BY DAVE WELTERS
PITTSBURGH - Maintenance workers at US Airways have voted
down a contract proposal that union officials said would
provide "the best wages and working conditions in the
industry." After almost four years without a contract, many
workers felt the offer was too little too late and introduced
serious concessions, such as part-time workers for the first
time ever. About 74 percent of workers voted against the
proposal, and 81 percent voted for strike authorization,
according to initial results announced July 14.
The tentative agreement, reached June 6 between US Airways and officials of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), covers 7,000 mechanics, utility, and stores workers. Many workers are unhappy that after more than four years without a raise the agreement offered only a 3.57 percent wage increase for all workers. For cleaners, who are at the bottom of the pay scale, the raise is just 28 cents, bringing their pay to $8.11.
Future raises would be determined by a "parity" formula that ties wage rates to those at four competing airlines, weighted heavily toward nonunion Delta Airlines. Ron Jackson, a cleaner for 10 years, said "You have to get away from all the mumbo jumbo about parity-plus-1-percent and get to the core issue - keeping up with the cost of living."
The proposal would have introduced part-time cleaners for a proportion up to 35 percent of full-time cleaners in line maintenance in any station, or 25 percent system-wide. It also allows mandatory overtime for the first time for mechanics de-icing aircraft.
"If they start with some part-time with this contract, they'll make it larger next time until this is a part-time job altogether," said Yvonne Key, a cleaner at US Airways in Philadelphia. "Then we'll all be working two part-time jobs just to make a living."
Opposition to the proposed contract was widespread. In Pittsburgh workers in one hanger made and distributed 100 bright red T-shirts proclaiming, "I am voting No," in large letters.
Meanwhile, on June 25 the National Mediation Board ordered that a new union representation election for 9,500 US Airways passenger service agents, over company objections, take place by August 20. The Communication Workers of America, which won a September 1997, election to bargain for passenger service agents and was in the midst of negotiating their first contract, was decertified by a federal appeals court in May.
Dave Welters is a member of IAM Local 1976 in Pittsburgh. Rebecca Arenson and Nancy Cole, members of IAM Local 1776 in Philadelphia, contributed to this article.