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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)