BY ARLENE RUBINSTEIN
ATLANTA - After a three-year battle for a union contract,
700 flight attendants at AirTran, formerly ValuJet, won a
contract September 6. It's the first contract for the
Association of Flight Attendants (AFA). It includes an
immediate 10 percent pay raise and annual 4 percent increases
for three years. The union also won sick and vacation time,
where none existed before.
"I'm very glad that we won some union protection," said Jonathan Sauls, a flight attendant with 10 years' experience, including one year at AirTran. "To give you an idea of how rough it was, I was written up by my supervisor when I came to the defense of one of my co-workers who was hit by a passenger.
"I'm also proud of all the people that came before us and made this possible," Sauls continued, referring to the dozens of pro-union activists fired after an overwhelming percentage of flight attendants signed union authorization cards in June 1995. AFA is fighting for the reinstatement of Lisa Robinson, an AFA Negotiating Committee member who was fired in September 1997.
The contest between the company and the union intensified as the 12:01 a.m. September 5 strike deadline approached.
The union issued a "C.H.A.O.S Fall Travel Alert," announcing it would hold selective strike actions in one city one day and another city the next if a contract was not reached. AFA activists leafleted at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport, where AirTran is the second-largest carrier, warning, "We are a highly committed, well-organized group of employees. Our jobs and our children's futures are at stake. If we must, we are prepared to Create Havoc Around Our System. "
A union victory earlier in August built momentum for the contract fight. A federal labor board ruled that AFA was the bargaining unit agent for all AirTran flight attendants, rejecting the company's claim that the union did not represent the 170 flight attendants who worked at AirTran before its merger with ValuJet.
The company mounted a counteroffensive that was well- covered by the daily Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other local media. Their plan including firing any flight attendant who participated in strike actions, despite the fact that the union was released from negotiations by the National Mediation Board and officially free to strike. Thomas Kalil, AirTran senior vice president, further stated that replacement workers had already been trained.
AirTran management also removed six seats from each of its fleet of 106-seat DC-9 aircraft in order to fly them with two instead of three flight attendants, hoping to undermine the effectiveness of the union's strike activities.
The company had flunked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety tests - three times. But just before the strike deadline the FAA announced the company had passed their test.
From the beginning the AFA has argued that safety in the skies is a vital question to the union. In response, ValuJet Chairman Robert Priddy stated in September 1995 that if it were up to him he would "replace all flight attendants with Coke machines."
Following the May 11, 1996, crash of ValuJet Flight 592 into the Florida Everglades, which killed 110 passengers, the AFA publicly criticized the company for putting a price tag on passenger safety. When the airline was shut down for three months following the crash, the AFA filed a formal report with the Department of Transportation (DOT) pushing for public hearings on ValuJet's safety record. When the airline was cleared to resume operations, AFA blasted that decision.
The company's attack also included the claim that 300 workers had signed petitions to decertify the union and that a group was staging a pro-company rally on September 5. AFA mobilized the same day with an informational picket line, which was joined by a rally of Northwest flight attendants who showed up at the airport to support striking Northwest pilots. AFA also held a candlelight vigil later that night.
Three workers showed up for the pro-company "rally."
"It's a well-deserved victory, after a long, hard fight," commented Kevin Smith, 32, a union activist who has worked for the company for almost five years. "We stuck together. I think a lot of airline workers were watching us. And we did it."
Arlene Rubinstein is a member of IAM Local 2665 at Northwest Airlines in Atlanta. Mike Italie contributed to this article.