Activism climbing at airline unions

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Chicago Tribune

By Julie Johnsson | Tribune staff reporter

United Airlines pilots have put a new face on labor unrest—it's a giant inflatable rat holding bags of money, the pilots' latest universal description of upper management.

United's unionized pilots last month used the rodent to greet passengers at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as they were checking in, the latest in a series of stepped up public attacks on company management as union leaders face key elections Oct. 9.

After six years of relative calm, union activism is escalating across the airline industry. And it's not just management on the hot seat. Rank-and-file employees, seething over losing one-third or more of their pay and management's perceived greed, are striking back at the easiest targets too: the union leaders who agreed to those concessions.

As emotions rise among workers, so does the pressure on union leaders to take a harder line with management, or be replaced by someone who will.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sun_laborsep16,0,3644867.story

[ooga booga]

1. As someone who worked at American Airlines for 22 years.....

I still have friends there, and I hear two things.

(1) The airline is different post-9/11. The employees are significantly less happy to work there. They've given up salary (I hear the pilots got hit with like a 40% cut), vacation (I believe everyone gave back a week of annual vacation.), etc. "It's just a job now."

(2) In 2008, look for the pilots to go after management when their contract expires. (However, it's not unusual for them to go a year or two without a contract while they're negotiating a new one.) Pilot contract negotiations are ALWAYS long and contentious. Perhaps even more so this time around.

[spartan61]

2. The American Flight Attendants gave up an even larger percentage

than the pilots and they, too, will be going after management as well. How can upper management give themselves huge bonuses while all the other work groups took such a hit trying to help keep AA out of bankruptcy. The slogan "Work Together, Win Together" is such a farce. I hope all the groups can get back all they gave up and then some.

[ooga booga]

4. The management logic is this.....

In order to attract and retain the blue-blooded, top-shelf execs and MBAs from Harvard and Wharton and Stanford, they have to offer competitive compensation like they would get at GE or Proctor & Gamble. Groups like pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics are tethered to the airline, but executives can take their skills elsewhere.

Personally, I think AA could muddle along with execs who are willing to share in the sacrifices that they seem to expect from everyone else. As for the MBAs, I think they should recruit more from SMU, TCU, UNT, UD, UTA, Baylor and so on in the local market.

Needless to say, the AA unions see things more from my perspective.

[Dr.Phool]

3. The good ole Railway Labor Act.

I was a negotiator for my railroad local. With a Bush in the white house, they can expect a long, long time in mediation.