Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

Angry US Airline Workers Want Wage Increases After Taking 25% Wage Cut
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703625304575116030010494148.html?mod=WSJ_business_whatsNews

Labor Tensions Threaten Airline Recovery
As Industry Emerges From Recession, Unions Aim to Recoup Wages Cut Over Past Decade

By MIKE ESTERL and SUSAN CAREY

Increasingly turbulent labor negotiations are threatening to knock U.S. airlines off their recovery course just as the battered industry starts to emerge from a deep recession.

Airlines slashed pay and benefits over the past decade, often during stays in bankruptcy court. Now, their restive workers are pressing for wage increases, in some cases by double-digit percentages.

Illustrating the growing divide between labor and management, the largest union at AMR Corp.'s American Airlines asked federal mediators Thursday to release it from mediated talks with the airline. That could open the door to the first strike at a major U.S. carrier since 2005.

Both sides agree that never before have so many of the nation's airlines been in labor talks simultaneously. More than two-thirds of the industry's contracts are estimated to be up for renewal. Fifty-two employee groups spanning most major carriers already have taken their grievances to the National Mediation Board, which oversees labor relations at airlines.

SF "top-level labor" Pressuring TWU 250-A Drivers To Make Concessions

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/09/BA9O1CD86C.DTL

Sleep with the fish: San Francisco Supervisor Sean Elsbernd was walking to pick up his 8-month-old son at day care Monday evening when his cell phone rang.

It was a local labor leader, calling to inform the Sunset District supervisor that his political career "is over" if he continues with his efforts to pass a charter amendment ending the guarantee that Muni drivers be the second-best-paid transit operators in the nation.

Interesting to note that the call came just days after a top-level labor sit-down at which leaders urged the Muni union to consent to enough givebacks to take the wind out of Elsbernd's amendment and thus avoid a costly fight at the polls in November.

The problem is that the Transport Workers Union Local 250-A itself is in the midst of power struggle between the African American old guard and the newer Latino and Asian American members led by union President Irwin Lum, and no agreement - on anything - appears in sight.

American Airlines, labor unions may be near impasse
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/02/27/2001263/american-airlines-labor-unions.html

American Airlines, labor unions may be near impasse
Posted Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010

BY ANDREA AHLES

aahles@star-telegram.com

After months of negotiations, it's come down -- as always -- to money.

American Airlines and its labor unions have been in contract talks for years, and with no tentative agreements in sight, the unions are starting to make noise about a strike.

Two weeks ago, the Transport Workers Union announced that it will ask federal mediators to declare an impasse if it doesn't have a deal with the Fort Worth-based carrier by March 8. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants has said it will also ask to be released from mediation when its next bargaining session ends Friday.

The company says it is not dragging its feet and has posted its contract proposals on the Internet for employees to look at.

And with American continuing to post huge annual losses, the carrier says it needs to revise work rules and retiree benefits to remain competitive.

American has offered lump sum payments in its contract proposals, but the unions say they want wage increases instead.

French air traffic controllers’ strike strengthens on second day
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/fran-f25.shtml

French air traffic controllers’ strike strengthens on second day
By Antoine Lerougetel and Alex Lantier
25 February 2010
The strike of air traffic controllers in France spread yesterday, amid widespread opposition of workers throughout the European air transport system to rationalise the industry at their expense.
The controllers had struck for two days in January and they have followed up with the current four-day strike launched on Tuesday, at the height of the winter holiday season. It followed on from a two-day strike in January. On its first day, Tuesday, it hit the Paris airports, grounding 50 percent of planes at Orly and 25 percent at Charles de Gaulle airport. In the provinces, Pau, Grenoble, and La Rochelle airports were shut. At Lyon-Saint Exupéry, 43 of 345 flights were cancelled.
The strike also disrupted flights due to pass through French air space from other hubs, including Amsterdam, Brussels and Geneva. Lufthansa also reported delays on flights due to overfly France.
On Wednesday morning the figures were similar in Paris, while no planes took off from Rennes, Lille, La Rochelle and Biarritz airports and there were 44 cancellations in Lyon, 25 in Marseille and 34 in Nice. Air traffic controllers in Greece also struck on that day, as part of the general strike against the harsh austerity measures being forced on the Greek social democratic government by the European Union, in order to reduce Greece’s debt and avoid sovereign default.

YouTube - Boron, California ILWU Local 30 Rio Tinto mine workers denounce company lock-out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2azVh6yV1s&feature=

SF Examiner Bosses Blame Driver salaries for fueling deficit

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Driver-salaries-fueling-deficit-84933332.html

Driver salaries fueling deficit
By: JOSHUA SABATINI
Examiner Staff Writer
February 22, 2010

As The City’s mass transit commuters are being threatened with another round of fare increases and service reductions, Muni’s operators are raking in thousands of dollars in overtime — even as they are guaranteed by city law to have the second-highest wages in the nation.
The average base pay for a Muni operator — those who drive buses, cable cars and light-rail vehicles — is roughly $60,000, which is determined by a City Charter mandate that says they must be among the top paid in the country.
And Muni’s 2,350 operators are almost guaranteed a bevy of overtime pay. In calendar year 2009, 622 Muni operators raked in more than $80,000 in total pay, including 82 who brought home more than $100,000.
More than 400 operators were paid overtime in excess of $20,000. One operator earned as much as $78,722 in overtime and brought home a total of $146,498 in pay last year. Seventeen operators earned more than $51,000 in overtime, contributing to more than $100,000 in take-home pay for the year, according to data obtained from the city controller.

