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CWA: Fairness Needed in US Airways Talks
Washington, D.C. – Over the past several weeks, the Communications Workers of America has been trying to reach a fair and reasonable settlement over cost-cutting measures with US Airways management on behalf of the 10,000 passenger service employees the union represents.
The talks have been frustrated by management's unreasonable demands and its unwillingness to acknowledge the high productivity rates and substantial sacrifices this work group already has made, far exceeding the other employee groups, CWA said.
"Many of management's demands would result in passenger service agents subsidizing the health care and pension benefits of other higher-paid employees – even benefits that the airline's ticket, gate and reservations agents do not receive," said Chris Fox, a reservations agent and president of CWA Local 13302 and a member of the bargaining team.
CWA has offered four separate salary reduction proposals, all of which were dismissed by management as "not enough." US Airways management has shown no willingness to meet half-way, including on the latest proposal by CWA which included salary and medical care reductions of $17,000 per agent at top rate through 2008, the union noted.
Management demands – including cuts in salary and benefits – seek to wring more than $96,000 per agent at top rate over the same period, a fully unreasonable bargaining position, said Tom Wilson, a US Airways agent and acting president of CWA Local 13100, also a member of the union bargaining team.
This round of cost-cutting is the second that the passenger service group has been forced to undergo. No other employee group has provided this degree of financial sacrifice to the airline, CWA pointed out. Before passenger service workers gained CWA representation in 1999, their defined benefit pension plan was frozen in 1990, with newer hires not eligible for even the frozen benefits. Also, their post-Medicare health care and drug coverage was eliminated and a 10-year wage freeze was imposed.
This amounts to a substantial contribution by agents, but one that management has dismissed as "old news." US Airways management acknowledges that the productivity of its passenger service group leads the industry, but continues to press these agents who are among the lower-paid employees at the airline, for an unreasonable level of additional sacrifice.
Under the medical benefit plan management is pressing, all employees, including agents earning on average $38,000 a year and pilots earning an average of $233,000 a year, would pay the same premiums and charges. However, passenger service workers also would be subsidizing the post-Medicare medical and drug coverage of higher paid employees, while management refuses to extend that coverage to passenger service workers, CWA pointed out.
Similarly, management's demands for salary and benefit cuts would pay for continuing the defined benefit pension plan that our members cannot participate in, the union said.
Another bargaining team member, Cathy Bumgarner, a reservations agent and president of CWA Local 3640, summed up the agents' position: "Our message to US Airways to very clear. CWA members want our airline to survive and we want to play our part in keeping our airline operating. But management has to get serious and work out a fair settlement with us. We've sacrificed for US Airways in the past and are willing to do so again, but we cannot participate at the same level as the more highly paid employee groups, who have more generous benefit packages and have not made the level of sacrifice our members already have. We can't give what we don't have."
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The talks have been frustrated by management's unreasonable demands and its unwillingness to acknowledge the high productivity rates and substantial sacrifices this work group already has made, far exceeding the other employee groups, CWA said.
"Many of management's demands would result in passenger service agents subsidizing the health care and pension benefits of other higher-paid employees – even benefits that the airline's ticket, gate and reservations agents do not receive," said Chris Fox, a reservations agent and president of CWA Local 13302 and a member of the bargaining team.
CWA has offered four separate salary reduction proposals, all of which were dismissed by management as "not enough." US Airways management has shown no willingness to meet half-way, including on the latest proposal by CWA which included salary and medical care reductions of $17,000 per agent at top rate through 2008, the union noted.
Management demands – including cuts in salary and benefits – seek to wring more than $96,000 per agent at top rate over the same period, a fully unreasonable bargaining position, said Tom Wilson, a US Airways agent and acting president of CWA Local 13100, also a member of the union bargaining team.
This round of cost-cutting is the second that the passenger service group has been forced to undergo. No other employee group has provided this degree of financial sacrifice to the airline, CWA pointed out. Before passenger service workers gained CWA representation in 1999, their defined benefit pension plan was frozen in 1990, with newer hires not eligible for even the frozen benefits. Also, their post-Medicare health care and drug coverage was eliminated and a 10-year wage freeze was imposed.
This amounts to a substantial contribution by agents, but one that management has dismissed as "old news." US Airways management acknowledges that the productivity of its passenger service group leads the industry, but continues to press these agents who are among the lower-paid employees at the airline, for an unreasonable level of additional sacrifice.
Under the medical benefit plan management is pressing, all employees, including agents earning on average $38,000 a year and pilots earning an average of $233,000 a year, would pay the same premiums and charges. However, passenger service workers also would be subsidizing the post-Medicare medical and drug coverage of higher paid employees, while management refuses to extend that coverage to passenger service workers, CWA pointed out.
Similarly, management's demands for salary and benefit cuts would pay for continuing the defined benefit pension plan that our members cannot participate in, the union said.
Another bargaining team member, Cathy Bumgarner, a reservations agent and president of CWA Local 3640, summed up the agents' position: "Our message to US Airways to very clear. CWA members want our airline to survive and we want to play our part in keeping our airline operating. But management has to get serious and work out a fair settlement with us. We've sacrificed for US Airways in the past and are willing to do so again, but we cannot participate at the same level as the more highly paid employee groups, who have more generous benefit packages and have not made the level of sacrifice our members already have. We can't give what we don't have."
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