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US Airways Agents Approve Contract Changes
CWA passenger service agents at US Airways have ratified a new contract that helps the bankrupt airline save millions of dollars while protecting jobs and holding wage concessions to a much lower level than management had been demanding.
All of the unions at US Airways, including Pilots, Flight Attendants and maintenance and ramp workers represented by the Machinists, were forced to negotiate concession agreements under the cloud of the bankruptcy filing.
The airline’s pending $900 million government loan guarantee — considered necessary to save US Airways — is conditioned on concessions from employees as well as relief from lenders and creditors.
CWA, bargaining on behalf of 8,000 active workers and another 2,500 on furlough, was the last union to settle. Agreement was reached less than a week from a scheduled hearing before the bankruptcy judge, at which management was seeking to throw out CWA’s contract and impose its own terms.
US Airways had sought to slash wages by 16 percent, bringing the top rate down to $17.88 an hour. The final settlement keeps the top rate at $20.40 including a 25-cent customer contact premium, amounting to an 8-percent cutback. There will be no wage cuts for those earning less than $30,000 a year.
Wages will begin increasing on Jan. 1, 2005, with a 1-percent hike, followed by another 1 percent in 2006, 2.5 percent in 2007 and 4.25 in 2008. The contract runs through Jan. 1, 2009.
In intense bargaining over several months, CWA achieved other key goals including: improving the health care cost changes US Airways was demanding, maintaining a hands-off policy on the current retirement plan while gaining a commitment to explore other options, improving job security by getting management to drop its subcontracting demands and making additional jobs available and providing a “soft landing” for members who find themselves out of work.
Despite agreeing to concessions in the area of wages, health care, vacations and holidays — most of them temporary — bargainers were able to win improvements in the 401(k) savings plan, gain a 2-percent distribution of post-bankruptcy stock for passenger agents, and open up new job opportunities in a variety of areas including Internet technical assistance and jobs at US Airways Express.
Mid Atlantic Airways, a new airline recently created by US Airways, will recognize CWA to represent its passenger service agents and bargain a separate contract under terms of the settlement.
The settlement also calls for a joint task force to explore development of a defined benefit pension as close to Jan. 1, 2003 as possible. The agents lost their previous pension plan 12 years ago before they had union representation.
The union bargaining committee, in submitting contract changes for ratification, acknowledged that the agreement called for concessions that, “under most circumstances, we would never consider for our membership.” Against the threat of a bankruptcy judge imposing the draconian cutbacks that US Airways wanted, negotiators said they achieved the best terms possible, with the primary goal of protecting as many passenger service jobs as they could.
All of the unions at US Airways, including Pilots, Flight Attendants and maintenance and ramp workers represented by the Machinists, were forced to negotiate concession agreements under the cloud of the bankruptcy filing.
The airline’s pending $900 million government loan guarantee — considered necessary to save US Airways — is conditioned on concessions from employees as well as relief from lenders and creditors.
CWA, bargaining on behalf of 8,000 active workers and another 2,500 on furlough, was the last union to settle. Agreement was reached less than a week from a scheduled hearing before the bankruptcy judge, at which management was seeking to throw out CWA’s contract and impose its own terms.
US Airways had sought to slash wages by 16 percent, bringing the top rate down to $17.88 an hour. The final settlement keeps the top rate at $20.40 including a 25-cent customer contact premium, amounting to an 8-percent cutback. There will be no wage cuts for those earning less than $30,000 a year.
Wages will begin increasing on Jan. 1, 2005, with a 1-percent hike, followed by another 1 percent in 2006, 2.5 percent in 2007 and 4.25 in 2008. The contract runs through Jan. 1, 2009.
In intense bargaining over several months, CWA achieved other key goals including: improving the health care cost changes US Airways was demanding, maintaining a hands-off policy on the current retirement plan while gaining a commitment to explore other options, improving job security by getting management to drop its subcontracting demands and making additional jobs available and providing a “soft landing” for members who find themselves out of work.
Despite agreeing to concessions in the area of wages, health care, vacations and holidays — most of them temporary — bargainers were able to win improvements in the 401(k) savings plan, gain a 2-percent distribution of post-bankruptcy stock for passenger agents, and open up new job opportunities in a variety of areas including Internet technical assistance and jobs at US Airways Express.
Mid Atlantic Airways, a new airline recently created by US Airways, will recognize CWA to represent its passenger service agents and bargain a separate contract under terms of the settlement.
The settlement also calls for a joint task force to explore development of a defined benefit pension as close to Jan. 1, 2003 as possible. The agents lost their previous pension plan 12 years ago before they had union representation.
The union bargaining committee, in submitting contract changes for ratification, acknowledged that the agreement called for concessions that, “under most circumstances, we would never consider for our membership.” Against the threat of a bankruptcy judge imposing the draconian cutbacks that US Airways wanted, negotiators said they achieved the best terms possible, with the primary goal of protecting as many passenger service jobs as they could.