LAX Workers Walk Off the Job
Airline service workers representing the 2,500 employees who provide passenger services at LAX walked off the job on August 28 at 1:30 PM in response to contractors’ civil rights abuses and failure to bargain in good faith.
Service contractors who provide cleaning, security, wheelchair assistance, and baggage handling services for airlines at LAX have refused to provide the quality jobs with access to affordable health care needed to ensure the highest quality services and security for airline passengers. [Read more]
Take Action: Tell the Airlines It’s Time for Quality Jobs and Quality Service
Click HERE to send a fax to the CEOs of major airlines and tell them IT’S TIME FOR DIGNITY AND RESPECT!
“I make the state’s minimum wage and was forced into homelessness for most of last year,” Dwayne Green, a subcontracted airline service worker based in San Jose, California, said. “Most people wouldn’t believe me when I tell them I was homeless while working full time providing service for a major airline, but it’s the truth.”
“Without the right equipment, my job is more difficult, dangerous and the airplane is not going to be as clean as it should for the passengers,” said Guadalupe Rivas, a contracted airplane cleaner at LAX.
With its customer satisfaction ratings lingering at all-time lows and its workers struggling with inadequate training and compensation to deliver quality services, the airline industry clearly has a problem. [Read more]
LAX Passenger Service Workers Vote to Authorize Strike
Airline service workers at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) voted overwhelmingly yesterday to authorize a strike at the nation’s fifth busiest airport. Workers said that they were fed up with declining standards of service and security at the airports. According to the workers, inadequate training, lack of proper equipment, poverty-level wages and lack of access to family health care are causing record turnover rates among workers and driving a race to the bottom in service and safety standards. [Read more]
Real-Life Family Reunion Brought to You by United Airlines
You have probably seen the latest United Airlines commercial at the 2008 Beijing Olympics: a woman says goodbye to her husband for a business trip, leaves her heart behind as a token of her love, only to be reunited with her husband, all thanks to United Airlines.
That’s nice.
Anita Cabral’s real-life, horrific story of a family reunion with United Airlines, on the other hand, is heart-breaking. [Read more]
LAX Workers to Hold Strike Vote
On Wednesday, 2,500 service workers at LAX will vote to determine whether to go on strike.
The workers, who have been negotiating their contract since May, are employed by airline subcontractors to provide passenger services to several major airlines, such as United, American, and Southwest. A Los Angeles Times story reports: [Read more]
Site Questions Airline Industry’s Subsidies, Inefficiencies and Demands for Loophole in Oil Speculation Legislation
As the U.S. airline industry attempts to use “oil speculators” to draw attention away from the chronically low passenger satisfaction rates and an array of new fees, a new online source, www.TheAirlineOilSpin.com was launched today to encourage the public to see through the industry’s spin on the issue.
The site is a project of the Reaching Higher Coalition, a growing alliance of community groups, passenger rights organizations, clergy, elected leaders, and airport workers who are committed to improving standards in the U.S. airline industry. TheAirlineOilSpin.com will function as an information source and forum to discuss and learn about the airline industry’s role in exacerbating their oil-related dilemmas, while at the same time benefiting from massive public subsidies.
While the airline industry has promoted multiple pieces of legislation that would place limits on some types of oil speculation, many of the bills supported by the industry include loopholes that allow the airlines themselves to continue speculating. At the same time, the industry has benefited from more than $8.5 billion in taxpayer subsidies since 2001, according to a recent report, Shortchanged, while passenger satisfaction levels and job quality standards for airline service workers have remained low. [Read more]
The Real Crisis
The Wall Street Journal, in an August 12th piece by Heidi N. Moore, sums up the real problems in the airline industry succinctly. And if you guessed rising oil prices, you’re only seeing part of the picture.
Ms. Moore explains:
Rising oil prices, of course, hurt the airline industry, but those stratospheric costs also provided a sort of cloud cover for the industry’s essential dysfunction. Intense competition, labor disputes, absentee parenthood from Washington regulators - all have combined to put the industry in a position that requires deeper thought.
In addition, the airline industry has a few fundamental issues it desperately needs to address. Various reports have found airlines’ service quality and passenger satisfaction levels to be plummeting. While receiving billions in taxpayer subsidies, airline companies continue to divest from its workforce and pursue outdated, shortsighted business strategies that are ill-prepared for today’s fuel conscious economy.
Ms. Moore, quoting an industry expert, sums it all up:
“No leadership, no policy, no strategy, everyone blaming the other… all circling Foggy Bottom while the industry goes down the Potomac.”
Click HERE to read the entire article.
photo credit: Cubbie_n_Vegas
Stranded on Tarmac (Delta Flight 4)
Delta Flight 4 from LHR to JFK departing at 8:45 GMT arrived into JFK on 8/2 at 3:30. Below is the letter I wrote to Delta about the ordeal and their abysmal reply.
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August 3, 2008
Dear Delta,
Cannot tell you how disappointed I am with the way flight 4 on August 1 (moving to include August 2nd) has been mismanaged. Since we made the news, you may have heard about the 24 hour journey between LHR and JFK with an uninterrupted 20 hours of aircraft confinement at one point (between 7:45 am GMT or 2:45 am ET and 10PM ET, with a stay at Boston Logan until 2 am on 8/2 and ultimately arriving around 3:30 am into JFK).
Let me summarize the highlights:
3 mechanical problems
3 crew changes (2x with unavailable crews)
1 weather delay
2 refueling
1 diversion [Read more]
US Airways (All About Money)
On July 31st my wife had brain surgery in Santa Monica Ca. We flew Us Airways from Kansas City, Mo to the surgery center. We were scheduled to come back to KC on 8-6-08 but the doctor wanted to keep her hospitalized for at least a couple more days. I called Us Airways to try and reschedule the flight and they told me that they do not honor medical request. [Read more]
United Flight 888 Had Faulty Landing Gear… AGAIN
Many sites reported that United flight 888 from Beijing to San Francisco had to return to Beijing because of faulty landing gear on August 3. I have seen no reports that the same flight the next day suffered the same problem. Shortly after take-off on August 4, the pilot reported that the landing gear would not retract and we would have to return to Beijing. According to the pilot, we dumped 200,000 pounds of fuel in order to reach a safe landing weight. [Read more]
