Union Tells Flight Attendants to Cross Pan Am Picket Lines
The Independent Union of Flight Attendants has told its 6,000 members at Pan American World Airways to cross picket lines set up by striking ground workers and return to work, the airline said Wednesday.
Jeff Kriendler, a Pan Am vice president, said that, if the union’s members comply with the order, the financially troubled airline will be able to expand service, which has been curtailed by the strike. The airline said that it plans to resume transcontinental service Friday with non-stop flights connecting Los Angeles with New York and Miami.
The back-to-work order by the flight attendants’ union president, Dennis Nadale, is a severe blow to the 3-week-old Transport Workers Union walkout, which has grounded more than half of Pan Am’s 400 daily flights. The airline’s pilots began crossing picket lines in the second week of the strike.
TWU Strike to Continue
John Kerrigan, leader of the Transport Workers Union, said that his members would stay on strike until they reach a contract agreement with Pan Am, including the return of 700 employees fired when the walkout began Feb. 28. The union represents 5,800 mechanics, baggage handlers, flight dispatchers and kitchen workers at Pan Am.
William Genoese, president of the Teamsters Union’s airline division, said that he had advised the 6,200 reservations, ticketing and other agents to keep honoring the picket lines.
“We are 100% behind the TWU,” he said. “Their fight is our fight, and we won’t come back until they do.”
Robert Brown, the federal mediator in the dispute, said that Pan Am and Transport Workers Union representatives had been bargaining for seven days and did not plan to stop. “Negotiations are continuing,” he said.
The flight attendants have their own April 1 strike deadline.
Kriendler said Nadale’s back-to-work order was issued after a meeting Tuesday night with Pan Am Chairman C. Edward Acker.
The union president asked for reinstatement of flight attendants fired in connection with the walkout, and Acker asked for “a good faith gesture,” Kriendler said.
