- Sep 30, 2003
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US Airways / Behind the Scenes: Machinists
Mechanics' hard-line against cuts comes from anger over past givebacks -- and rival union's popularity
Sunday, August 01, 2004
By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
US Airways' machinists, who restore planes for the nation's seventh-largest carrier, are in a fix that might be difficult to repair.
As pressure mounts on all labor groups to produce $800 million in new concessions by Sept. 30 or face another trip through bankruptcy, the union representing 5,000 mechanics remains as opposed to contractual sacrifices as it did last fall, when it coined a phrase that continues to resonate: "The concession stand is closed."
But with the pilots and flight attendants agreeing to reopen their contracts and the reservation, gate and ticket agents now willing to listen to the company's cost-cutting proposals, how can a tough-nosed union back down from its hard-line rhetoric and still save face with its members, many of whom are seething about past givebacks?
"I think they have got themselves painted into a corner," said local airline analyst Bill Lauer.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers' line-in-the-sand approach is "a little unusual," said Bill Warlick, a senior airline analyst with Fitch Ratings in Chicago. "Typically, you will have a lot of give and take and nuance -- responses that give the union a little more wiggle room. ... Once you have committed to no concessions as your bottom line, it becomes very difficult to climb down from that without losing face."
Not that it's too late. On Tuesday, IAM General Vice President Robert Roach intends to discuss the US Airways situation with five assistant general chairmen -- the same people who would handle any official negotiations with the company. And later this month, an arbitrator is expected to rule on US Airways' ability to outsource jet maintenance work -- a decision that could bring the IAM to the bargaining table depending on the outcome.
Thus far, the union has been willing only to suggest cost cuts that do not involve reopening its contract, a pitch the company has all but ignored. The union's $80 million to $100 million proposal calls for the removal of some managers and improved safety programs.
Time is running short. The company, trying to comply with the requirements of more than $700 million in federally backed loans, has set the end of September as a deadline for new labor cuts, including $263 million in annual cuts from the IAM. US Airways spokesman David Castelveter emphasized that the door is still open. "We are willing to meet with them anytime at their call to get this process moving."
For the IAM, "there is room to climb down" from its no-new-bargaining demand, said Warlick, the Fitch Ratings analyst. "The question is how far the leadership wants to go."
To some observers, the IAM's resistance is reminiscent of a classic 1980s union-management standoff involving the union, its leader, Charlie Bryan, and now-defunct Eastern Air Lines. Due in part to antipathy toward Chairman Frank Lorenzo, Bryan led a March 1989 mechanics strike against Eastern. The strike, supported by the pilots and the flight attendants, pushed the airline into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, resulting in its shutdown and liquidation two years later.
Several events explain the IAM's stand today. Almost two years ago, during US Airways' first trip through bankruptcy court, the machinists union turned down the company's request for $152 million in annual wage-and-benefit cuts and then, under pressure from then-Chief Executive Officer David Siegel, approved the changes in a second vote three weeks later, the concessionary package passing with 57 percent of the vote.
Many mechanics are still upset about the double vote. "The union did not really stick up for our point of view," a 59-year-old mechanic from Dayton, Ohio, said last week, speaking outside a US Airways maintenance hangar in Moon.
Some members, in fact, were upset enough to recruit a rival union, the Laconia, N.H.-based Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, or AMFA. This is the same labor group that ousted the IAM at United, Northwest and Alaska Airlines.
Last year, AMFA came close to securing enough support among US Airways employees to hold an official election, collecting signatures from 47 percent of eligible US Airways mechanics. The federal government requires 50 percent support before holding an election.
A top AMFA official, aware of the US Airways-IAM standoff, attributes IAM's recent recalcitrance to its desire to keep US Airways -- the last large airline mechanic group it represents. "If I had to hazard a guess," said AMFA assistant national director Terry Harvey, "I would say US Airways' [IAM leadership] is probably afraid of upsetting their membership'' because they can vote the IAM out and another union in.
That fear puts the IAM in "somewhat of a tenuous position," said Warlick, the analyst with Fitch Ratings, ensuring that any decisions about union-management relations at US Airways "are really being driven by the national leadership as opposed to the rank and file."
