US Airways Workers Vote in Union Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the October 9, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- ANOTHER VICTORY FOR LABOR: US AIRWAYS WORKERS VOTE IN UNION By Shelley Ettinger Passenger-service employees at US Airways have won their union. And the labor movement has won the biggest private-sector organizing victory in a decade. A mail ballot that was tallied Sept. 29 brought 10,200 new members into the Communications Workers. Gate agents, reservations clerks and ticket sellers at US Airways are jubilant. So are unionists around the country, who see the victory as more evidence that the labor movement's long-awaited upturn is under way. The victory also shows that labor's new focus on organizing the masses of low-paid workers, especially women, is on target. And coming as it does in the airline industry, this victory is especially sweet. At Continental, Eastern, United and other companies, flight attendants, mechanics, baggage checkers, pilots, and reservation clerks bore some of the worst anti-labor attacks at the height of the union-busting period of the last two decades. Now the workers are starting to win again. The win at US Airways was hard-fought. This election followed one in January. The union lost that time, but appealed based on the company's many violations of labor law in its anti-union campaign. Although a new election was scheduled, the deck remained stacked against the union. Because it was conducted under the Railway Labor Act and not the National Labor Relations Act, the vote was weighted in favor of the company. An absolute majority of the bargaining unit, rather than a simple majority of those voting, had to cast ballots for the union in order for it to win. For every employee who didn't participate, a "no" vote against the union was recorded. Communications Workers organizers had to build a pro-union campaign at 110 separate US Airways work sites around the country. With a work force that stands in front of computer screens all day and is therefore a captive audience to whatever propaganda the company puts out, the organizers had their work cut out for them. On the other hand, US Airways--formerly U.S. Air--has so exploited and insulted the workers for so many years that there was a great openness to the union message. A series of takebacks left workers angry and frustrated while the company enjoyed a profit rebound. Then there was the impact of the United Parcel Service strike in August. It came during the height of the US Airways union campaign, and, according to reservation clerk Chris Fox of Pittsburgh, it provided the final boost to convince workers to vote union. At the AFL-CIO convention the week before the victory, Fox told Workers World the UPS strike made her co-workers feel they could win better pay and conditions if they brought the union in. She said she was sure the vote would result in victory. She was right. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://workers.org) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytlab-10.04.97-15:03:09-10327