Many United mechanics feel they've given enough
By Robert Manor and Grace Aduroja / Chicago Tribune staff reporters
December 3, 2002
United Airlines has a lot to fear in mechanics like Jim Chapko. Chapko, a 17-year United employee, spent part of Monday at his union's headquarters in Des Plaines pondering the latest news from the airline: a wage-concession proposal that would cut his salary by 7 percent.
United and leaders of Local 141-M of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers agreed to the deal Monday. On Thursday, Chapko and about 13,000 union mechanics will vote on the plan. Industry observers see it as United's only hope of avoiding bankruptcy.
But Chapko was unmoved. He was among the 57 percent of mechanics who rejected an almost identical deal last week. Not even the threat of his employer's insolvency can convince him to change his mind.
"Personally, I think bankruptcy is a better thing at this point," said Chapko, 39, of St. Charles.
With a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing business decisions at United, he reasoned, the airline might avoid the kinds of bad business decisions it has made in the past.
United mechanics have been called a lot of things--holdouts, rogues, professionally suicidal--for voting down the earlier contract proposal after the airlines' other major unions agreed to givebacks.
But they don't see it that way. Understanding why requires a look at United's history, the mechanics' take on the economics of their profession and a little labor politics.
For starters, the mechanics have endured a wage freeze since 1993. Many say they are tired of rescuing a company in perpetual crisis.
"These guys are in a very ill humor," said Darryl Jenkins, director of the Aviation Institute at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "Years ago, they gave up some pretty good wage concessions, which were supposed to bring them to Valhalla. They ended up going eight years without a pay raise."
The mechanics feel they have paid a steep price for what they consider years of bungled management, such as United's aborted attempt to buy US Airways.
"They feel they have been treated badly," Jenkins said.
Some, including the mechanics' union leaders, have pointed out that a bankruptcy filing could nullify the union's contract, raising the possibility that a judge could set wages lower than a 7 percent reduction. A senior mechanics with dual licenses from the Federal Aviation Administration could earn $72,000 a year.
But a wage cut isn't guaranteed. And if it happened, the mechanics know their skills are in high demand, even in a tight economy.
Mechanics expert at repairing jet engines can learn to maintain the gas-fired electric generators sprouting at factories. Those adroit at repairing plane air-conditioning systems can do the same for office towers. And others who repair aircraft electronics are fully capable of learning to fix the sophisticated electronics of an automated factory.
Needed skills
What's more, United has said it would continue flying in bankruptcy. So it still would need mechanics, and the mechanics think they would have significant wage-pricing power.
All of this makes many mechanics doubt that bankruptcy is such a bad alternative.
Joe Goldhar, a professor of technology management at Illinois Institute of Technology, describes airline mechanics as "knowledge workers."
"Its not turning a wrench," he said. "It's using a computer."
Goldhar said the mechanics have the same power over airlines that the longshoremen have over the nation's docks. But he said the mechanics have earned that power by making themselves indispensable, something the dockworkers have not done.
"The longshoremen have resisted new technology to preserve jobs, while the machinists union embraced new technology because it meant more maintenance work," Goldhar said.
An airline mechanic must study aviation maintenance technology for two years at an approved school, such as Lewis University in Romeoville. Students learn topics such as the use of "liquid penetrant, magnetic particle, eddy current [and] radiographic, sonic and ultrasonic evaluation procedures" for detecting problems with aircraft, according to a course description.
After graduating and earning a Federal Aviation Administration license, prospective airline mechanics must spend five more years as apprentices. For those who make it all the way, the rewards are good, but there are drawbacks.
Unattractive hours
By most standards, the mechanics earn good wages. But the money doesn't come easy.
"It's mostly night and weekend shifts," said Dave Quinn of Glenview, a lead mechanic with 17 years at United. "We work holidays."
The shifts are only logical, as United's planes are flying most other times.
Quinn has no interest in giving more back to United. If the union accepts the latest wage deal, Quinn said, he would work from 1993 to 2010 without a raise.
"We are just coming off a long-term wage freeze," Quinn said. "Nobody wants to go through that again."
Scott Shields, a United mechanic for 18 years, said he doesn't understand why he is being asked to vote again on an agreement almost identical to the one he turned down only a few days ago. It's the same sentiment expressed by other mechanics, some of whom clearly have lost faith in their union leaders. That feeling came through loud and clear in last week's vote to reject.
"It's a little frosting they smeared over the old contract," said Shields, 42, of Mt. Prospect.
Shields said he won't change his vote. "If I have to, I'll work two jobs."