Red Alert: American Airlines Outsourcing Harms Workers, Operations

 

CWA activists are alerting passengers at 15 airports across the country that American Airlines is replacing experienced, trained employees with minimum wage workers.

American Airlines is crying poor — the airline filed for bankruptcy last year — but it's sitting on $8 billion in cash as it looks to slash even more jobs, wages and benefits. Yesterday CEO Tom Horton even emailed employees to tell them that the company has "outperformed all of our major domestic competitors in year-over-year revenue growth for six straight months."

CWA activists have been joined by members of TWU, SEIU, AFA-CWA and Jobs with Justice in spreading the word. In just one example, cargo agents are being replaced by workers earning just over minimum wage in most cases and few or no benefits. Also recently, three American Airlines flights had to make emergency landings when rows of seats — maintained by an outside vendor that replaced airline employees in Fort Worth and Tulsa — came loose in flight.

"After 24 years of loyal service, management is kicking me to the curb. My middle-class wage is just too much for them to pay, so instead a low-wage contractor is replacing me. I am 51 and well on my way to planning for retirement one day. But now, I am going to have to start over," said Freddy Lopez, an American Airlines cargo agent at Miami International Airport.

Vera Daniels, an agent at JFK in New York, said, "For most of my 10 years as an American Airlines Passenger Service Agent, I've been very happy in my work life. I enjoyed assisting our travelers and was passionate about my work duties as a front-line employee...Now, though, there has been a drastic shift in the work environment. Suddenly, we were informed that our jobs were being outsourced to low-cost companies, the new standard of corporate America. Companies like American Airlines that once embraced patriotism and support for our communities now are selling out to the lowest bidder — and forget about customer service!"

American Airlines passenger service agents filed for a union representation election more than 10 months ago. CWA has been working with the nearly 10,000 passenger agents to gain a union voice for 15 years.

AMR, the parent corporation of American Airlines, has sought to block workers' democratic right to vote and has thrown up numerous legal and other roadblocks, but this month the three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, ruled unanimously that the lower court erred in stopping the election and said the election should go forward.