BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
Some 10,000 passenger-service workers at US Airways voted to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the National Mediation Board announced September 29. Union officials called the vote the largest union organizing victory in ten years.

"People are finally waking up to the fact that they need protection and that means a union," declared Josie Esposito, a reservations agent in San Diego. "The company's stock has been going up .. and our wages haven't gone anywhere."

The company had imposed a wage freeze on the workers, while cutting their pensions and sick days over the past four years.

The CWA, which lost the election last year by some 280 votes, will organize gate, reservations and ticket agents. The board ordered a new election citing company misconduct during the election process.

US Airways officials have challenged the ruling in court and said they would appeal the board's decision to overturn the previous election.

A CWA spokesman said the union would use this victory to launch an organizing campaign for the 14,000 passenger- service workers at United Airlines.

There about 60,000 of these workers in the airline industry who are not unionized. The only ticket, reservation, and gate agents who belong to unions work at Northwest Airlines and Trans World Airlines.

Just as the CWA won its victory, US Airways is demanding lower "labor costs" from members of the Air Line Pilots Association.

Stephen Wolf, the company's chief executive, threatened to cancel a deal to buy some 400 jets from Airbus and reduce the airline to a smaller, regional carrier if the pilots don't cave in to US Airways' demands.

Jon Bryan, chairman of the union's management executive council, said the union had offered $70 million worth of concessions, including cuts in vacations and sick leave, as well as accepting a 33 percent pay cut for pilots who would fly the company's new low-cost airline called US2.

Union officials reached an agreement over the weekend of September 27 - 28 with the company to pay US Airways pilots about 1 percent more than pilots flying for the company's main rivals. The deal also allows US Airways to contract with other airlines to fly its passengers.

However, the union is still fighting for some 140 pilots' jobs, who were or would be laid off due to the downsizing agreement.  
 
 
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