The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.59/No.23           June 12, 1995 
 
 
USAir Workers Angered By Concession Demands  

BY EDWIN FRUIT
PITTSBURGH - USAir reached a tentative agreement recently with officials of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) as part of its program to slash labor costs by $2.5 billion over five years. Similar agreements have been reached with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA). Many workers are angered by the concession demands. USAir, which has been losing money for several years, claims it needs to cut wages and benefits to return it to profitability. "The clock is clearly ticking," Kevin Murphy, an airline stock analyst, warned March 27.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer March 28, "PNC Bank of Pittsburgh, the manager of USAir's cash reserves, recently gave the airline 30 days to put $65 million in escrow to cover possible bank losses in the event of a bankruptcy filing." In communications to employees USAir management insists that the company is not on the verge of bankruptcy. Passenger revenues for March were the highest in the history of the company.

Some pilots are urging a rejection of the tentative agreement proposed by ALPA, which includes a 21.6 percent pay cut, layoffs, reductions in vacation, elimination of night pay and crew meals, and other givebacks. In a letter to the USAir ALPA magazine, USAirwaves, a pilot wrote, "My whole cumulative 17-year airline career with Eastern and now USAir has been a series of backward steps as my union has responded to Management's efforts to have me work for less . . . NO MORE. I am not a bank. I want to progress and if you want to represent me, it is your job to help the pilot profession and me, the line pilot, to progress, NOT continually regress."

The IAM-proposed agreements cover mechanics, cleaners, and stock clerks whose current contract expires in September 1995. They also apply to the fleet service workers - baggage handlers and caterers - who are negotiating their first contract, having just recently won a collective bargaining election. The proposed pact for the 8,000 mechanics, cleaners, and stock clerks, calls for a 12.9 percent wage reduction, elimination of the paid half-hour lunch, increasing the nonunion workforce at smaller stations, and layoffs.

At the Pittsburgh International Airport there is a lot of discussion on the proposals. Many mechanics, who are at the top end of the pay scale, are reluctantly voicing acceptance of the tentative agreement. "I'll give this time," one said. "But they better not come back for more later." Another mechanic said, "I thought the proposals would be worse. But what can we do. If we don't take the concessions the company will go to bankruptcy court and impose even worse conditions."

Other mechanics, however, passed out a flyer showing that losing the half-hour paid lunch, over a year's time, amounted to a pay cut of 20.2 percent rather than the 12.9 percent announced.

`Been down this road before'
Eddie Croft, a cleaner and former Eastern Airlines striker, said, "I've been down this road before. Once you give concessions, they come back for more. It's not as bad as I thought but giving anything is a bad precedent."

Financial analysts seem to agree. In the March 28 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Claire Kendrick, a bond analyst, is quoted as saying, "the problem here is . . . unions throw soft dollar concessions, otherwise known in the industry as fluff. All told, we think, we're only likely to end up with $300 million in hard dollars and the rest in fluff, the problem being that this time next year they'll be back asking for concessions."

Cleaners at USAir hired after the October 1992 contract are on a C-scale. They start at $3.40 less than those preceding them and don't reach parity for five years. Many are making 50 percent of the wages that others are getting - doing the same job. Lower-tier workers are also being asked to take the same pay cuts as higher-paid workers. "It's an injustice," Don Logan, a cleaner with two years at USAir said. "The company and the union don't care about the younger workers. It's taken two years to get a $1.25 raise and now they're taking it away."

"I've been with the company for five years and now I'll be making less than $8 an hour," Susan Wright, who transferred from customer service to a cleaner position, said. "I could just as well be working at McDonald's."

First union contract
Many fleet service workers are not pleased with the proposals for their first contract, either. In the past four years, USAir arbitrarily imposed a whole series of concessions on this group, reducing benefits, doing away with accumulated sick pay and holiday pay, and forcing many full-time workers into part-time status. In smaller stations up to 70 percent of the workforce is part-time. In the bigger hubs close to 40 percent are working part-time. These workers have to swap shifts frequently in order to make up enough hours to get the equivalent of full-time pay.

Union representatives promised new members a contract in which they would begin to move forward and start to reach equity with the other IAM members. In the opinion of many the proposed agreement falls far short. Fleet service workers are being asked to take a 10 percent cut in pay; part-time work will continue be as high as 40 percent system- wide. Swaps will now be limited to 80 a year. "The union promised it would turn our situation around. With what's being offered, part-timers with up to 10 years with the company will never see full-time jobs," Lou Knoll, a shop steward, said.

In Philadelphia, there are signs up in the break rooms of baggage handlers saying, "Call the IAM Hotline. Tell them you're pissed off. Leave a message." In Pittsburgh another baggage handler expressed his opinion sharply: "The company has been knifing us in the back for the past four years. I consider this an `apartheid' contract because we're still second class citizens compared to the mechanics."

"There are things I don't like about the proposed contract for fleet service. But we owe it to the IAM to give them a chance to put the whole thing in writing," said Ron Kutzavitch, a baggage handler with nine years at USAir who has been forced into part-time work. "We need to read it, discuss it, and have a chance to ask questions before we vote."

The unions are not likely to vote on these proposals before the summer. It will take the agreement of the memberships of the three unions and the pilots assosiation at USAir - ALPA, IAM, AFA, and the Transport Workers Union, which organizes the dispatchers, before any contracts are put into effect. In addition, USAir stockholders, including British Air, which has a 24 percent stake, must approve the agreements along with approving profit sharing, union seats on the board of directors, and the unions getting 20 percent of the company's equity.

Unionized workers represent some 28,000 employees at USAir. Our ability to resist a further deterioration of our standard of living will depend on how much we can bust through the company's strategy to divide us and present other airline workers who might be slightly better off as the culprits. Although resistance to USAir's demands is modest at this point, some actions and the wide-ranging discussion show that workers are capable of waging this fight.

Edwin Fruit is a member IAM Local Lodge 1976 at USAir in Pittsburgh. Deborah Liatos, a member of IAM Local 1776 at USAir in Philadelphia, contributed to the article.

 
 
 
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