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Bankruptcy Judge Grants Wage Cuts at US Airways
Federal Judge Stephen Mitchell, overseeing US Airways' bankruptcy filing, granted management's petition for emergency wage cuts and imposed a 21 percent pay cut for passenger service agents, flight attendants and other union workers. The cuts are to remain in effect for four months, not the six-month period US Airways management sought.
The judge's order does not permit any subcontracting of agents' work, but it does allow US Airways management to reduce the minimum number of aircraft from the 279 it had agreed to fly under CWA's contract. The judge's order is effective immediately.
US Airways wanted "emergency" across the board cuts in union workers' wages of 23 percent for six months.
Overall, US Airways wants union workers to give up more than $950 million a year in wage and benefit concessions; that's in addition to the $1.2 billion that workers already sacrificed.
CWA expects that management will immediately begin pressing workers for additional, longer term cuts in pay, benefits and working conditions. In negotiations, CWA has been fighting for fair treatment for passenger service agents who are among the lower paid workers at the airline. In negotiations, US Airways management demanded extreme pay cuts of more than 30 percent that would reduce the top rate for an agent with more than ten years' experience to $13.10 an hour. Management also pressed for major cutbacks in its contribution to agents' 401(k) retirement plan and other extreme concessions.
Management has arbitrarily rejected CWA proposals that would provide substantial cost savings through an employee buy-out plan, a work from home proposal and other measures, CWA has pointed out.
Before the bankruptcy judge, CWA, AFA-CWA and other unions made a strong defense against management's demands.
In several exchanges, CWA showed Judge Mitchell that despite the airline's claims that management employees would take a 23 percent cut, as was demanded of all union workers, managers actually would make just a 1 percent sacrifice, after factoring in a raise they received this year.
CWA also disputed management's comparison of passenger agents' salaries and benefits at US Airways with those at "low cost" carriers, outlined the proposal agents made that would have met the company's demand for $33 million in interim savings and stressed that US Airways demands were unfair and inequitable to the lower paid work groups.
The judge's order does not permit any subcontracting of agents' work, but it does allow US Airways management to reduce the minimum number of aircraft from the 279 it had agreed to fly under CWA's contract. The judge's order is effective immediately.
US Airways wanted "emergency" across the board cuts in union workers' wages of 23 percent for six months.
Overall, US Airways wants union workers to give up more than $950 million a year in wage and benefit concessions; that's in addition to the $1.2 billion that workers already sacrificed.
CWA expects that management will immediately begin pressing workers for additional, longer term cuts in pay, benefits and working conditions. In negotiations, CWA has been fighting for fair treatment for passenger service agents who are among the lower paid workers at the airline. In negotiations, US Airways management demanded extreme pay cuts of more than 30 percent that would reduce the top rate for an agent with more than ten years' experience to $13.10 an hour. Management also pressed for major cutbacks in its contribution to agents' 401(k) retirement plan and other extreme concessions.
Management has arbitrarily rejected CWA proposals that would provide substantial cost savings through an employee buy-out plan, a work from home proposal and other measures, CWA has pointed out.
Before the bankruptcy judge, CWA, AFA-CWA and other unions made a strong defense against management's demands.
In several exchanges, CWA showed Judge Mitchell that despite the airline's claims that management employees would take a 23 percent cut, as was demanded of all union workers, managers actually would make just a 1 percent sacrifice, after factoring in a raise they received this year.
CWA also disputed management's comparison of passenger agents' salaries and benefits at US Airways with those at "low cost" carriers, outlined the proposal agents made that would have met the company's demand for $33 million in interim savings and stressed that US Airways demands were unfair and inequitable to the lower paid work groups.