by Christmas season one-fourth of them were reporting on-the-job injuries. Starting pay for the position: $8.75 an hour.

Airlines used to offer prestigious jobs with good wages and coveted flight benefits. Now, in the aftermath of aggressive cutbacks, a growing number of airline jobs are more akin to those at a fast-food restaurant. The pay is low, the work is tough and, in a new twist, airlines are having trouble hanging onto workers and finding new ones.

(snip)

That's not good news for passengers, as the combination of fewer and less experienced workers is causing more service problems. Planes sit on tarmacs because airlines are short on gate workers. Service on planes is slower because many airlines are flying with fewer flight attendants. When bad weather hits, tight staffing may mean more delays or canceled flights. The situation isn't likely to improve anytime soon. Although airlines were able to raise fares the last two years as travel surged, customers have begun to resist fare increases, domestic demand is softening, and jet-fuel prices have started rising again. These are the same pressures that contributed to more than $50 billion in net losses from 2001 through 2005.

The U.S. airline industry is profitable today in part because big network carriers shed more than 170,000 workers, or 38% of the total, between August 2001 and October 2006, according to the Air Transport Association. That happened even as the number of passengers flying has returned to pre-9/11 levels. Pay has fallen, sometimes substantially.

(snip)


Advances in technology account for some of the declining need for workers. Many passengers book their tickets on the Internet and check in via self-service kiosks. Also, airlines need fewer gate agents because passengers are now generally required to check in at the main terminal before undergoing security screening. Nonetheless, by many measures, service is growing worse. Last year, 22.6% of flights were late, the highest percentage since 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. That isn't all the fault of airlines; the outdated U.S. air-traffic-control system also plays a role. In March of this year, passenger complaints about U.S. airlines nearly doubled from the same month a year earlier, with big increases in gripes about cancellations, delays, and missed connections. That same month, the rate of mishandled baggage rose nearly 33% from a year earlier at the largest 20 carriers, says the department.

(snip)

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117928013787304325.html (subscription)

[Vexatious Ape]

1. I know this will be unpopular with a lot of folks out there:

But flying has gotten way too cheap. It always amazes me how inexpensive it is to fly. I'm not made out of money, I'm a working class schmuck, but the competition to bring the fares down has hurt a lot of working people--and it has made flying a lot less pleasant.

[question everything]

3. I have never understood the dichotomy of workers here

want decent paying jobs yet are willing to shop at Wal Mart and other discount places - that undermine their own jobs.

In 1979, during the height (then) of the gas shortage I was shopping for a new car and decided to buy American. I bought a Ford Mustang hatchback that later, in cold climate just gave me problems

A co-worker, whose spouse was a mechanic at Ford, laughed and said that she bought a Toyota and I really felt like a sucker.

That was the last American-made car in our household. Since 1982 we have had two Volvos and two Camrys. I doubt that any American-made car would have lasted us longer than five years.

Of course, the days when Henry Ford said that he wanted to provide his employees with decent wages so that they could purchase the cars they were making are long gone.

According to Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickeled and Dimed" even Wal Mart workers cannot afford to shop there.

[Sherman A1]

2. More of the Wal Martization of the Nation

Another business self inflicted wound by the boys in the Ivory Tower. And just how much did the CEO make last year????