US Airways Kicks Skycaps to the Curb
July 14, 2008 · Print This Article
On July 9, the day US Airways began charging $15 per passengers’ bag checked, hundreds of skycaps across the country are scrambling to find jobs in a turbulent economy.
The skycaps, employed by third-party contractors, earned meager wages and had little or no benefits at work. In the past, they were able to supplement their income with tips - enough to make a decent living and afford. A recent new report discusses how, for US Airways skycaps, such as Mike Rossi, 48, and Kenric Burk, 57 at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, Providence, that income had diminished long before they were laid off on July 9. According to the report by the Warwick Beacon:
Burk said ever since International RAM Associates won the bid for the US Airways station at T.F. Green, life?s been no picnic.
“The state allows companies to come in here and because of Rhode Island labor laws, they don?t have to pay holiday pay or vacation pay - it’s cheap labor,” Rossi said.
Burk said skycaps practically live off tips, similar to how servers in the restaurant industry do.
“We get wages but we just work on our tips, basically,” Burk said, “but we have to claim less and less because we?re working less and less.”
The US Airways skycaps received an hourly wage of about $5 an hour. Many of them have worked at the Warwick airport for almost two decades.
Rossi said he’s going to look for another customer service job, but these days with the job market and the pressure of having two kids, a mortgage and a house to pay for, the future looks bleak.
US Airways’ decision to end curbside baggage service across the country came after skycaps at Boston Logan International Airport successfully sued United Airlines for lost wages since the airline instituted a $2 per bag fee for curbside service.
According to a report by The Philadelphia Inquirer:
US Airways said its decision to stop using skycaps was not related to the lawsuit regarding skycap tips. Rather, the airline said, its union contract with Communications Workers of America specifies that unionized employees must collect funds “in the price range” of the $15 and $25 bag fees.
Boston lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan said yesterday that she had filed a retaliation claim in federal court, alleging that US Airways was using the union contract “as a convenient excuse” to get rid of skycaps.
Liss-Riordan and Philadelphia lawyer Mikel Jones filed the federal suit in April in Boston on behalf of 3,000 US Airways skycaps nationwide, trying to recover lost wages and tips. Between 35 and 40 work in Philadelphia.
US Airways skycaps in Boston were notified Thursday that their jobs will be eliminated July 31. Skycaps at Los Angeles International Airport received a similar notice, Liss-Riordan said.
In April, a federal jury in Boston ordered American Airlines to pay nine skycaps more than $325,000 for tips lost since the fee was implemented by American in late 2005. The jury found that American violated a Massachusetts law that protects tips received by service workers who are paid below that state’s $8-an-hour minimum wage. Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is $7.15 an hour.
Other lawsuits on behalf of skycaps for United Airlines, JetBlue Airways Corp., and American are pending in federal court in Boston.
US Airways says it will drop the $2-a-bag curb fee when the $15 first-bag charge goes into effect July 9.
photo credit: Cubbie_n_Vegas
I think US Airways is the worst airline. I will not fly for any reason on them. The service is terrible. The maintenance is poor, always a delay. The Cabin is always dirty. The people who run it are just stealing a paycheck. I stick with DELTA and SOUTH WEST Airlines.