An IAM spokesman disagreed, arguing that the union's position on new concessions reflects the needs of its 9,450 members who include not just 5,000 mechanics but 4,450 lower-paid ramp workers, cleaners and stock clerks. The members, he said, do not want the IAM to reopen its contract.
While the IAM has no way of knowing how all members feel -- it has not polled them on the question of new concessions -- a spokesman said the national office is in touch with rank-and file through constant dialogue with local union leaders.
Employees are "still telling us we are doing a hell of a job," said Tom Miklavic, negotiator for IAM's ramp workers, District 141. "We have been asked by membership to take this hard-line stance."
But the opinions of IAM's membership are not exactly universal. On a visit this week to US Airways maintenance facilities in Moon, the Post-Gazette talked to 18 machinists as they entered and left hangars 3 and 4 and discovered a divergence in views of the union's stance.
Twelve of the 18, or 66 percent, supported the union's view that the contract should remain closed. Three had mixed feelings about the issue, and three others argued for a new set of negotiations -- going against the union's position.
Those who opposed new talks did so out of anger, believing that they gave enough during previous rounds of negotiations and that the company was not spending its money wisely. "There is no trust," said one.
Those with mixed feelings were torn between anger over new cuts and the practical concerns of economics and family. One mechanic, who has a wife and two kids to support in Charlotte, N.C., said he didn't want to lose his job but at the same time, "you have to draw a line in the sand somewhere." Another said that the mechanics have no more room to give but pointed his finger instead at the utility workers, who clean planes. They "make too much," he said.
Those who urged the union to reverse itself and consider a new round of concessions described themselves as realists who understood the ever-changing nature of the airline industry and the slim chance that US Airways could survive without more cuts from labor. "Talk is cheap," said one 47-year-old mechanic. "I don't want to lose my job. Would you?"
Looks like the concessions for jobs isn't working at US Airways. The management business plan isn't working at that airline either.
How low will iam go? Maybe they could start a card drive for the twu? The twu will show the iam the path to the lowest pay and benefits in the industry, while letting the company keep record numbers of management and waste resources with no accountability to the employees.
Mechanics' hard-line against cuts comes from anger over past givebacks -- and rival union's popularity
Sunday, August 01, 2004
By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
US Airways' machinists, who restore planes for the nation's seventh-largest carrier, are in a fix that might be difficult to repair.
As pressure mounts on all labor groups to produce $800 million in new concessions by Sept. 30 or face another trip through bankruptcy, the union representing 5,000 mechanics remains as opposed to contractual sacrifices as it did last fall, when it coined a phrase that continues to resonate: "The concession stand is closed."
But with the pilots and flight attendants agreeing to reopen their contracts and the reservation, gate and ticket agents now willing to listen to the company's cost-cutting proposals, how can a tough-nosed union back down from its hard-line rhetoric and still save face with its members, many of whom are seething about past givebacks?
"I think they have got themselves painted into a corner," said local airline analyst Bill Lauer.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers' line-in-the-sand approach is "a little unusual," said Bill Warlick, a senior airline analyst with Fitch Ratings in Chicago. "Typically, you will have a lot of give and take and nuance -- responses that give the union a little more wiggle room. ... Once you have committed to no concessions as your bottom line, it becomes very difficult to climb down from that without losing face."
Not that it's too late. On Tuesday, IAM General Vice President Robert Roach intends to discuss the US Airways situation with five assistant general chairmen -- the same people who would handle any official negotiations with the company. And later this month, an arbitrator is expected to rule on US Airways' ability to outsource jet maintenance work -- a decision that could bring the IAM to the bargaining table depending on the outcome.
Thus far, the union has been willing only to suggest cost cuts that do not involve reopening its contract, a pitch the company has all but ignored. The union's $80 million to $100 million proposal calls for the removal of some managers and improved safety programs.
Time is running short. The company, trying to comply with the requirements of more than $700 million in federally backed loans, has set the end of September as a deadline for new labor cuts, including $263 million in annual cuts from the IAM. US Airways spokesman David Castelveter emphasized that the door is still open. "We are willing to meet with them anytime at their call to get this process moving."
