Customers Continue to Feel Brunt of Airline Disputes
Only months after last summer’s air-travel debacle infuriated hundreds of thousands of passengers, the flying public once again faces the prospect of widespread “jet-lag” chaos.
Labor unrest--a key factor in the summer mess due to a pilots flap at giant United Airlines--is breaking out all over the airline industry. Passengers are again feeling the pinch, as the disputes spark another round of canceled or late flights that threatens to escalate during the busy Christmas season.
Consumers also could eventually see higher fares, because pilots, mechanics and flight attendants are demanding lucrative new contracts in response to fat pay hikes won by United’s pilots when they finally inked a new agreement with the airline in October.
All of which comes with passengers still fuming over the summer foul-ups. Even more labor-related havoc could further fuel the consumer revolt that has led to calls for a “passenger bill of rights” in Congress.
“We’re looking at Bastille Day,” said Michael Boyd, president of the Boyd Group, an aviation consulting firm in Evergreen, Colo. “People are trapped in these planes, they’re fed up, and it doesn’t help if you give me 10,000 free frequent-flier miles for my trouble. My vacation is ruined.”
Airlines, in turn, find themselves squeezed by soaring fuel costs and a slowing economy, which--together with the likelihood of higher wages--would make for a wobbly outlook even if their passengers weren’t so angry.
To be sure, other factors caused the summer nightmare for air travel, including bad weather in much of the nation, aging air-traffic-control equipment, a record number of passengers and airports in many big cities that are bursting at the seams. The airlines also get blamed for booking more flights than the system can handle.
Indeed, President Clinton on Thursday formed a new unit in the Federal Aviation Administration to improve the government’s role in cutting delays.
The FAA “has not been able to keep pace with either the emergence of new technology or the growth and demand for air travel,” Clinton said, adding that “as the horrendous flight-delay statistics demonstrate, we have not done nearly enough.”
But Clinton’s move won’t solve the labor issue. Delta, fighting a contract battle with its 9,400 pilots, canceled more than 700 flights in late November and early this month--affecting more than 80,000 passengers--because many of its pilots allegedly refused to fly normal overtime hours that Delta relies on when planning its schedule.
Airlines, Unions Risk Passenger Alienation
Delta also will trim its operations by up to 130 of its normal 2,700 daily flights, to match its schedule with its fewer available pilots. The reduction is “so we can provide customers with a schedule that they can rely on,” said Delta spokeswoman Peggy Estes.
But United also slashed schedules last spring as its pilots began cutting their overtime hours, only to see its service crumble anyway as the pilots dug in and kept refusing to fly. That helped force United to cancel more than 25,000 flights in the summer, many at the last moment.
The airlines and the unions know they’re playing with fire in terms of further alienating consumers with their contract spats, despite being beholden to reach deals that satisfy both sides.
“We’re always concerned with the reaction of the flying public,” said Jim Atkinson, a spokesman for the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn., which is locked in a contract fight with Northwest. “The public doesn’t feel your pain. They just want to know: Is my plane going to get me there?”
The pilots’ union, the Air Line Pilots Assn., says too much blame is placed on airline employees.
“It’s possible to negotiate a superior contract and not have the public be affected by it,” said Karen McGuffey-Miller, a spokeswoman for ALPA’s Delta division. She also said “we are opposed to any concerted action” by pilots to disrupt flights.
But Delta and other airlines are getting tougher in trying to head off the alleged work slowdowns, which the airlines claim violate labor laws governing the industry. United went to court last month to get a temporary restraining order that bars its mechanics from an organized slowdown against the nation’s largest airline.
Airlines Take Legal Action Against Unions
That order was lifted Thursday as United and the mechanics’ union resumed mediated talks. But United never took such legal action during its battle with the pilots.
“We learned from this summer,” said United spokesman Matt Triaca. “We are not going to tolerate activities that will put our customers through that same situation again.”
United isn’t alone. Northwest won a temporary restraining order against its mechanics, too, and Delta wants one to block its pilots from orchestrating their alleged concerted refusal to fly overtime hours.
Unions for all the airlines’ workers deny they’re involved in illegal job actions aimed at exerting pressure on the contract negotiations. Regardless, there could be more problems ahead. Consider:
* American Airlines’ flight attendants rejected the carrier’s latest contract offer and said they might seek a strike authorization. Its pilots rejected an offer to extend their existing contract; instead they want to reopen talks next summer to at least match the gains won by United’s pilots.
* Continental, Northwest and their pilots also agreed to early contract talks, which the pilots requested so that they, too, can get more money to match the higher pay given to pilots at United and, expectedly, Delta.
Airline employees contend they’re entitled to higher wages, both to keep pace with their peers at United and elsewhere, and because many of them agreed to severe wage-and-benefit cuts in the early 1990s when the airline business was on its back.
The industry has prospered since then, aided by a strong U.S. economy and unprecedented numbers of passengers--more than 600 million people will board U.S. jetliners this year--and now the airline employees want their due. But the airlines, to extend their prosperity, want to keep a lid on their labor costs.
And labor’s current demands add to an increasingly murky outlook for the airlines. The economy is slowing, which could trim demand for air travel. Jet-fuel costs have soared, crimping airline profits, and those earnings threaten to erode further because of the rising labor costs unless the carriers can offset them--perhaps by raising fares.
There’s Enough Blame to Go Around
Just about everyone involved is getting blamed for what’s happening. The unions blame the airlines and vice versa, the airlines blame government for not upgrading air-traffic-control systems and airports, and even the National Mediation Board--which helps companies and unions iron out new contracts--is getting flak for allegedly dragging its feet in some cases.
United also is getting blamed. The airline struck a deal with its 10,500 pilots that gave them immediate pay raises of 21.5% to 28.5%, followed by four annual increases of 4%, which makes United’s pilots the highest paid. So a jumbo-jet captain at United now earns about $290,000 a year in base pay.
United was under severe pressure to quickly reach a pact not only because of the passenger revolt it faced this summer, but to clear the way for its planned $4.3-billion purchase of US Airways Group, the nation’s sixth-largest airline.
United’s pilots, meantime, felt they deserved the contract because they took big cuts in pay in exchange for stock in United’s parent company, UAL Corp., six years ago when the airline was struggling. That ultimately left them underpaid relative to pilots at other major carriers.
United defends its contract, but some in the industry grumble that its lucrative terms make it tough for everyone else in their contract talks--including consumers.
“United’s management is planning for the next six months, not the next six years, and their objective is to get this merger through,” said Boyd, the consultant. “It’s that kind of short-term thinking that is now being felt around the industry.”
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Times staff writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington contributed to this report.
