Members of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), who wore bright green "CHAOS" T-shirts, chanted their demands for a decent contract. CHAOS stands for Create Havoc Around Our System, a union campaign that can include intermittent or rolling strikes.

"I was in front, and I looked behind me and saw three blocks filling the streets," said Tom Sauers. "Our rally shut down two and a half city blocks. We came away from that excited and rejuvenated, ready for the home stretch."

March 25 marks the end of a 30-day cooling off period mandated by the National Mediation Board. After three years of negotiations, if the AFA and US Airways have not reached an agreement by that date, the flight attendants will begin CHAOS. The company has vowed to shut down the airline rather than allow the flight attendants to disrupt its operations. The bosses contend the major issue is that the AFA must accept the concept of "parity plus 1 percent" with the wages and benefits of its four main competitors, as have all other unions at the company. The union counters that the company's parity formula is unacceptable and would result in pay cuts.

Because of the complicated nature of computing flight attendants' pay, it can easily be distorted. In response to a slew of letters to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after an article appeared on "A Day in the Life of One Attendant," Pamela Hook wrote, "(F)or every 3.5 hours that I'm on duty, I get paid $41.02. If you do the math you can see that I'm really only paid $11.72 per hour. That's after putting over 23 years of my life into this company. That's top pay after completing 14 years of flying. It never goes higher."

In Pennsylvania, where nearly half of the airline's 40,000 employees work, Gov. Thomas Ridge has called on the president to intervene in the last-minute mediation to insure there is no strike or shutdown.

Inside the crew room at the Philadelphia airport, flight attendants have set up a CHAOS "command center," with printed information, green business cards with local AFA numbers to call, "GUTS" tags for crew bags (Gearing Up To Strike), and bags of buttons with the words, "I Support the US Airways Flight Attendants." Some US Airways workers at the airport here are now wearing these buttons on their uniforms.

Staffing the AFA command post, Tom Sauers waves a list of activities planned across the US Airways system. "Our resolve has never been stronger," he says. Informational picketing is planned in many cities and on March 24, a candlelight vigil is planned leading up to the midnight deadline for every hub city and in many others as well.

Flight attendants are discussing copies of letters to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. One letter takes the flight attendants to task for demanding what other workers don't have or lost at some point. "Just because other groups didn't fight for what's theirs doesn't mean I shouldn't," responded Kim Rainey, a flight attendant for 11 years. "I'm not going to take all these concessions lying down. I'm at least going to fight them."

The company's drive to divide other union workers at US Airways from the AFA members has definitely had an impact, but many realize what their fight is all about. "I support the flight attendants because I think they would have supported us if we had struck," says mechanic Patrick Doerfler, who marched in the March 14 action in support of the AFA. "This is their opportunity and they shouldn't waste it like we did ours." Mechanics, utility workers, and stock clerks approved a contract with a parity formula last October.

A letter circulating around the system signed by flight attendants at the Baltimore airport, points to the pilots' contract negotiations at US Airways in 1997 when Chairman Stephen Wolf threatened to cancel an order for new aircraft if he didn't get the concessions the company demanded.

"How history repeats itself! Consider the long-term implications of this pattern, if you will," the flyer says. "Will Mr. Wolf continue to threaten to shut down operations, cancel aircraft orders, or downsize the company during each and every subsequent labor negotiation? If so, what will be left for any of the employees as management whittles away our salaries, benefits, and work rules?... We cannot be dictated to by a greedy management, known for slashing employee benefits and wages only to leave with their pockets lined with the moneys earned from the front line employees."

At National Airport in Washington, D.C., flight attendants and their supporters held an informational picket line March 20.

"The company never made the threat to shut down the airline while they were negotiating with the Machinists or pilot's union. They thought they would buckle under," said picket captain Alin Boswell. "They used this tactic to divide us, but the opposite has happened. Other unionists--pilots, machinists, Teamsters--at US Airways and other airlines are wearing our buttons to support us and have come to march on our informational picket lines."

Boswell noted that after three and a half years without a contract, 99 percent of the flight attendants voted to strike. "Key issues in the contacts talks, which started again March 18," he said, "are company demands to reduce our sick time and vacation benefits, and to set wages in line with other airlines but weighted towards nonunion Delta which pays less."

Chanting "We say talk it out. They say lock 'em out," "No Contract, No Peace," and "Unfair: USAir." some 200 flight attendants and their supporters marched through downtown Pittsburgh March 22. The flight attendants gathered on the steps of the Allegheny County courthouse, and marched to a rally in nearby Market Square.

Throughout the march the workers passed out informational leaflets explaining the issues in their contract fight. As the demonstrators wound through downtown, honks of support came from passing cars, buses, and trucks.

At the rally, pledges of solidarity came from the presidents of the Allegheny County Labor Council, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, and the Communications Workers of America, who recently won the right to represent ticket agents at the company.

The workers also marched to a US Airways ticket office in downtown Pittsburgh, where they briefly rallied and leafleted passersby.

Rebecca Arenson and Nancy Cole are members of the International Association of Machinists and work at US Airways in Philadelphia. Salm Kolis in Pittsburgh and Mark Friedman in Los Angeles contributed to this article.  
 
 
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