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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 2016)
PAGE 2 | November 4, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS BUY UNION How to fly union Delta and JetBlue are nonunion outliers in a mostly union industry By Don McIntosh At a time when just 6.7 percent of America’s private sector workers belong to a union, pas- senger airlines are one of the few remaining heavily-union- ized industries. Three of the top four carriers are at or above 80 percent unionized. Their union contracts set an industry stan- dard and give workers job secu- rity and good enough pay and benefits that they can enjoy a comfortable middle class stan- dard of living. For example, un- der a collective bargaining agreement ratified in August at United Airlines, flight attendant base pay starts at $26.68 an hour and tops out at $62 an hour after 13 years of service. Airlines right now are taking in record profits — $24 billion industry-wide in the last four calendar quarters. The profit surge is made possible by the fact that fuel prices plunged a few years ago, but ticket prices stayed about the same. That’s just what you’d expect in an oli- gopoly where just four airlines control 69 percent of total mar- ket share and the top seven air- lines have 82 percent of the mar- ket, according to the latest num- bers from the U.S. Department of Transportation. But they’re not all the same: Two of the top seven have worked hard to keep unions down and out — Delta and Jet- Blue. Delta, the nation’s third largest carrier, has long fought to remain nonunion. After Northwest Airlines merged into Delta, Northwest flight atten- dants and ground crews lost their unions. Just one-sixth of Delta workers today are union- represented — pilots and dis- patchers. Delta does have a re- gional subsidiary, Envoy Air, where flight attendants, pilots and dispatchers are union. And workers at a Pennsylvania jet fuel refinery owned by another Delta subsidiary are represented by United Steel Workers. Meanwhile, JetBlue, the #2 low-cost carrier after Southwest, has never yet signed a union contract. After two failed efforts to unionize, JetBlue pilots suc- ceeded in winning union repre- sentation in April 2014 by a 74 percent margin. But the union has yet to reach agreement over a first contract with JetBlue. In Clackamas County WE SUPPORT Jim Bernard for County Chair Ken Humberston for County Commissioner Position 4 NW Oregon Labor Council, AFL-CIO Paid for and authorized by NW Oregon Labor Council Airlines Market Share Percent Unionized American 19.6% 82 APA 12,800 pilots | APFA 24,100 flight attendants | CWA/IBT 16,500 passenger service | TWU/IAM 30,430 fleet service, mechanics, etc. Southwest 18.2% 83 SWAPA 7,600 pilots | TWU 13,100 flight attendants | TWU 11,387 ramp, operations, dispatch | IAM 6,390 customer service | AMFA 2,540 mechanics | IBT 330 stock clerks, simulator techs Delta 16.9% 18 ALPA 12,080 pilots | PAFCA 400 dispatchers United 14.4% 80 ALPA 11,204 pilots | AFA 21,078 flight attendants | IAM 25,456 fleet service, passenger serv- ice, storekeepers, etc. | IBT 8,899 technicians | PAFCA 383 dispatchers JetBlue 5.4% 18 ALPA 2,857 pilots Alaska 4.6% 83 ALPA 1,697 pilots | AFA 3,660 flight attendants | IAM 3,546 passenger service, clerical, ramp service, stock clerks | AMFA 665 mechanics, inspectors, cleaners | TWU 44 dispatchers Spirit 2.9% 73 ALPA 1,266 pilots | AFA 2,075 flight attendants | IAM 190 ramp service agents (Fort Laud- erdale only) | TWU 35 dispatchers Unions Market share is from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and is based on revenue passenger miles from August 2015 to July 2016. Union percentage is as of Dec. 31, 2015, and comes from the 2015 10-K reports filed by each company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. AFA - Association of Flight Attendants, a division of CWA, AFL-CIO ALPA - Air Line Pilots Association, AFL-CIO AMFA - Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (independent union) APA - Allied Pilots Association (independent union, only at American Airlines) APFA - Association of Professional Flight Attendants (independent union, only at American Airlines) CWA - Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO IAM - International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO IBT - International Brotherhood of Teamsters (independent union) PAFCA - Professional Airline Flight Control Association (independent union) TWU - Transport Workers Union, AFL-CIO SWAPA - Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (independent union, only at Southwest Airlines)
