FLIGHT ATTENDANTS
'UNITED WE STAND'
By Michelle
Quintus
United flight attendant
Association of Flight Attendants, Council 5
On March 17, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) at
United Airlines demonstrated at airports around the world to
protest an illegal change to our contract.
UAL, the largest airline company in the world, is trying to
buy US Airways. This would be the biggest airline merger of all
time. Right now, UAL is trying to get approval from the
Department of Justice to create this airline monopoly.
But before these two can merge they must get the approval of
the flight attendants at both United and US Airways to either
merge our contracts or get a waiver from the United flight
attendants. But United is trying to disregard our rights and
make a unilateral change to our contract--which means they're
trying to break their contract with the flight attendants.
United is also trying to tie this merger/acquisition to the
separate issue of wage increases which we began fighting for
last November. Because of these conditions, the United AFA
union leadership voted unanimously to send out strike ballots
to the entire union membership. The ballots were sent out March
15, and the count will be held in Washington DC on April 2.
Our union president, Linda Farrow, said that if United
proceeds with the merger without reaching an agreement with the
flight attendants, we will strike as soon as the Department of
Justice decides on the acquisition. The date by which the
Department of Justice makes its decision has been extended to
April 23.
AFA represents 26,000 United Airlines flight attendants and
10,000 US Airways flight attendants. So merged we would be
36,000-workers strong. The composition of our union is
primarily women and gay men. Although the membership has been
predominantly white workers, there has been an increase of
workers of color as United expands its international market--as
their slogan states, "to become the world-wide airline of
choice."
'We are workers!'
There is the stereotype that being a flight attendant is a
glamorous job. We get to "see the world." There is also the
sexist stereotype that flight attendants are single,
promiscuous, and complacent pretty women.
But the reality is we're workers.
We're on our feet for 8-10 hours a day pushing heavy carts
and lifting heavy objects. We are prone to repetitive stress
injuries because of in-flight service and physical illness
because of being in enclosed space with recycled air exposed to
passengers' germs and waste products.
On top of this, due to sexist stereotyping, sexist behavior
and blatant sexual harassment is just part of our job.
How much are we paid for this? Some newly hired flight
attendants make poverty level wages--as little as $15,156 per
year. The company says the starting wage is $19 an hour, but
that is only time spent in the air. Time on the ground is only
paid with a per diem of under $2 an hour.
For example, one day I worked over 14 hours--four different
flights across the country. But due to time on the ground and
delays, I was only paid for 7 1/2 hours.
When flight attendants are first hired, we must go wherever
the company sends us and they do not guarantee or even help us
find housing in this new city. Many flight attendants are
forced to live 5-10 crewmembers to an apartment.
On top of this, most of our bases are in expensive cities
like New York, Tokyo or San Francisco. So many of us cannot
afford to live in cities where we're based and end up commuting
thousands of miles to get to work.
Many of us are forced to work second and third jobs just to
survive
Many flight attendants are mothers in need of childcare. But
unlike most other workers who can think about going home at the
end of the day, airline companies can send flight attendants to
other cities whenever their needs dictate, so mothers are not
even in the same city to arrange further childcare.
Even the so-called benefit of flying for free is really
contingent on whether space is available on the airplane.
Workers and their families can use any unsold seats 20 minutes
prior to departure of a flight, but it costs the company
absolutely nothing. Many airlines still charge the worker some
fee, anyway.
As a lesbian, we only recently won the right to our domestic
partners having the same benefits as partners of straight
workers, and this was after years of struggle. But the company
still does not provide this "benefit" for transpeople or our
partners who are trans.
United we stand!
Just like other workers we experience racism, sexism and
lesbian, gay, bi and trans oppression on our job. One can only
imagine what our national union president Linda Farrow, an
African American woman, has to deal with when she goes head to
head with James Goodwin, United's CEO.
The company tries to divide the workers. All of the various
airline unions stand in solidarity with each other against
United. But the company is using the Pilots union against other
work groups.
Last summer they settled an industry-leading contract with
the Pilots union, ALPA. Its members are predominantly straight
white men who used to be in the Air Force and Air National
Guard.
At the same time, the mechanics union--the IAM--which is
primarily working-class white men and men of color, are still
negotiating for their pay raise. Further, the company is taking
them to court because they blame last summer's loss of profits
on union work slowdowns and actions.
Recently, we received a letter from the company claiming
that due to no profits last summer, they are demanding cutbacks
from all work groups except the pilots. For instance, flight
attendants have been told we will no longer receive new
uniforms, but the pilots will be getting theirs as well as
their pay raise. United still won't give raises to flight
attendants or mechanics.
Some of the most exploited United workers are the cabin
service people who clean the airplanes--primarily women of
color. They are currently a part of the IAM. But the company
says it will not enter into any kind of negotiations with them
until it has settled with the mechanics of the union.
Importance of job protection
Since November, United flight attendants have been fighting
for a pay raise. The company says it will give no more than 4
percent, without any job protection.
But as Sam Marcy pointed out in his book "High Tech Low
Pay," when these mega-mergers happen workers can expect massive
layoffs. Without specific job protection language in our
contract, United's merger with US Airways could mean possible
furloughs, which means layoffs.
I've been working at United for six years. During that time
United has expanded, hiring 1,000 new flight attendants per
year.
The company keeps telling the flight attendants, "look how
we're expanding. ... we will have new routes, and will need
flight attendants to fly these routes."
But they won't write these guarantees into our contract. In
essence, they want us to trust that what's good for the company
is good for the workers. But in reality, historically, when
United bought out Pam Am in the mid 1980s many workers were
laid off and they still don't fly many of the old Pam Am routes
that United deemed unprofitable.
This is a powerful moment for AFA flight attendants because
we have the power to say that United cannot operate a merged
airline until it reaches an agreement on a merged contract with
all the AFA flight attendants--which includes both United and
USAirways flight attendants.
This dispute differs from the other strike threats in the
airline industry because it is the only current dispute in the
airline industry that is not subject to regulation by the
National Mediation Board, a 30-day "cooling off" period or
intervention of a Presidential Emergency Board.
Since the parties are not in traditional negotiations, the
traditional rules do not apply.
The United flight attendant contract contains job security
provisions called "Scope" language that require that any flying
conducted by United or any of its subsidiaries must be worked
by flight attendants on the United flight attendant seniority
list covered under the seniority agreements of our
contract.
United violated that provision when it purchased and
separately operated Air Wisconsin in 1991. An arbitrator ruled
to uphold the flight attendants' "Scope" provision in that
case.
Now United may be just weeks away from purchasing US Airways
and the US Airways Express carriers and doing the exact same
thing again. This will be a "major dispute" under the Railway
Labor Act. United flight attendants will then be free to start
CHAOS strike actions.
CHAOS means Create Havoc Around Our System(TM), and is the
AFA's trademarked strategy of public information and targeted
work actions using random, unannounced strikes. Capitalism
creates the real chaos that workers live under every single
day, so we as workers at United have the right to fight back
against this mega-merger.
New York's Council 5 President, Greg Davidovich said, "We
are resolute--we will fight by standing together and
demonstrating our solidarity to protect our jobs and secure the
raises we deserve."
We ask for your on-going support as we continue picketing
around the world. And also call James Goodwin, United's CEO, at
(847) 700-5670 to let him know what you think of the company's
actions.
Help us create chaos for the largest airline in the
world.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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