Bush' endless war hits airline workers
By Michelle Quintus
Council 5 Representative, Association of Flight
Attendants
Driven by an "endless war" drive abroad, President George W.
Bush's war against workers in this country deepened in December
as the world's second-biggest airline, United Airlines, was
forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. The airline
continues to operate while workers' jobs and union contracts
are threatened under a restructuring plan in a Chicago
bankruptcy court.
On Dec. 4, the Bush administration via the federal Air
Transportation Stabilization Board denied a $1.8 billion loan
guarantee to UAL Inc. The ATSB had demanded billions of dollars
in givebacks from United Airlines' workers. When workers
conceded in order to get the federal funding, the ATSB denied
the loan guarantee anyway, driving UAL and its 80,000 workers
into bankruptcy court.
The Executive Committee of the Transportation Trades
Department, AFL-CIO, adopted a resolution stating that the
ATSB's federal loan guarantee program has "grossly unrealistic
demands for employee wage and other concessions." The TTD noted
that "for example, the ATSB tried to impose a seven-year wage
freeze on the employees of America West as a condition for
granting a loan guarantee."
"The entire industry is collapsing," says Barbara Sakin,
Association of Flight Attendants Local Council 5 Government
Affairs chairperson. "But the real problem is the Bush
administration and their neglect of the national economy and
the realization that the air transport industry is crucial. The
abuse of power by the ATSB and economic advisors to the
president is shameful and is going to cause the destruction of
many good airlines and destroy many good employees and their
families in the process."
There is incessant talk in the corporate media and the
bankers' boardrooms about how to "save the company" from
slipping further into a Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy. This
turns into a threat against the workers that we'd better take
even deeper wage and contractual concessions to save the
company and our jobs.
'Save the company' or hurt the workers?
But saving the company for the corporate owners, UAL Inc.,
does not save our jobs. Having already laid off over 20,000
workers, UAL has shown no interest in saving our jobs.
Instead, upper management guarantees its own interests.
For example, there have been no demands that former UAL CEO
Jim Goodwin give up his nearly million-dollar annual salary
until 2004.
When Glen Tilton accepted the position of CEO at United
Airlines this fall, he also accepted a $3.2 million signing
bonus along with a salary of over $83,000 per month.
A first-year flight attendant at United Airlines makes about
$15,000 per year. The company, the banks and the U.S.
government expect to take more concessions from these workers'
wages.
The debtor-in-possession financiers--Bank One, J.P. Morgan
Chase and Citibank--are demanding an annual labor cut of $2.4
billion as a condition for funding. They require that these
concessions be accomplished by mid-February 2003 as part of the
"United Airlines Restructuring Plan."
Sam Marcy wrote in his 1986 book "High Tech Low Pay" that
"the policy of concessions flows directly and inevitably from
the acceptance of the capital-labor relationship, from the
acceptance of exploitation as the permanent condition of the
working class. The idea corresponding to this can only be that
of class collaboration." Accepting the dogma of the
capital-labor relationship, workers believe we must accept
concessions to keep the company in business.
Who owns UAL Inc?
Not only do United workers still own 55 percent of the
company regardless of the current value of the stock, but as of
Dec. 9, UAL Inc. is no longer the legal owner of United
Airlines. The current owners are the creditors--everyone that
UAL Inc. owes money to.
That includes the workers.
The bankruptcy court trustee, Ira Bodenstein, has named a
Creditors' Committee of 13 major creditors that now have voting
rights regarding the company's operations. This includes the
three major unions: the Machinists, Flight Attendants, and Air
Line Pilots. This means over 68,000 United Airlines workers
represented on the Creditors' Committee.
Other Creditors' Committee members include: Pension Benefit
Guaranty Corporation, Bank of New York, Airbus North America
Holdings Inc., Pratt & Whitney, HSBC Bank USA, US Bank
National Association, R Squared Investment, LDC Deutsche
Lufthansa, AG Goodrich Corporation, Galileo International Inc.,
and one non-voting member, the city of Chicago.
The main difference between the worker-creditors and the
bank-creditors is this: Only we the workers create the
airline's value--present and future.
Banks and other lenders take a share of the value we workers
produce by charging interest on loans. Now, in bankruptcy
court, the banks are demanding that they get paid before and at
the expense of the workers.
We should demand that Bank One, J.P Morgan Chase, Citibank
and all the corporate thieves--not the airline workers--take
the concessions. We build the airline's value each day we work.
We do not need to give any more than we already do because
without us the airline ceases to operate.
Without the machinists, there would be no working planes to
fly. Without pilots, air traffic controllers and flight
attendants, not a single plane could take off or land. Without
reservationists and customer service representatives, there
would be no way for customers to get tickets.
And without passengers, there would be no need to operate.
The service of air transportation should exist to serve
people's needs, not to exploit labor power to create
mega-profits for banks and corporate owners.
Yet according to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures, the
capitalist courts are "not interested in justice"--that is,
saving workers' jobs, wages, conditions and contracts, or
serving people's needs. Their main interest is in protecting
the profit of the corporate owners, UAL Inc., the banks and
Wall Street.
A legal consultant to the Association of Flight Attendants
advised that "bankruptcy court does not exist to exact justice.
The bankruptcy court only cares about returning the company to
profitability." Primarily on the backs of the workers.
But our union contracts are just as legal as any contract
the company has with banks and other lenders. Why are our
contracts the only ones up for re-negotiation in the courts?
UAL Inc is now petitioning the court to scrap all the
contracts.
Public support is vital
We know from the legal cases of political prisoners from
Nelson Mandela to the Chicago 8 that the most decisive verdicts
are delivered by the people in the streets--or in this case, in
the air and in the airports. Capitalist courts may not be about
justice but courts of public opinion are.
The case of United Airlines is in the newspapers daily. The
traveling public supports the workers and that support is
essential now if there is to be any kind of justice.
In the midst of this protracted capitalist economic crisis,
it is clear that we at United are not isolated or alone in our
struggle. Our own safety, health and living wages do not need
to be compromised in order to provide safe transportation for
everyone. The unity of all transportation workers is needed to
replace a system that puts profits before the needs of the
workers and all people.
To contact us, email airlineworkersunite@yahoo.com
Reprinted from the Dec. 26, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe to WW by Email: wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Donate to
support pro-labor, anti-war news.
Email
this article
Printable
page