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PITTSBURGH - Fleet service workers at US Airways have rejected a contract proposal by the company and voted to authorize a strike. The International Association of Machinists (IAM) is negotiating the first contract for more than 6,100 baggage handlers and caterers in 78 cities since they voted to join the union in 1994. More than 80 percent of the workers voted against the proposal, and three-quarters voted for the strike authorization.
The proposed five-year contract included a 4 percent signing bonus and a 9 percent pay increase for most members within six months. After that, pay raises would be based one percent higher than the average pay at the airline's biggest competitors - Delta, United, American, and Northwest.
Outsourcing, part-time work, and lack of a guaranteed pension headed the list of criticisms for most workers. "I'm happy with the money," one ramp worker said. "But what good is the money when you don't have a job?" He was referring to the lack of protection from outsourcing for catering workers and part-time workers in the smaller stations. Lou Knoll, a baggage handler for more than 10 years at US Airways, said, "When negotiations began, we said that the top two issues to be resolved were to put a cap on part-time work and to provide medical benefits to families of part timers. This agreement allows for the company to have 35 percent of its workforce be part time system-wide, with no medical benefits for family members of part timers."
John Matascik, who has 12 years with the company, explained his situation. "I'm still classified as a part timer with a 27.5-hour work week. In the spring and summer I usually work 40-50 hours a week just to pay for the medical benefits for my family. This amounts to over $3,000 a year, which the company makes no contribution toward."
Workers also criticized the lack of a guaranteed pension like the IAM-organized maintenance workers at US Airways have in their contract. "They're offering us a 401K [savings plan], but nothing else," said baggage handler George Muhrunich. "With the way the stock market is performing, we can't depend on that alone for retirement," he said.
The union has announced that new negotiations will begin with a mediator from the National Mediation Board during the week of October 5. Airline negotiations are regulated under the Railway Labor Act, which prohibits strikes by airline workers without the okay of a federal mediator, and then only after a 30-day "cooling off" period.
The contract's rejection comes as the IAM is beginning contract negotiations for 7,500 mechanics, cleaners, and stores workers. The Association of Flight Attendants is also negotiating a new contract for 8,000 members and the Communication Workers of America, which won a union representation election earlier this year, is seeking a contract for customer service and reservation agents.
Alabama mine boss forces contract reopener
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Jim Walter Resources, a large coal
operator in Alabama, idled its No. 3 mine on June 8. The mine
in Adger, Alabama, was kept closed until July 19. Jim Walter
operates three other mines in Alabama.
Around 400 miners, who are members of UMWA Local 1928 were out of work for 41 days. They were told by the bosses that the mine would be permanently closed, due to economic considerations and mine conditions. The seam of coal that was being mined was coming to a fault, a rock wall, which would have to be mined through to reach the rest of the seam on the other side.
The company then said to reopen the mine there would have to be "modifications" to the wage agreement between Local 1928 and the company. In December 1997, UMWA members at Jim Walter's signed a contract with the Independent Bituminous Coal Operators alliance. This contract is nearly identical to the national Bituminous Coal agreement, the agreement between most of the major coal companies and the UMWA in the eastern United States
This July, members of the local voted 235 to 155 to accept the new agreement, which effects only issues covered under the local contract. This includes changes in the safety committee in the mine, overtime pay, job classifications, "attendance control," and the use of memorial days. The new agreement sets a "target absentee rate" of 4 percent. The bosses will no longer accept a doctor's note as an excused absence. The new agreement states this will help reduce medical costs.
The agreement also establishes an "accident review committee," which will have both union and company representatives. This committee will make "recommendations" to any worker who has two accidents within a 12-month period. The worker "will be advised as to the consequences of future accidents," that is, disciplinary actions.
Under the old agreement, miners at Jim Walter No. 3 were guaranteed overtime pay for working more than eight hours a day and for work on Saturdays. The new agreement stipulates wages of time and a half only after a miner has worked 40 hours in the week.
The mine closing has been a topic of discussion among miners in the area. One miner at No. 3, who voted against the contract and asked not to be identified, said that workers felt their jobs were threatened if they didn't agree to the changes in the contract. He also pointed out that the fault has been there since the mine opened, and they have mined through faults before.
Two different miners who work at Jim Walter mines told Militant reporters that they think the company is doing this to make it easier to go after wages and working conditions at the other mines that Jim Walter Resources owns.
A.R. Cooke, who works in Jim Walter's No. 4 mine, commented, "When the company idled No. 3, we should have told them, if you want to shut down No. 3, we can shut down all the mines."
Puerto Rico phone strike leaders speak in U.S.
HARTFORD, Connecticut - "The greatest gain was getting the
unions together" stated José Acosta, general secretary of
the Independent Union of Telephone Workers (UIET) of Puerto
Rico to a meeting of 20 held at the Connecticut State
Employees Association union hall on September 3. He was
referring to the 41-day strike by members of UIET and the
Independent Brotherhood of Telephone Workers (HIETEL) against
the Puerto Rican Telephone Company.
The two unions struck earlier this year to oppose plans to sell the state-owned enterprise to a private consortium led by the U.S. company GTE. For two days during that strike, 500,000 workers from more than 50 unions in Puerto Rico struck in solidarity with the telephone workers.
Prior to Acosta's presentation, portions of a video of the telephone workers strike were shown that documented the police beating peaceful picketers.
Earlier that day Annie Cruz, president of HIETEL, who was on tour with Acosta, addressed a rally of more than 1,500 Communication Workers of America (CWA) members and their supporters in Milford, Connecticut.
The CWA is on strike against Southern New England Telecommunications Company (SNET). Cruz told the meeting at the union hall that HIETEL "was recognized in 1996 and since then we have gone on strike three times and have had two work stoppages."
Acosta noted that, "while we are here we want to talk about the strike at SNET."
In the discussion period after Acosta spoke, a member of the CWA on strike against SNET took the floor and explained they were "out because of the two-tier" wages.
Cruz and Acosta were accompanied in Connecticut by two CWA members from New York who recently had been on strike against Bell Atlantic.
N.J. teachers more united after strike
MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP, New Jersey - Eight hundred teachers
returned to work here September 11 after a week-long strike.
Teachers had been working without a contract for two and a
half years.
In July of this year, the local school board imposed a contract, which the settlement replaced with a negotiated agreement. The new contract includes some concessions by the teachers but far less than the board had been demanding. For example, teachers earning more than $30,000 will pay up to $250 a year for dental and health insurance annually, compared to the $600 to $1,900 demanded by the board.
To win their contract, strikers stood up to the school board's threats that they would be jailed or fired for violating a court order by walking out. Kathleen Brazas, a Middletown South High School English teacher, said one important gain from the fight was beating back a contract provision requiring teachers to work six classes without a break. "A teacher's job does not allow them to use the bathroom, get a cup of coffee, or access a phone when they need to," she said.
Kris Kurzynowski expressed the common sentiment of the dozen teachers Militant correspondents interviewed September 11 when she said, "Everyone came together to fight. It was a unifying experience."
Dave Welters, a member of the IAM, and Ed Fruit in Pittsburgh; Jeanne FitzMaurice and Marilyn Nolinsky in Birmingham, Alabama; Ted Leonard in Boston; and Jane Harris, a member of the United Transportation Union in Newark, New Jersey, contributed to this column.