For the IAM, "there is room to climb down" from its no-new-bargaining demand, said Warlick, the Fitch Ratings analyst. "The question is how far the leadership wants to go."
To some observers, the IAM's resistance is reminiscent of a classic 1980s union-management standoff involving the union, its leader, Charlie Bryan, and now-defunct Eastern Air Lines. Due in part to antipathy toward Chairman Frank Lorenzo, Bryan led a March 1989 mechanics strike against Eastern. The strike, supported by the pilots and the flight attendants, pushed the airline into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, resulting in its shutdown and liquidation two years later.
Several events explain the IAM's stand today. Almost two years ago, during US Airways' first trip through bankruptcy court, the machinists union turned down the company's request for $152 million in annual wage-and-benefit cuts and then, under pressure from then-Chief Executive Officer David Siegel, approved the changes in a second vote three weeks later, the concessionary package passing with 57 percent of the vote.
Many mechanics are still upset about the double vote. "The union did not really stick up for our point of view," a 59-year-old mechanic from Dayton, Ohio, said last week, speaking outside a US Airways maintenance hangar in Moon.
Some members, in fact, were upset enough to recruit a rival union, the Laconia, N.H.-based Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, or AMFA. This is the same labor group that ousted the IAM at United, Northwest and Alaska Airlines.
Last year, AMFA came close to securing enough support among US Airways employees to hold an official election, collecting signatures from 47 percent of eligible US Airways mechanics. The federal government requires 50 percent support before holding an election.
A top AMFA official, aware of the US Airways-IAM standoff, attributes IAM's recent recalcitrance to its desire to keep US Airways -- the last large airline mechanic group it represents. "If I had to hazard a guess," said AMFA assistant national director Terry Harvey, "I would say US Airways' [IAM leadership] is probably afraid of upsetting their membership'' because they can vote the IAM out and another union in.
That fear puts the IAM in "somewhat of a tenuous position," said Warlick, the analyst with Fitch Ratings, ensuring that any decisions about union-management relations at US Airways "are really being driven by the national leadership as opposed to the rank and file."
An IAM spokesman disagreed, arguing that the union's position on new concessions reflects the needs of its 9,450 members who include not just 5,000 mechanics but 4,450 lower-paid ramp workers, cleaners and stock clerks. The members, he said, do not want the IAM to reopen its contract.
While the IAM has no way of knowing how all members feel -- it has not polled them on the question of new concessions -- a spokesman said the national office is in touch with rank-and file through constant dialogue with local union leaders.
Employees are "still telling us we are doing a hell of a job," said Tom Miklavic, negotiator for IAM's ramp workers, District 141. "We have been asked by membership to take this hard-line stance."
But the opinions of IAM's membership are not exactly universal. On a visit this week to US Airways maintenance facilities in Moon, the Post-Gazette talked to 18 machinists as they entered and left hangars 3 and 4 and discovered a divergence in views of the union's stance.
Twelve of the 18, or 66 percent, supported the union's view that the contract should remain closed. Three had mixed feelings about the issue, and three others argued for a new set of negotiations -- going against the union's position.
Those who opposed new talks did so out of anger, believing that they gave enough during previous rounds of negotiations and that the company was not spending its money wisely. "There is no trust," said one.
Those with mixed feelings were torn between anger over new cuts and the practical concerns of economics and family. One mechanic, who has a wife and two kids to support in Charlotte, N.C., said he didn't want to lose his job but at the same time, "you have to draw a line in the sand somewhere." Another said that the mechanics have no more room to give but pointed his finger instead at the utility workers, who clean planes. They "make too much," he said.
Those who urged the union to reverse itself and consider a new round of concessions described themselves as realists who understood the ever-changing nature of the airline industry and the slim chance that US Airways could survive without more cuts from labor. "Talk is cheap," said one 47-year-old mechanic. "I don't want to lose my job. Would you?"
Looks like the concessions for jobs isn't working at US Airways. The management business plan isn't working at that airline either.
How low will iam go? Maybe they could start a card drive for the twu? The twu will show the iam the path to the lowest pay and benefits in the industry, while letting the company keep record numbers of management and waste resources with no accountability to the employees.
