We will be victorious if we are willing to fight for better wages and benefits and working conditions. CHAOS(tm) - Create Havoc Around Our System(tm) - includes a series of random, unannounced strikes. Management and passengers won't know ahead of time when or where a strike will take place
CHAOS IS COMING TO AMERICA WEST
The clock ticks down for America West flight attendants as they get closer to March 20th and the end of the 30-day cooling off period. America West flight attendants, who have been negotiating their first contract for the past fours years, have voted overwhelmingly to support either a strike or CHAOS activities. Failure to reach an agreement between the management of America West and AFA could result in many America West flight attendants being stranded. AFA is asking members to donate buddy passes so these stranded flight attendants can get home. If you are interested in helping out in this way, please contact America West LEC #66 at 602-966-1231.
. VIRTUAL CHAOS AT AMERICA WEST RESULTS IN TENTATIVE AGREEMENT
Shortly after the midnight deadline on March 20, 1999 AFA and management at America West reached a tentative agreement, after four long and difficult years of contentious negotiations for their first agreement. AFA leaders at America West attribute the success at the bargaining table to the strength and solidarity of the flight attendant members and was accomplished without risk to a single flight attendant job in a CHAOS strike action.
Charlotte Observer reports CWA strike authorization vote underway at US Airways...
Union could clear way for strike - Gate workers to vote on whether to authorize action
By: STAN CHOE Staff Writer 10/28/2004
US Airways' reservation, customer-service and gate agents will vote in coming days whether to authorize a strike, according to a source familiar with the union's plans, as the struggling airline seeks to slash their wages further and outsource their jobs.
Ballots should begin hitting mailboxes of Communications Workers of America's 6,000 active US Airways members today or Friday. No strike, though, is imminent.
If CWA members were to approve the strike authorization, the union would still have to take several more steps before picketing could begin.
The CWA would also strike only if US Airways convinces a bankruptcy judge to throw out their labor contract, the source said. The airline has said in U.S. Bankruptcy Court filings that it would make such a request if it doesn't get consensual labor concessions by mid-November.
However, the airline said even the threat of a strike may be enough to scare away passengers already skeptical about whether the airline will be flying months from now.
And an actual strike would kill the company, said Chris Chiames, senior vice president of corporate affairs.
"The act of a strike would result in an immediate shutdown and liquidation of the airline," he said. "So this is irresponsible grandstanding of the highest level. This serves no purpose in getting a consensual deal and completing our restructuring."
US Airways also believes federal law prohibits the CWA from striking.
The strike authorization vote comes as CWA members face what they see as a Draconian proposal from the airline, including a 34 percent pay cut from wages they were earning at the time US Airways filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sept. 12. In addition, the carrier wants to be able to contract out their jobs.
CWA members already are among the lowest-paid workers at the airline. Since a bankruptcy court judge ordered temporary 21 percent pay cuts for most union workers earlier this month, CWA workers are making an average of $14.40 an hour.
The recent court order marks the third time in two years that the airline's workers have watched their paychecks shrink.
To Cathy Lee, a US Airways customer-assistance representative in Charlotte, a yes vote on the company's contract offer is essentially a vote to give away her job.
She said Wednesday that she is especially upset that US Airways' managers took only 5 percent to 10 percent pay cuts after receiving raises that averaged 4 percent earlier this year.
The airline is in bankruptcy court for the second time in two years, trying to slash its labor costs to better compete with low-cost carriers.
It's negotiating permanent cuts and work-rule changes with the CWA and the unions for flight attendants, mechanics and fleet-service workers. Pilots have already agreed to pay concessions and productivity improvements.
A CWA spokeswoman declined to comment on the strike-authorization vote.
US Airways believes the Railway Labor Act, which dictates relationships between airlines and labor, precludes a union from striking. "We believe it's pretty clear under the Railway Labor Act that there is no authority to conduct a work action," airline spokesman David Castelveter said.
Labor professors interviewed Wednesday, though, were unsure if a strike would be legal.
It typically takes years of impasse before a strike occurs, said Neil Bernstein, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis and a labor arbitrator. Federal law prescribes a lengthy schedule of requirements, from negotiations to mediation to a 30-day cooling-off period before unions can strike.
And even if the union were to strike, the airline would likely ask for an immediate court injunction to force them back to work, said Clyde Summers, a University of Pennsylvania law professor. "Courts are not very sympathetic to unions these days, to say the least," said Summers, who has testified before Congress on the Railway Labor Act.
US Airways carries nearly 90 percent of the traffic at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, the airline's biggest hub. It employs 5,700 locally.
Morton Beyer, chairman of aircraft consulting group Morton Beyer & Agnew, agreed that a strike could kill US Airways. Getting replacement workers trained is no easy task, he said.
"While there's a fair number of people out there on unemployment, it would take them a while to train them on the software and the procedures and policies."
It was unclear late Wednesday when balloting on the authorization would be completed. If the members approve, the next moves would rest with the union's vice presidents on the national executive board. The CWA represents workers across many industries, such as phone companies.
If the vice presidents approved, CWA President Morton Bahr could then set the date for a strike.
The last strike by a US Airways union was in 1993. The International Association of Machinists, whose members include mechanics, picketed for five days, after three years of negotiations and a 30-day cooling-off period declared by the National Mediation Board.
Picketing in Charlotte was peaceful, but 28 picketers were arrested in Pittsburgh: 25 for trespassing and three for allegedly having brass knuckles. The two sides settled on a 3.5 percent pay cut, down from the company's request of 8 percent.
US Airways AFA vows that if there's no agreement by November 19, the union will ask the National
Mediation Board to declare an impasse and start the federally-mandated 30-day cooling-off period. If no agreement is reached by the end of the 30-day period, flight attendants will engage in CHAOS. Creating Havoc Around Our System is a strike action that may take a variety of forms. Flight attendants may stage a walkout for a day or a week or strike individual flights. The airline will receive no warning.
Talks between the airline and AFA are taking place in a secret location outside Washington, DC.
COMMUNICATION WORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO WIN REPRESENTATIONAL ELECTION
After a long and arduous battle the National Mediation Board announced on Friday, August 20, 1999 that the Communication Workers of America would finally be the collective bargaining unit that will represent the more than 7,000 passenger service employees at US Airways
