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Thursday, September 6, 2012 – Daily News CHICAGO (MCT) — As airline passengers fly to and from vacations this summer, they might be sur- prised to know their pilot may not have had a sub- stantial pay raise in nearly a decade, and flight atten- dants might be seething beneath friendly smiles. And mechanics fixing the plane? They might not be too happy either. Beneath the bustling daily operations of some of America's largest airlines is an undercurrent of union labor discontent. American Airlines' par- ent company AMR Corp. is in bankruptcy and asking for massive cutbacks from its unions. United Airlines has yet to reach joint labor deals with any of its major labor groups following its megamerger with Conti- nental Airlines two years ago. United pilots regular- ly stage sign-toting protests about not having a new contract. Even ground workers at Southwest Airlines, which is known for its excellent service, operations and rel- atively harmonious labor relations, handed out infor- mational leaflets to passen- gers at Chicago Midway Airport last month. They object to Southwest's plan to outsource some of their jobs to temporary workers. In the airline industry, ongoing union issues aren't unusual. But so far this summer, a number of contracts at large airlines have reached especially critical stages and have had major developments in recent weeks. The good news is that conflict between airline management and unions typically doesn't mean bad things for fliers — until it does. strikes, which nowadays are rare among major car- riers, disgruntled union members can cause other headaches for manage- ment, and occasionally for airline passengers. If a pilot or flight attendant suddenly "feels ill" just before takeoff, flights can be delayed or canceled, for example. United pilots were sternly warned by their union in recent weeks against misusing sick leave after the airline noted an "abnormally high" rate of such reports. Brett Snyder, who writes the Cranky Flier Short of all-out labor blog, said fliers can suffer collateral damage in com- pany-union battles. "There can certainly be an impact on passengers when nego- tiations get ugly," he said, pointing to slowdown actions by United pilots years ago that led to delays and cancellations and more recent, similar actions by US Airways pilots. suffer. "As you can imag- ine, when your employees are happy or at the very least respected, every- body's happy. We've been miserable for nine years," said Leslie Mayo, spokes- woman for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, representing American Airlines flight attendants. "We continue to work as hard as we can to compensate for the lack of support we receive to do our job, but it is getting more and more difficult." Meanwhile, airline Customer service could executives are trying to keep a rein on labor costs so they can halt their money-losing ways and break the cycle of recur- ring bankruptcies. Stressed-out skies: Labor issues rampant at major airlines gains efficiencies from mixing crews and aircraft, it won't achieve the $1 bil- lion to $1.2 billion in merger savings it cited when the merger was announced. US Airways, seven years after its merger with America West Airlines, still hasn't combined pilot and flight attendant crews. "US Airways is the poster child for a merger that has not realized all the efficien- cies it could," Harteveldt said. "I really sense that labor is struggling with the fact that the industry is still in transition and there are still some difficult, emotional issues that need to be nego- tiated," said Bill Swelbar, an airline industry researcher at the Massa- chusetts Institute of Tech- nology. "You look at the pilot negotiations at United — a lot of emotion. Clear- ly, at American, there's nothing but emotion … but airline employees are a resilient lot." wait for some groups to determine what union would represent them, and the airline has reached interim deals with subsets of employees. For exam- ple, it reached separate deals for former Continen- tal flight attendants and former United attendants as a prelude to reaching a joint agreement with both. AMERICAN AIR- LINES: In 2003, Ameri- can's flight attendants, pilots and ground workers agreed to pay and benefit cuts, along with changed work rules, to help AMR Corp., the parent of Amer- ican Airlines, avoid a bankruptcy filing. But the airline company eventually succumbed, filing in November. To be fair, United had to 5B American originally said it needed $1.25 billion in annual savings by cut- ting some 13,000 jobs. Since then, it has been working with its unions on contracts that would result in somewhat less severe cuts. Swelbar said the current round of negotiations across the industry is espe- cially difficult because the restructuring that began with many airlines' bank- ruptcies in the last decade is still unfinished. Because of the numer- ous conflicts among air- lines and unions — and the emotion — this might be the summer that the flying public will "fly the grumpy skies." more on time and better handlers of luggage than in a long time, according to federal statistics. That's not to say flying will be unsafe or employ- ees won't do their jobs. Even the angriest unions don't suggest they would compromise safety. And while airlines have annoyed customers with fees for everything from checked baggage to boxed lunches, they have been work for our members put the safe transport of cus- tomers first, as evidenced by the metrics that matter most to customers — record on-time perfor- mance and baggage deliv- ery — that has improved consistently for the past eight months," said Jean Medina, spokeswoman for industry trade group Air- lines for America. "There is no reason to expect cus- tomers will be affected by contract negotiations." But this summer, many airline employees will attempt to maintain their professionalism against a backdrop of strained and "The professionals who uncertain contract negotia- tions. A notable exception among the majors is Delta Air Lines, which has only one major union, for pilots. Delta struck what experts call an industry-leading deal with pilots June 29 after a scant two months of negotiations. Delta's deal ratchets up are you going to get us par- ity to that?' " Here, briefly, is where three major airlines stand with labor groups. the urgency for other air- lines to strike similar accords, said Henry Harteveldt, a travel indus- try analyst with Atmos- phere Research Group. "That puts a lot of pressure on the other airlines," said Harteveldt, who character- ized the Delta deal as favorable for both sides. "The unions are going to look at Delta now and say, 'That's pretty good. How TAL HOLDINGS: Fol- lowing the merger of Unit- ed and Continental, CEO Jeff Smisek said he want- ed contract negotiations completed by the end of 2011. More than half a year after that deadline, the merged airline still has no joint contracts with its major employee unions. With no joint contracts, it can't mix its onboard per- sonnel, namely pilots and flight attendants, or even schedule a United pilot to fly a plane formerly owned by Continental, for example. Until it com- pletes those contracts and UNITED CONTINEN- SOUTHWEST AIR- LINES: Southwest Air- lines merged with AirTran Airways in May 2011. Pilots at Southwest and AirTran easily integrated seniority lists in Novem- ber, usually a long and dif- ficult process. A pilot's position on a company's seniority list can determine career aspects such as earnings, days worked and in which city a pilot is based. In announcing the integration, Southwest Air- lines Pilots' Association President Capt. Steve Chase called the ease and speed of the deal "remark- able and rare in our indus- try." Indeed, Southwest gen- erally has good relations with labor groups. Flight attendants, too, ratified an integrated seniority list this year. $109 Per Month No early cancellation, non-refundable Blinds Need Blinds? 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