British Airways cabin crew push for 10-day strike action

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/21/ba-cabin-crew-strike-action

British Airways cabin crew push for 10-day strike action
Passengers face prolonged travel disruption next month if ballot endorses industrial action
Dan Milmo, transport correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 21 February 2010 21.35 GMT

BA is training volunteer cabin crew to help to staff flights in preparation for what could be a lengthy strike. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

British Airways passengers face prolonged travel disruption next month as cabin crew push for a strike lasting at least 10 days if a ballot endorses industrial action.

The Unite trade union announces the result of a strike poll tomorrow and officials are expecting a yes vote from more than 12,000 BA cabin crew in a dispute over staffing cuts. Despite having a 12-day Christmas strike blocked by legal action last year, disgruntled air stewards appear determined to send another defiant message to the airline, with 1 March the earliest possible date for a walkout.

According to an online poll organised by Bassa, Unite's cabin crew branch, more than two-thirds of members want a strike lasting at least ten days. More than 3,600 Bassa members voted in the poll – about a third of BA's entire cabin crew workforce.

Chicago CTA Bosses calls ATU 308 union proposals too costly
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-cta-18-20100217,0,4834433.story

CTA calls union proposals too costly
2 sides appear to be drifting further apart in effort to restore service, jobs

By Jon Hilkevitch, TRIBUNE REPORTER
6:49 p.m. CST, February 17, 2010

Cost savings proposed by Chicago Transit Authority labor unions to help reduce a large budget deficit would actually cost the transit agency an additional $78 million, the CTA board chairman said Wednesday.

The union proposals would cost the CTA more money by bringing back conductors on trains, replacing some CTA managers with union employees and using union labor for some snow-removal work that the CTA now contracts out, board Chairman Terry Peterson said.

The CTA's negative assessment of the union plan to purportedly reduce spending by $90.6 million was offered at the end of a day marked by dueling news conferences held by the union and by management over how to restore bus and rail service that was cut Feb. 7, along with reversing about 1,100 CTA employee layoffs.

The gulf separating the two sides appears to be widening, and the public-relations tactics are growing increasing nasty.

SF Muni TWA 250 A Drivers "Resoundingly" Reject Concessions Pushed By Union Officers and Management
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/17/BA3J1C2MGG.DTL

Muni operators reject concessions
Rachel Gordon,Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Muni operators resoundingly rejected on Tuesday a package of negotiated labor concessions intended to save nearly $15 million in operating expenses over two years - money intended to stop a proposed increase in discounted passes for seniors, youth and the disabled and to blunt service cuts, according to the agency's top official.

"I'm very disappointed with the outcome of the union membership's vote regarding the labor negotiations," said Nathaniel Ford, executive director of the Municipal Transportation Agency. "We are trying to avert fare increases and further cuts that will affect our riders."

Union President Irwin Lum had signed off on the deal after several days of closed-door negotiations with Mayor Gavin Newsom, Muni management and the union's executive committee.

After the ratification vote, Lum said a majority of his members believed that benefits to riders - especially seniors, the disabled and youths - were not guaranteed and would be short term.

Will Orange County IBT Local 952 take on UPS?
http://socialistworker.org/2010/02/17/will-local-952-take-on-ups

Will Local 952 take on UPS?
Edgar Esquivel, a former teacher and a UPS worker for nearly 12 years, explains why Teamsters Local 952 members are organizing against the company's contract violations--and challenging union leaders.
February 17, 2010

Teamsters Local 952 members on strike against the Orange Country Transportation Authority in 2007

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.--Under a weakened and corrupt Teamsters union led by James Hoffa, the officers of Teamsters Local 952 in Orange County, Calif., have become divorced from their constituency. But now, UPSers in the local--concerned over a series of contract violations by the company and concessions--are determined to take their union back.

The key issue is enforcement of the contract. Beginning with one of the most regressive deals in the history of UPS Teamsters in December 2007, the Teamsters at the Laguna hub have suffered the consequences of an apathetic local unwilling to enforce the contract and rightfully represent its members.

Management's breaches of the contract range from the failure of the company to replace vacant positions left after retirements to the elimination of full-time jobs guaranteed under Article 22.3--which was drafted into the 1997-2002 agreement that was won after the historic 1997 strike against UPS. Production harassment--attempts to discipline workers for failure to complete a set amount of work--are also on the rise. Management has also repeatedly violated the contract by forcing drivers to work 9.5 hours several days in a row.