Airline, Flight Attendants Fine-Tune Pact
Flight attendants and America West Airlines met Saturday to resolve the wording of a tentative agreement that averted a strike that could have stranded 100,000 travelers this weekend.
“The basics are there. We want to make sure there’s no room for differences in interpretation,” said Deanna Clarkson, a spokeswoman for the union, the Assn. of Flight Attendants.
The deal, announced late Friday, when the 2,300 flight attendants were free to walk off the job, ended a fight that brought the nation’s ninth-largest carrier to the brink of a strike.
Jeff Zack, another union spokesman, said details would not be available until Monday.
A union official who asked to remain anonymous said the agreement did not completely close the $16.5-million gap between the company’s last offer and union demands.
“We both made compromises. That’s what negotiations are all about,” the official said.
The deal, subject to approval by union members, has not yet been set for a vote.
Both sides met Saturday with federal mediators in Washington, where the final round of negotiations took place over three days last week.
America West Chairman William Franke said the contract “addresses the principal concerns of both parties.”
Union President Bill McGlashen said the deal gives flight attendants “fair wages, a per diem and work rules that will improve our quality of life.”
The Assn. of Flight Attendants had threatened a series of random work stoppages, dubbed CHAOS, for Creating Havoc Around Our System.
A strike would have left up to 100,000 passengers stranded this weekend. America West, with hubs in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Columbus, Ohio, serves 53 domestic destinations and eight cities in Mexico and Canada.
Flight attendants have been without a contract since they unionized in 1994--three years after America West filed for bankruptcy protection.
During the bankruptcy reorganization, flight attendants took a 10% pay cut. They said it had not been restored, even though the company posted record profits in 1997 and 1998.
The flight attendants had demanded pay on par with the average of the top 10 carriers. About two-thirds of America West’s flight attendants earn the top salary of $23,800. Top-scale flight attendants at rival Southwest Airlines earn $41,200.
The flight attendants also wanted the same daily expense payments that pilots receive--$1.80 per hour--for time away from their base city. Currently, America West flight attendants get no per diem allowance.
There were cheers among flight attendants outside the suburban Tempe, Ariz., headquarters of the airline when word of the agreement was announced.
“We did it! It’s over!” flight attendant Julie Simis shouted into her cell phone. Simis, a 15-year veteran with America West, was passing on the news to a flight attendant who had just returned to Phoenix.
“It’s about time,” she said.
