Airline workers take fight to White House
By a Flight Attendant activist
at United Airlines
As part of the ongoing battle to preserve contracts,
pensions, affordable health care and livable wages for airline
workers, United and US Airways flight attendants in AFA-CWA and
supporters held a rally just steps away from the White House on
Dec. 14.
Hundreds of union activists and members, including several
members of the Maritime Workers, Marine Trade and Seafarers
unions, were present in solidarity with the flight attendants.
They see an attack on the flight attendants' union jobs and
benefits as an attack on union workers everywhere.
A large contingent of flight attendants from the unions at
American (APFA) and Southwest (TWU) airlines were there
also.
Local and national media broadcast remarks by several
speakers. CWA Exe cutive Vice President Larry Cohen criticized
the failure of the Bush administration and Congress to "enact
sound aviation policy while providing tactical approval of
management's attack on our contracts." Other speakers included
AFL-CIO Presi dent John Sweeney, American Airlines APFA
President Tommi Hutto-Blake and Machinists General Vice
President Robert Roach Jr.
They all joined Executive Board Chair person President Greg
Davidowitch of United Airlines AFA-CWA and the union's
international president, Pat Friend, in calling on this
administration to "get to work" to save our pensions, "get to
work" on affordable healthcare, "get to work" on providing a
living wage, and "get to work" reducing CEO
overcompensation.
'Sit-in' at JFK
Recently, a group of AFA-CWA flight attendants staged a
"sit-in" at United Airlines (UAL) at JFK airport. These workers
demanded to speak with the UAL manager to voice their concerns
about harassment from supervisors for legal use of earned sick
leave. Supervisors whose defined roles in the past were to
uphold the contract have instead been on a warpath to fill
flight attendant work histories with disciplinary actions
containing the threat of job termination.
The local manager "promised" to look into the harassment and
the violations of the collective bargaining agreement, saying
that changes would be made if needed. It was only then that the
flight attendants left the office.
This long-overdue job action was unprecedented. Since UAL
entered bankruptcy in December 2002, its management has been
working closely with the judge, with JPMorgan Chase and with
Citigroup to wipe out years of wages and benefits won by the
labor and sacrifices of UAL flight attendants and retirees.
Much like the rally and march in Washington, the "sit-in" at
United Airlines was the first step of many to come. Thousands
of workers whose daily sacrifice and commitment keep the
airlines running are uniting to stop unfair treatment.
Meanwhile management draws obscene, bloated salaries, bonuses
and stock options.
At the conclusion of the rally the demonstrators all marched
in front of the White House and for several blocks on the way
to Freedom Plaza, shouting "CHAOS! CHAOS!" The acronym stands
for Create Havoc Around Our System. A discussion is floating
around among the members over whether to call a one-day strike,
a shorter one, or delay a scheduled flight of UAL, which would
disrupt the airline's interconnected operations for that day.
The flight attendants have successfully applied CHAOS in the
past.
At the protest, the chants included "Enough is enough" and
"We are the union, the mighty, mighty union." Cars honked to
support the workers' cause. Washington police were forced to
hold up traffic during rush hour as the hundreds of marchers
crossed several intersections to the Plaza.
The rally at Freedom Plaza concluded with a commitment to
come back to Wash ington again and again with hundreds and
thousands from the labor community to get the issues heard.
This fight won't be won in the bankruptcy courts, who collude
with the banks and management to destroy the results of decades
of hard work and sacrifices of union workers.
Airline workers must now take a stand to demand a stop to
the Walmartization of airline careers, just as loud and boldly
as the greedy bosses demand cuts. It is time to take the
message to the streets, in a show of force and solidarity. The
Dec. 15 protest in front of the White House proved there is
strength in numbers.
Reprinted from the Dec. 30, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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