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CWA Gains Fast-Track Vote at US Airways
In a big victory for passenger service employees and CWA, the National Mediation Board has called for an expedited election at US Airways.
The NMB will mail ballots to some 9,000 employees beginning July 16, with the vote to be counted Aug. 20.
CWA had been pressing the NMB for a fast-track vote ever since a federal appeals court ruling in late May invalidated the rerun election held in September 1997. CWA could have appealed the ruling but believed that the best course of action was to put the decision-making back in the hands of employees, where it belongs.
Some 85 percent of passenger service professionals already have joined CWA and are working hard to win representation and a contract that guarantees wages, benefits and working conditions.
"Despite overwhelming evidence that employees want representation, US Airways management chose to follow a strategy of legal maneuvering that could only delay the inevitable: a big vote for representation by CWA and a return to the bargaining table to finalize the contract passenger service employees deserve," said CWA President Morton Bahr.
"Our goal now is to show just how strong and united passenger service is, and go back to the bargaining table with a mandate that will enable us to get the contract passenger service employees deserve. This means turning out the biggest vote we can - a mandate for a fair contract - and sending that strong message to management," he added.
On June 1, management announced it would implement some improvements in employees' wages and benefits, changes already agreed to in bargaining with CWA. While management has been trying to take credit for the positive improvements already negotiated by CWA, passenger service professionals aren't about to give up their union and the bargaining goals they've set.
Management's tactics are likely to backfire, according to several passenger service representatives. Bert Brucker, who has 30 years' service with US Airways at Newark, recalls that "our group has been on the receiving end of a lot of promises that were broken the minute the executive who made them was replaced. Nothing against our current management, but we need a contract and representation so that the promises that are now being made - and we hope in good faith - won't become failed promises at a later date," he stressed.
Brucker pointed to passenger service employees' real concerns about the mergers, buyouts and alliances that are occurring throughout the industry. "We need a contract that will provide us with the same kind of job security that our colleagues - pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and ramp workers - now have. Right now, we have no such protections," he pointed out.
Judy Dreyer, a passenger service employee in Detroit, pointed out that CWA had won agreement on several key issues and was still negotiating others that affect employees at smaller stations - those with fewer than 84 jet flights per week.
She noted that management still wanted to be able to contract out virtually all work at these stations and stressed that CWA will continue to negotiate that customer service jobs in these cities cannot be contracted out. "We need CWA," she stressed.
Passenger service employees are signing onto an "open letter to US Airways management," which criticizes management for using "legal maneuvering as an excuse to walk away from the bargaining table . . . and forcing employees to go through a second election that will only reaffirm what the airline already knows: that the overwhelming majority of passenger service employees want to be represented by CWA."
Passenger service also is getting a boost in its fight for representation from the flight attendants and pilots, who have called on management to recognize CWA and who are reminding passenger service employees that only real representation can achieve the bargaining goals employees have set and the guarantees of a contract.
This is the only major employee group at the airline not covered by a union contract, and wages, benefits and working conditions for passenger service employees have been far below those of the pilots, flight attendants, machinists and now ramp workers. Even with the improvements management is doling out, passenger service professionals still lag behind their co-workers in terms of job security, pay parity, retirement security and much more.
The NMB will mail ballots to some 9,000 employees beginning July 16, with the vote to be counted Aug. 20.
CWA had been pressing the NMB for a fast-track vote ever since a federal appeals court ruling in late May invalidated the rerun election held in September 1997. CWA could have appealed the ruling but believed that the best course of action was to put the decision-making back in the hands of employees, where it belongs.
Some 85 percent of passenger service professionals already have joined CWA and are working hard to win representation and a contract that guarantees wages, benefits and working conditions.
"Despite overwhelming evidence that employees want representation, US Airways management chose to follow a strategy of legal maneuvering that could only delay the inevitable: a big vote for representation by CWA and a return to the bargaining table to finalize the contract passenger service employees deserve," said CWA President Morton Bahr.
"Our goal now is to show just how strong and united passenger service is, and go back to the bargaining table with a mandate that will enable us to get the contract passenger service employees deserve. This means turning out the biggest vote we can - a mandate for a fair contract - and sending that strong message to management," he added.
On June 1, management announced it would implement some improvements in employees' wages and benefits, changes already agreed to in bargaining with CWA. While management has been trying to take credit for the positive improvements already negotiated by CWA, passenger service professionals aren't about to give up their union and the bargaining goals they've set.
Management's tactics are likely to backfire, according to several passenger service representatives. Bert Brucker, who has 30 years' service with US Airways at Newark, recalls that "our group has been on the receiving end of a lot of promises that were broken the minute the executive who made them was replaced. Nothing against our current management, but we need a contract and representation so that the promises that are now being made - and we hope in good faith - won't become failed promises at a later date," he stressed.
Brucker pointed to passenger service employees' real concerns about the mergers, buyouts and alliances that are occurring throughout the industry. "We need a contract that will provide us with the same kind of job security that our colleagues - pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and ramp workers - now have. Right now, we have no such protections," he pointed out.
Judy Dreyer, a passenger service employee in Detroit, pointed out that CWA had won agreement on several key issues and was still negotiating others that affect employees at smaller stations - those with fewer than 84 jet flights per week.
She noted that management still wanted to be able to contract out virtually all work at these stations and stressed that CWA will continue to negotiate that customer service jobs in these cities cannot be contracted out. "We need CWA," she stressed.
Passenger service employees are signing onto an "open letter to US Airways management," which criticizes management for using "legal maneuvering as an excuse to walk away from the bargaining table . . . and forcing employees to go through a second election that will only reaffirm what the airline already knows: that the overwhelming majority of passenger service employees want to be represented by CWA."
Passenger service also is getting a boost in its fight for representation from the flight attendants and pilots, who have called on management to recognize CWA and who are reminding passenger service employees that only real representation can achieve the bargaining goals employees have set and the guarantees of a contract.
This is the only major employee group at the airline not covered by a union contract, and wages, benefits and working conditions for passenger service employees have been far below those of the pilots, flight attendants, machinists and now ramp workers. Even with the improvements management is doling out, passenger service professionals still lag behind their co-workers in terms of job security, pay parity, retirement security and much more.