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Airline employees may be replaced

 
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Jul 15, 2006 - 13:09:47 CDT
By ZACHARY FRANZ
Bismarck Tribune
Northwest Airlines plans to lay off many of its ground employees in North Dakota and replace them with contract workers, said the president of a union that represents many of the employees.

The bankrupt airline has announced that the positions of employees at some airports will be filled by vendors - private companies that contract with the airline to do some jobs. NWA has not publicly announced which airports would see the change, but International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 143 president Robert De Pace said North Dakota employees would be among those affected. District 143 is based out of Mendota Heights, Minn., and represents North Dakota.

A brief statement from NWA says in part, "As a result of Northwest's company-wide effort to reduce annual labor costs by $1.4 billion and its ratified agreement with ... IAM, which represents ground operations employees at the airline, the number of airport locations staffed with Northwest employees will be reduced."

IAM represents 80 Northwest ground employees in North Dakota, including 24 in Bismarck, De Pace said. The outsourcing applies to customer service agents, equipment service employees, and some clerical workers, but it is unclear how many people in those positions will be replaced, De Pace said. Pilots and flight attendants negotiate separately. NWA is currently in a bitter contract negotiation with the flight attendants' union, which has threatened to strike.

It also is uncertain when NWA will make the change. The airport must conclude bankruptcy proceedings - which began last September - before implementing the plan, according to an IAM statement. De Pace said it might happen in October, and Bismarck Municipal Airport manager Gregory Haug said he expected to see the change before the end of the year.

IAM agreed to the outsourcing of some jobs in an effort to preserve the other 80 percent, De Pace said.

"This was a choice between bad and worse," he said in a statement after the terms were accepted. "The sacrifices IAM members have agreed to make are necessary for the carrier's survival, but there is not a guarantee of success."

Those employees facing job loss have two options, De Pace said. They can either negotiate a severance package or apply for a position at another airport. Generally, NWA will use vendors at smaller, less busy airports, while maintaining NWA staff at the hubs, he said. There are about 112 open ground-worker positions at Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport, De Pace said.

"In places like Bismarck where there's no big rush, they can afford to hire vendors,"he said "At the bigger airports, there's just too much work."

Contract employees typically earn significantly less than those who work for the airline, De Pace said. The airline ground workers represented by IAM in North Dakota make around $18 per hour, while contract employees make around $12 per hour, he said.

"The bottom line is it's a real severe cut in pay," he said.

De Pace believes that may lead to problems for customers.

"With vendors everywhere across the country - because they pay people so little - there is constant turnover," De Pace said. "That's when you see service go down and you see safety drop."

The NWA statement said neither service nor safety will be compromised. Haug also said he did not expect major problems at Bismarck's airport. Haug noted that Delta Airlines operated in Bismarck using contract employees without problems.

"I think contract employees will be held to their contract,"he said. "We hope for the best and understand there may be some bumps in the road."

The NWA statement said "the change has no impact on the airline's flight schedule or its presence at airports around the country."

(Reach reporter Zach Franz at 250-8261 or Zach.Franz@;bismarcktribune.com.)
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Airline employees may be replaced
Comments

Its about time wrote on Jul 16, 2006 9:09 AM:

" Why don't we ever get this informaiton from the corporate media? They must not want us to know what their corporate buddies are up to. We gotta know who is really ripping us off and go after them. "

Don wrote on Jul 15, 2006 11:16 PM:

" A couple more things about NWA. We need people working for the airlines as mechanics who know and really care about their work. I know mechanics whose life ambition was to be the best jet mechanic. NWA prefers less well-trained foreign very cheap workers becasue they are non-union and that means the top people can get richer faster. Excellent mechanics get burned and the planes are not as safe as they used to be. Many workers at NWA are facing 40% to 60% cuts in their income and flight attendants have to work longer hours to get the lower pay. How can these families do this? How could you do this. We don't hear about the workers' side of this in the media. And the Bush Adminstration and corporations just smile and keep their wealth growing. Bush says his constituency is the "have-mores" and this is the result of that. "

Don wrote on Jul 15, 2006 11:02 PM:

" The truth is NWA spent billions on two employee systems so that they could have replacement workers ready if their loyal workers actually didn’t knuckle under to corporate demands for huge concessions. NWA’s real goal was to break their workers’ voice. After spending all that extra unnecessary money on the double employee system NWA didn’t need, the corporation pleaded to the bankruptcy judge that their labor costs were too high. No duh! Then the CEO and corporate elite get bonuses and golden parachutes as thank yous. The Bush Administration thinks this is just dandy because their friends are getting richer. Next time you fly, if you can afford it, tell a flight attendant thanks for standing up to NWA ugly tactics and that you know they and their fellow NWA workers are on the front lines of the fight for the middle class. "

Amen brother wrote on Jul 15, 2006 10:46 PM:

" Thank you Tom for telling us what is really happening. Your story is being repeated thousands of times all over this country and way too many people are just plain too scared to fight back. We are getting hurt badly. The very first thing we have to do is understand how so many of us are connected because we're in the same kind of situations...working hard, making sacrifices, and watching the fat cats walk off with all the money. The media does not cover this. The people in power are ripping us off, greasing the skids for themselves and then changing the subject by whipping us up into a lather about how awful gays are. Let's focus on what we can do to tell people the real story. "

johnny wrote on Jul 15, 2006 9:14 PM:

