The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.46           December 29, 1997 
 
 
Walkout By Machinists Halts TWA Flights In St. Louis For Two Hours  

BY FRANK FORRESTAL AND NANCY ROSENSTOCK
ST. LOUIS - Hundreds of TWA baggage handlers and mechanics shut down the airline here December 9. The two-hour work stoppage by members of International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local 949 caused 100 flight cancellations. At 9 p.m., two hours after the walkout ended, the majority of flights on TWA monitors at the airport still read "canceled."

Union members have been working under the old contract that expired last August. The company is demanding that more maintenance work be subcontracted out. TWA workers have given major concessions to the company over the past decade totaling some $4 billion. These include no pay raise in six years, a frozen pension, reduced vacation time, and cuts in crew sizes. This year alone TWA has eliminated 500 jobs. According to the IAM, TWA plans to slash the workforce by 3,000.

"It's about time we get what we deserve. We gave enough," said one IAM member who participated in the job action but did not want his name in print. "We don't have a decent standard of living and we need to stand up for our rights." In discussions with workers a few days after the stoppage, many were still high spirited from the walkout.

Lambert Airport is TWA's primary hub, with an estimated 75 percent of the airline's flights passing through St. Louis. The IAM represents 20,000 of TWA's 25,000-strong workforce, including 5,400 flight attendants who voted earlier this year to disaffiliate from the Independent Federation of Flight Attendants and join the Machinists. Some 2,300 members of IAM Local 949 work at the hub.

In response to the walkout, TWA spokesman Donn Walker declared, "We believe that this is nothing more than a posturing ploy on the union's part. We hope, and we believe, that this will be an isolated incident."

The walkout crippled TWA and to make matters worse for the airline, it came after a heap of cancellations due to bad weather. "Weather had already forced us to cancel 130 flights and then this happened," Walker moaned. "All our mechanics and baggage handlers just walked off the job, forcing us to cancel another 100 flights."

Throughout the year the union has been at odds with the company. IAM officials have encouraged union members to oppose the proposals contained in the contract offer. At one point earlier in the year the union called for the resignation of Gerald Gitner, TWA's chief executive officer, accusing him of dismantling the company.

Another job action, involving IAM mechanics, took place on December 6 and disrupted TWA operations for 45 minutes. This action was in response to a decision by TWA, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "to stop paying workers overtime for staying on the job during their half-hour lunch period."

The December 9 walkout began hours after a meeting bogged down between TWA management and the IAM negotiating team. At the meeting, TWA outlined company plans to lay off more machinists from maintenance operations.

The following day, TWA, the IAM, and a federal mediator met to get contract talks going again. The airline's pilots are also negotiating a new contract.

The walkout had a major impact in the city, as TWA is one of the largest employers here. It was one of the main items on the TV networks and front page news. The lead story in the December 10 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a banner headline: "Walkout Cripples TWA Flights."

The stoppage sent the company reeling at one of its busiest times. Many flights, for example, were forced to make U-turns in the sky. "TWA is mending fences with customers" was the front-page headline the following day. "This company, this year, has made remarkable progress in its customer service, and its product. That's what makes this so disturbing," Walker added.

The company had put financial resources into a major ad campaign, in which TWA corporate customers touted the airline's on-time record and special incentives for corporate executives.

Word of the work stoppage spread rapidly. In New York area airports, including Kennedy's JFK, which is TWA's other major hub, the walkout was a big topic of discussion. Most workers were positive and supportive of the action taken in St. Louis.

The New York area airports have been hard hit by company layoffs. In fact, some of the workers who participated in the work stoppage were originally from New York. They took jobs in St. Louis after their positions were axed.

New York's JFK International Airport is a bone of contention between the union and company. TWA has stated that it wants to downsize the company to be a single-hub airline centered in St. Louis by closing the maintenance bases in New York and Los Angeles. If this were implemented, thousands of jobs would be eliminated.

Frank Forrestal is a member of the United Transportation Union in Chicago. Nancy Rosenstock is a member of the IAM and works at TWA in New York. Jim Garrison, a member of the United Auto Workers in St. Louis, contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home