News from AFA and the Media.
News from AFA and the Media.
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News from AFA and the Media.
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News from AFA and the Media.
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"US Air flight
attendants may strike"
By Nancy Zuckerbrod, Associated
Press
Last Update: 10:05 AM ET
Nov 23, 1999
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| ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) -- US
Airways flight attendants have taken a step toward a possible strike during
the end-of-year holiday travel season.
The Association of Flight
Attendants asked the National Mediation Board, which oversees labor relations
in the transportation industry, to break off contract negotiations with
US Airways (U: news, msgs). The request came after 19 days of round-the-clock
talks.
It is now up to the board
to decide whether to require the two sides to remain at the bargaining
table or declare the talks at an impasse as the flight attendants say they
want.
If an impasse is declared,
it would lead to a 30-day cooling-off period. After that, the flight attendants
would be permitted under federal law to strike.
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'Will you make it home?'
---------------------------------
Flight attendants protested
Monday outside US Airways' headquarters in the Washington suburb of Arlington
and at a ticket office in Boston. Several of them carried signs, including
one that read, "Will you make it home?"
They are particularly concerned
that the airline wants to cut their vacation
time and sick leave, said
Mark Littleton, chairman of the Association of Flight Attendants negotiating
committee.
"That's taking money out
of our pockets," Littleton said.
Flight attendants also want
a better pension plan and increased job security.
"Only a fool wants to strike,
but you'd have to be a fool not to strike," said
Baltimore-based flight attendant
Rob Carlson.
A US Airways spokesman said
airline officials are negotiating in good faith.
"We are continuing to work
with the flight attendants to reach an equitable
contract," spokesman Rick
Weintraub said. He declined to provide further
details.
A spokesman for the National
Mediation Board also declined to comment.
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Labor woes
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The flight attendants are
working under a 1993 contract that was amended in 1996 to give them their
last pay raise of 4 percent, said Cynthia Kain, a spokeswoman for the Association
of Flight Attendants.
The threat of a flight attendants'
strike is the latest in a string of labor
problems for the nation's
sixth-largest airline.
Maintenance workers came
within 48 hours of a strike earlier this year. In
addition, 10,000 ticket
agents, gate workers and others recently won a lengthy battle to join the
Communications Workers of America.
The labor strife and flight
cancellations due to Hurricane Floyd are thought to be responsible for
a higher-than-expected loss for US Airways of $85 million in the third
quarter. |
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For
Immediate Release
Monday,
November 17, 1999 |
US Airways Talks With Attendants
Make Little Progress
Arlington, Virginia, Nov.
16 (Bloomberg) -- US Airways Group Inc., the sixth-largest U.S. carrier,
and its flight-attendants union have made little progress in two weeks
of contract talks, moving the negotiations closer to a possible stalemate.
The Association of Flight
Attendants, which represents about 9,800 US Airways employees, said it
will ask the National Mediation Board on Friday for release from further
negotiations if an agreement isn't reached by then. The talks are taking
place in Washington, D.C., near the Arlington, Virginia-based company.
While the two sides have
agreed on five more sections of the contract since this round of talks
started Nov. 1, another 17 of 31 sections remain open after about three
years of negotiations. Still, the mediation board is unlikely to let the
talks end and leave open the possibility of strike action during the holidays.
``It's likely the board is
getting ready to do something, but with the millennium thing coming and
the holidays coming, I don't see that realistically the board is going
to grant their wishes,'' said Neil Bernstein, a law professor at Washington
University in St. Louis and a former labor arbitrator.
The union said it disagrees
with the company over pay, pension, and other work-benefit terms. US Airways,
based in Arlington, Virginia, has urged all its unions to accept a plan
in which employees are paid the average compensation of workers at four
competing airlines plus one percent. The airline declined to comment on
the flight-attendant talks.
Union members picketed a
Charlotte convention today where US Airways Chairman Stephen Wolf was speaking.
The union leadership also is tentatively planning protests at major airports
Nov. 24 and to ask its members for the authority to call a strike.
The union would have to be
released from current talks before it could strike. If it's released and
either side rejects arbitration offered by the mediation board, the two
sides must wait out a 30-day cooling-off period during which more negotiations
usually take place.
If the 30 days end without
an agreement, the union could strike and the company could lock out the
workers or impose other work rules. The flight attendants say they would
stage a mass walkout or strike individual flights.
US Airways shares rose 7/8
to 29 15/16 on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares have fallen 52 percent
since closing at this year's high of 64 on Jan. 8. Maintenance, pilot training
and computer problems led to a third-quarter loss.
Nov/16/1999 16:24
(C) Copyright 1999 Bloomberg
L.P.
| Nov 7, 1999
US AIRWAYS FLIGHT ATTENDANTS
BEGIN 19-DAY MARATHON TO REACH NEW AGREEMENT
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Group Readies Its
Plan For CHAOS If A Fair Contract Isn't Achieved Before Thanksgiving
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The Association
of Flight Attendants, AFL-CIO, the union that represents US Airways flight
attendants, announced today that it would begin 19 days of round-the-clock
negotiations with the airline after which, if there's no agreement, it
would put in motion plans to implement CHAOS at the airline.
"The next nineteen
days are crucial," said Lynn Lenosky, president of the US Airways Master
Executive Council. "We've worked hard to make flight attendants' jobs good
jobs. We're not about to let a few overpaid executives destroy what
we've built."
US Airways, the nation's
sixth-largest carrier, is proposing that flight attendants accept
concessions that will dramatically
reduce their quality of life. The airline's buzzword for their package
of concessions is "parity plus one percent." Parity plus one includes
cuts in scheduling, vacation, sick leave, training pay, hours of service
and reserve. The scheme would require that flight attendants agree to a
second round of cuts one year after the contract is ratified.
Flight attendants are also
angry that US Airways, which earned $538 million last year, hasn't provided
them with raises in nearly four years and that the airline awards pensions
in a manner that penalizes married flight attendants.
AFA vows that if
there's no agreement by November 19, the union will ask the National
Mediation Board to declare
an impasse and start the federally-mandated 30-day cooling-off period.
If no agreement is reached by the end of the 30-day period, flight attendants
will engage in CHAOS. Creating Havoc Around Our System is a strike
action that may take a variety of forms. Flight attendants may stage a
walkout for a day or a week or strike individual flights. The airline will
receive no warning.
Talks between the
airline and AFA are taking place in a secret location outside Washington,
DC.
Approximately 9,000
flight attendants are employed by the airline at bases in Washington, DC,
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Charlotte, NC.
All are members of AFA, the world's largest flight attendant union.
Visit AFA's web site www.afanet.org.
For More
Information Contact:
Cynthia Kain 202-712-9799
X 804
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