The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.23           June 14, 1999 
 
 
Machinists At Trans World Airlines Face Strike Vote  

BY ERNIE MAILHOT AND NANCY ROSENSTOCK
ST. LOUIS - In the midst of a 30-day government-imposed "cooling off" period that could lead to a strike, members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) at Trans World Airlines (TWA) learned May 28 of the company's latest "best and final" offer. In early May, government mediators had ruled that the company and IAM negotiators had reached an impasse, setting off the "cooling off" period. The union cannot "legally" strike until the end of this period, which is 12:01 a.m. June 10. Union members have been working under the old contract, which expired in August 1997.

The IAM represents 16,000 flight attendants, ramp workers, mechanics, and passenger service workers out of 21,000 at TWA.

While union officials have yet to release details on the contents of the latest contract offer, they have called for its rejection. The IAM is expected to hold a strike vote and a vote on the latest company offer before the end of the 30-day "cooling off" period.

About half of the TWA workers are here in St. Louis, the company's main hub, where TWA accounts for 75 percent of the passengers out of Lambert Field. Workers here expressed different views on the company offer. Some echoed the company and media reports that TWA would fold if there was a strike and said the company offer should be accepted. Others, citing the years of concessions wrung from the IAM membership, called for rejecting the contract offer.

One IAM ramp worker at TWA, who requested that his name not be used, said, "TWA does not respect us. We are the ones who make the company what it is. We have been giving and giving and now we should get more back."

The company's proposal has been reported in the media here and is being widely discussed by TWA workers. The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported May 29 that the proposed contract includes a further 1 percent raise for mechanics, ramp workers, and passenger service workers over what they had been previously offered. Flight attendants are to get a larger percentage increase as well. The company and media reports agree that these raises would still leave workers at TWA well below the industry standard.

Lump-sum payments are also being offered, ranging from $2,100 to $5,000, and TWA has reportedly dropped its demand for work-rule changes that would have intensified work and squeezed greater productivity from IAM members. One of the previous proposals reported to be dropped is that ramp workers, instead of mechanics who are higher paid, direct planes to and from gates. In addition, TWA also ended its demand to contract out of work at 16 smaller airports, according to the Post Dispatch. Both of these earlier proposals by the company would have resulted in cutbacks in the IAM workforce.

At the same time, IAM members at TWA here said the company is still demanding the closing a hangar and a terminal at JFK International Airport in New York.

Among the central issues for the members of the IAM at TWA are the pay scales. In recent weeks TWA has offered three pay packages that have all been rejected by the IAM. The lower- than-industry-standard wages and benefits, including low retirement pay, are due to cuts the union agreed to in recent years when TWA management twice took the company into bankruptcy. Over the past decade concessions from TWA workers have handed over $4 billion to the company. This includes no pay raises for eight years, reduced vacation time, frozen pensions, and cuts in crew sizes.

Ernie Mailhot is a member of IAM Local 1126 in Miami. Nancy Rosenstock is a former IAM member at TWA from New York.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home