CLEVELAND — Hundreds of flight attendants — members of their two central unions, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA — picketed and rallied at over 30 airports across the U.S. and in London and Guam June 13. The two unions, representing more than 77,000 workers, have been fighting for new contracts for five years.
Rachele Fruit, Socialist Workers Party candidate for president, joined American Airlines flight attendants and union supporters on a spirited picket line at Cleveland Hopkins airport. Dozens chanted, “What do we want? Contract. When do we want it? Now!”
Hobbled by the notoriously anti-union Railway Labor Act, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants is pressing the mandated National Mediation Board to allow them to strike after recent negotiations failed. But company officials are confident no strike will be permitted. “The Railway Labor Act is designed to very, very, very significantly minimize the possibility of a disruption to the transportation system,” Steve Johnson, American Airlines’ vice chair, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Flight attendants who work at United and Frontier Airlines, along with representatives of the International Association of Machinists and Amalgamated Transit Union, were among those who joined the action here. Drivers in several passing cars honked their horns in support.
Nilda Santiago, who works at Frontier Airlines, told Fruit that she was on the picket line to also draw attention to the newly imposed “turn model” of airline operations, which is hated by many flight attendants. Already in use on some 85% of Frontier flights, it schedules flight attendants to do daily round trips, eliminating layovers and additional per diem pay for the crews. This saves the airline bosses money. Santiago explained how this can mean loss of adequate rest along with reduced pay.
It also means more driving back and forth to the airport and parking fees.
In addition, flight attendants aren’t paid for time spent loading and unloading passengers, only for when the plane’s door is shut.
Fruit, who is a hotel worker and a member of the UNITE HERE union, was the first woman hired to work on the ramp for Eastern Airlines at Baltimore/Washington International Airport in Maryland. She told Santiago she was all too familiar with the bosses’ exploitation of workers in the airline industry.
Fruit said her campaign calls for breaking with the Democrats and Republicans and building a party of labor to mobilize union power to defend workers against these kind of conditions. They are dangerous to flight crews and the public alike.
The unions plan to organize further protests.