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    Vol.62/No.29           August 10, 1998 
 
 
19,000 United Airlines Workers Join Union  

BY LARRY LANE
SAN FRANCISCO - A majority of nearly 18,000 passenger service workers at United Airlines voted to join the International Association of Machinists (IAM), the National Mediation Board announced July 17. Another 1,000 recently hired workers will also join the union.

The vote followed a yearlong campaign by the IAM. Those joining the union include gate agents and reservations workers.

Big-business newspapers noted with concern that it was the biggest unionization victory in U.S. airline history. Interviews with airline workers here and in other cities indicate that the union vote was a revolt against third- class wages and benefits paid to newly hired workers who joined the workforce after the 1994 Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) went into effect.

The ESOP agreement was a series of wage and work rule concessions made by the pilots union and the IAM in exchange for the employees owning slightly more than half of the airline stock. United Airlines bosses brag that the airline is the country's largest "employee-owned corporation."

The 1994 agreement created a third tier of wage levels - known as C-scale - affecting 40 percent of the workers at United. Under the plan, new hires in passenger service start at $6.50 an hour and top out at $8.60 an hour, without ever being able to reach the $18 an hour earned by workers in the highest tier, or A-scale. They also receive fewer vacation and sick days, no medical or dental coverage, and almost no pension benefits.

Meanwhile, United bosses raked in big profits. The company announced July 22 that its net profits were $282 million for the second quarter, up by 16.5 percent.

A ramp worker at Los Angeles International Airport who used to work in customer service but transferred to the ramp because it was unionized, with better pay and benefits, put it this way: "The workers who fought for the union did it in response to the company's greediness in not paying people what they are worth. I think the worst thing is the fact that workers couldn't move up in wages, no matter how hard they worked and regardless of how skilled they are. A person making $7.75 an hour could be sitting next to someone who is making $17 an hour doing the same job, knowing all along they will never have the opportunity to really improve their situation."

This victorious campaign to organize passenger service workers was one of many in the last 20 years. Unsuccessful attempts were made by the Teamsters Union and the IAM, the previous one in 1991.

Pete Racatan, a worker at the Los Angeles International Airport with 32 years at United, the last 12 in customer service, reported, "This time around the company couldn't be so antiunion as they have been in the past organizing drives. In the past, when they weren't tied down by the ESOP, they would offer workers big 5 percent raises right before the union vote. Then, after workers did not get a raise the following year, they were very angry. This experience helped to build support for the future union.

"There were A-scale workers who were not in favor of the union because of the fear of loss of retirement. And there were A-scalers who were in favor of the union. Because of the big turnover a bigger workload is forced on those in A- scale."

The company concedes turnover is higher than 40 percent a year.

Racatan noted that "this organizing drive was different from past ones because the IAM put a lot more resources toward the drive compared to past drives. In the last couple of years you've heard more talk about unions. During this drive people were more aware that this was going on."

This vote makes United Airlines, the world's largest air carrier, almost completely organized. This includes 19,000 in passenger service and nearly 27,000 ramp workers, mechanics, food service workers, and flight dispatchers in the IAM.

Other major unions are the Air Line Pilots Association and the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA).

The union victory coincides with other signs of labor ferment in the airline industry, including the struggle by the Machinists for a contract at Northwest Airlines (see article on page 11). Northwest Airlines says it lost $60 million in revenue in June alone due to work stoppages and slowdowns by ground workers and pilots who have been working without a contact since the fall of 1996. There is also a campaign under way by the IAM to organize ramp workers at Continental Airlines. And the Communication Workers of America have signed up 10,000 passenger service workers at USAirways.

Four days after the union election, United announced that the C-scale wages and benefits for an additional 2,000 clerical workers would be abolished after April 13, 2000.

United must now negotiate a contract with the IAM for the new union members.

Larry Lane is a member of the IAM in San Francisco. Betsey Stone in Chicago and Laura Anderson in Los Angeles contributed to this article.

 
 
 
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