PSA’s Flight Attendants to Choose Between Unions

The National Mediation Board has agreed to hold an election to determine if the Assn. of Flight Attendants union has enough support to turn out the incumbent Teamsters Union, which has represented Pacific Southwest Airlines’ 950 flight attendants since 1980.

The AFA, which represents 23,000 flight attendants on 14 U.S. airlines, gathered election cards from an “overwhelming majority” of PSA’s flight attendants, according to AFA spokeswoman Judy Stack.

The mediation board certified the election after determining that AFA had collected bona fide cards from a simple majority of PSA’s attendants.

PSA’s proposed merger with USAir has been approved by federal regulators and by shareholders of USAir, PSA and PS Group, PSA’s parent company. According to terms of the merger agreement signed in December, either airline could back out if the deal is not completed by April 30. The only remaining barrier to the merger is USAir’s demand that PSA’s unions modify labor contracts that give them special representational rights should PSA be merged into another airline. PSA’s pilots union and two smaller unions have agreed to modify their labor contracts to meet USAir’s demands.

Teamsters Local 2707, which represents about 3,000 PSA mechanics, reservations agents and operations personnel in addition to the flight attendants, has yet to ratify the contract changes being demanded by USAir.

Stack said it could take more than a month for election results to be tallied. The mediation board has certified the election but has yet to set a date for the balloting, which will be conducted by mail, according to board spokesman Meredith Buel.