BY NANCY COLE AND REBECCA ARENSON
PHILADELPHIA - US Airways mechanics and cleaners - who
rejected a proposed contract last month with 75 percent
opposed -have been released by a federal mediator to start
a 30-day "cooling off period." If there is no tentative
agreement at the end of that period, union negotiators
say, a strike of the 7,000 members of the International
Association of Machinists (IAM) will begin at 12:01 a.m.
on September 26. The "cooling off period" is mandated by
the Railway Labor Act.
The main issues in the contract rejected in July centered around the introduction of part-time cleaners for the first time, mandatory overtime for mechanics assigned to de-ice aircraft, and a scheme tying future wage increases to a pay parity formula that would be dependent on the wages of competing airlines, in particular on US Airways' biggest competitor, nonunion Delta Airlines.
Since July, union negotiators report the company has proposed even more takebacks, including that fleet service workers be allowed to perform all of the jobs cleaners now do and some mechanics' tasks, elimination of paid lunch, of "protected" stations where union maintenance is required, and of pension benefit increases.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported August 27 that the strike deadline is "the most difficult labor problem" confronting US Airways bosses, "but it is by no means the only one." The airline's flight attendants have been fighting for a contract for several years and have now launched a campaign to mark their 1,000 days without a contract with pickets and other actions. That 1,000-day anniversary is September 27, one day after the IAM's 30- day cooling-off period ends.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) announced August 20 that customer service workers at US Airways had again voted to be represented by the CWA. An appeals court had thrown out their previous union victory in May of this year, saying that the company's right to free speech was restrained when federal mediators overturned the first election, citing company interference.
US Airways moved rapidly to grant the workers wage increases at the same time as it opposed the CWA's bid for an expedited union election. But workers pushed this transparent antiunion move aside, transforming the 54 percent victory in 1997 into a 67 percent vote for the union August 20. The bargaining unit has 10,600 workers and is among the biggest private sector union organizing victories in decades.
Among cleaners and mechanics, discussions are nonstop about what will happen September 26: will the company really stick to its unacceptable demands and force a strike, how will the union prepare for the showdown, and what kind of support can we expect from coworkers in other departments, as well as from other workers at the airport and elsewhere?
Fleet service workers - ramp and catering workers - are also members of the IAM. They approved a first contract earlier this year, five years after voting in the union in 1994. "We all work for one company, and we have to stick together," says Joel Alfaro, a part-time ramp worker in Philadelphia, referring to the possible strike by mechanics and cleaners. "It might be us out there tomorrow."
Rebecca Arenson and Nancy Cole are members of IAM Local 1776 at US Airways.