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Southwest Seeks Mediation
In Talks With Attendants
By MELANIE TROTTMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
DALLAS -- Negotiations between Southwest Airlines and its flight attendants union are growing more bitter after 16 months of talks, with the airline asking for assistance from national mediators and the union launching a national ad campaign to publicize its views.
Such disagreement is unusual at an airline where public spats are rare, and underscores the growing frustration with negotiations.
Southwest last week requested assistance from national mediators in hammering out a deal, the first time it has asked for help with the flight-attendants union. Meanwhile, flight attendants began running ads over the weekend that read, "Working for free ... Isn't that just 'plane' nuts?" (Even this statement is crazy, are they really working for free??!!)
The ads, which will run in newspapers in 13 major Southwest markets, say that Southwest flight attendants are among the most productive in the airline industry. (People are lazy in nature, and who created this high productivity in Southwest? It's the management!! Without guideline and supervision, will these normal flight attendants able to claim that they are the most productive in the industry, or will they just sit around and just to avoid work just like any other flight attendants in other airlines??!!) In the ads, the union says its members are required to clean planes and do other tasks without pay.
Since February, groups of Southwest flight attendants have held public demonstrations at airports, calling attention to tasks they say they must perform without pay and seeking higher overall compensation. The median pay for Southwest flight attendants is about $24,600 a year, the union said. Union officials say the company's pay-raise offers are inadequate. (Who decide whether it is adequate or not?? Union leaders? Shouldn't it be the market force that decide the market value of the work these attendants do?? Or the USA is now becoming USSR?)
The union's six-year contract became amendable in June 2002.
Southwest's request for mediation Wednesday followed the union's refusal to stop talking to the media. (Bad mouthing, blackmailing, other than these what do unions know to do??) Thursday, Southwest Chief Executive Jim Parker released the company's pay proposal to the union's full membership in a memo to give them "full access to that information." The amount hasn't been made public.
The union leadership said that in response it will send its membership the union's proposal to the company.
Write to Melanie Trottman at [email protected]
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My view is that if the attendants don't like their jobs and salary, they should quit and look for jobs elsewhere, either in the airline industry or even outside of it. Let see what they will be paid and how long they are going to survive before being fired! Stop using the union to bug the airline for a significant rise. I am certain that these attendants will regret their action eventually. What they are doing today is just inviting wolf packs to enter the gate.
In today's economy, who don't do something "extra" in order to keep their jobs? Who don't work overtime without legal compensation?
The point of the union is rather straight forward - either pay each of the attendants as much money as the company can squeeze just for sitting in the jump seats in the aircrafts and don't ask them to anything else, or we will bad mouth you in newspapers.
The more union news I read, the more I feel the importance of higher education. Very simply, an ECON 101 course (if taught by the right professor) can just destroy whatever claim and statement these unions make and reflect their ignorance!!!! By finishing the econ degree, one can even possibly just write a book recording the economic jokes created by the unions.
However, how many flight attendants in the world have a BA degree in economics? A few maybe, but clearly none of them in Southwest.
Let the free market mechanism works, and minimize the damage caused by the unions!
In Talks With Attendants
By MELANIE TROTTMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
DALLAS -- Negotiations between Southwest Airlines and its flight attendants union are growing more bitter after 16 months of talks, with the airline asking for assistance from national mediators and the union launching a national ad campaign to publicize its views.
Such disagreement is unusual at an airline where public spats are rare, and underscores the growing frustration with negotiations.
Southwest last week requested assistance from national mediators in hammering out a deal, the first time it has asked for help with the flight-attendants union. Meanwhile, flight attendants began running ads over the weekend that read, "Working for free ... Isn't that just 'plane' nuts?" (Even this statement is crazy, are they really working for free??!!)
The ads, which will run in newspapers in 13 major Southwest markets, say that Southwest flight attendants are among the most productive in the airline industry. (People are lazy in nature, and who created this high productivity in Southwest? It's the management!! Without guideline and supervision, will these normal flight attendants able to claim that they are the most productive in the industry, or will they just sit around and just to avoid work just like any other flight attendants in other airlines??!!) In the ads, the union says its members are required to clean planes and do other tasks without pay.
Since February, groups of Southwest flight attendants have held public demonstrations at airports, calling attention to tasks they say they must perform without pay and seeking higher overall compensation. The median pay for Southwest flight attendants is about $24,600 a year, the union said. Union officials say the company's pay-raise offers are inadequate. (Who decide whether it is adequate or not?? Union leaders? Shouldn't it be the market force that decide the market value of the work these attendants do?? Or the USA is now becoming USSR?)
The union's six-year contract became amendable in June 2002.
Southwest's request for mediation Wednesday followed the union's refusal to stop talking to the media. (Bad mouthing, blackmailing, other than these what do unions know to do??) Thursday, Southwest Chief Executive Jim Parker released the company's pay proposal to the union's full membership in a memo to give them "full access to that information." The amount hasn't been made public.
The union leadership said that in response it will send its membership the union's proposal to the company.
Write to Melanie Trottman at [email protected]
-----------------
My view is that if the attendants don't like their jobs and salary, they should quit and look for jobs elsewhere, either in the airline industry or even outside of it. Let see what they will be paid and how long they are going to survive before being fired! Stop using the union to bug the airline for a significant rise. I am certain that these attendants will regret their action eventually. What they are doing today is just inviting wolf packs to enter the gate.
In today's economy, who don't do something "extra" in order to keep their jobs? Who don't work overtime without legal compensation?
The point of the union is rather straight forward - either pay each of the attendants as much money as the company can squeeze just for sitting in the jump seats in the aircrafts and don't ask them to anything else, or we will bad mouth you in newspapers.
The more union news I read, the more I feel the importance of higher education. Very simply, an ECON 101 course (if taught by the right professor) can just destroy whatever claim and statement these unions make and reflect their ignorance!!!! By finishing the econ degree, one can even possibly just write a book recording the economic jokes created by the unions.
However, how many flight attendants in the world have a BA degree in economics? A few maybe, but clearly none of them in Southwest.
Let the free market mechanism works, and minimize the damage caused by the unions!
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