" We all had a chance to stick together on August 20.I guess you thought NWA would treat you better because their employee relations track history was so good! "

Tom from California wrote on Jul 15, 2006 6:21 PM:

" Rags to riches to rags......... Here is my story. I moved to the west coast from N.D. in hopes of a great job with a top airline. ( Name withheld ) The housing is out of site here but I toughed it out waiting to hit the top pay scale after 5 years.. After my 5th year, the company came after the employees for pay cuts. I had a taste of the good life for two months. My family suffered without during all of this, waiting for a good wage. I told them it will be better..... Then came the ESOP, Employee Stock Ownership Program. They took 18% more of my pay and gave me stock in the company. Sounds like a good deal but it wasn't. We were not allowed to sell it until we quit, retired. During this ESOP period we were not allowed to put money in our 401K plans because of the esop. It pushed us over the maxium savings. This was a time for record profits..Everyone made out on there investments but us holding this stock that we couldn't sell.. Towards the end of the ESOP which was 5 years, the CEO came and asked us again for another huge paycut. They said if we didn't accept it, our stock that we couldn't sell would be worthless.......In other words, we are going to take 5 years of pay away from you if you don't take what we offer.. It was like holding a gun to our heads... We said no and they filed bankruptcy and took our stock and gave us nothing in return but another paycut around 18% Remember, I told my family in the first 5 years it was going to get better, now it's 11 years into my employement and I lost everything. During this time, CEOs of these airlines were getting what was called "Golden Parachutes" Huge sums of money in the millions upon retirement. My company has been a revolving door for these thieves. And recently they took my pension that I have worked for the last 20 years to build up, took it away and dumped it on the PBGC ( Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ) http://www.pbgc.gov/ I will get about 40%..... 40% of what I was promised! Now they have farmed the work out to overseas companys. I would bet these people overseas are not monitored as closely as the employees in the USA for security, etc.. As they cut labor costs by 30 to 50%, Are they passing the savings onto the customer???? Have you seen your tickets in Bismarck drop by 30 to 50 %???? No, they just pocket the money, put americans out of work and in my opinion, give the customer a worse product. Sorry to rant and rave on here but thats my story. I am ready to pack it up and get a job with the railroad, powerplant or someplace else back home where I can use my skills.( N.D.) Spend some time with family and friends. "

Pat wrote on Jul 15, 2006 5:24 PM:

" Barney, If you think cutting these peoples pay or contracting out service work will decrease the fare you pay from Bismarck to Denver you are sadly mistaken. Until NWA has competition on this route you pay whatever NWA feels the flying public will pay! "

It makes sense from the proper perspective wrote on Jul 15, 2006 4:58 PM:

" If you look at it from the perspective of "Give to the rich and take from the poor", then it makes sense to me. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. That's what Iraq is about. Record money and profits for the rich (Oil companies and Haliburton too). Giving Cheney about $ 37,000.000. in a going away package just before he took office was a good deal for the oil companies and Haliburton too - especially with "No Bid Contracts". Airline companies going bankrupt - partially due to ridiculously high fuel prices - and giving more to the rich follows the same pattern. It all makes sense if you look at it from the viewpoint of give to the rich and take from the poor. "

Bob White wrote on Jul 15, 2006 4:37 PM:

" I agree with Don. There will be a worker's revolution and then we will see whose heads will roll! Next time you go to Maui look who is working the AA counter. It is not company AA employees, it is Aloha Airlines contracting out to AA. Same deal in Cincinnati (CVG), it is American Eagle not AA. Oh you thought American Eagle was American Airlines, think again. It is a separate low cost company of AMR, the shell corporation that owns AA and AE. This station let go of several senior employees by not flying mainline jets into the station for two years. After the time was up they started mainline flying but without the "high cost" ground folks. Wake up America, Chinese or Mexican contract labor is just around the corner. "

Barney wrote on Jul 15, 2006 4:21 PM:

" Give us some answers rather than criticism then. I for one don't want to pay $1,500 to fly from Bismarck to Denver or $1,500 to fly from Bismarck to Mpls. So cut costs or pay increased fares - which would you rather have? Remember Don, according to this story the unions agreed to this so what if obviously unions don't care about all their employees as they would have us believe they. Don you say it doesn't have to be that way but offer no alternatives. "

mel schlafman wrote on Jul 15, 2006 3:32 PM:

" what ever you do keep it safe for travelers. contract people don't seem to do as good a job as permanent workers. think about the people and not paying CEO large salarys! "

Don wrote on Jul 15, 2006 1:45 PM:

" Let's get this straight. The worker gets cut over 30%. A contract company gets profits out of someone else actually doing the work. NWA's CEOs will get more in bonsus because they destroyed the income of workers and their families. This makes no sense. Who is next to lose in the crushing of middle America working families? This is what happens when one side has all the power. It doesn't have to be that way. "

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