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:

The union members include service workers employed at both the airport terminals and on planes in jobs such as security, wheelchair assistance and airplane cabin cleaning. The union is pushing for higher wages, improved medical coverage and more training, equipment and staff support, said Mike Chavez, a union spokesman.

He said although workers are employed by contractors, the responsibility lies with the airlines that hire the contractors.

“The airlines need to take some leadership,” Chavez said. “They have a role in saying what their contractors should be doing.”

Click HERE to read the report.

Steve Surjaputra at Tripso wrote about the airline subsidies report released by the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, and Working Partnerships USA. Here are some of what he highlighted from the report:

From the first days of flight up until the 1970s, taxpayers, through the federal government, provided more than $155 billion in direct support for the aviation industry. Even after deregulation, federal and local governments have continued to provide infrastructure support, tax exemptions and low-cost financing….

Since 2002, in California alone, the airlines received approximately $487 million in state and local subsidies that included tax exemptions and low-interest bond financing. For example, the airlines are exempt from state sales taxes on jet fuel purchases for some flights. This exemption for international flights will cost the state and local governments more than $800 million from fiscal year 2005 to 2009. Despite this, the airlines still want to expand the exemption for out-of-state domestic flights.

Click HERE to read his post, “After years of airline subsidies, how about a payback for taxpayers?”

American Airlines made headlines at New York’s JFK Airport this week when a “software glitch” crippled the airline’s baggage handling system. This baggage meltdown left thousands of passengers without their luggage.

Click HERE to view a picture of the baggage meltdown and read more.

photo credit: Marcin Wichary

With cuts to service, fees for everything you can imagine, last place for on-time arrivals for the 3rd month in a row, is it any wonder that American Airlines passengers are getting angry?!

According to a FOXNew.com report:

A holiday weekend flight from Miami to New York never got off the ground after the crew arrived more than an hour late and angry passengers intimidated them so much that they refused to work.

American Airlines Flight 1908 was scheduled to leave Sunday evening from Miami en route to LaGuardia Airport in New York City. But the flight crew arrived an hour and 15 minutes late, prompting impatient and irate passengers to boo — and worse, MyFOX New York reported.

One witness said some people used “harsh language” with the gate attendants and were “really kind of like being a mob about it. It was scary.”

When a few of the crewmembers refused to work because of the “hostile environment,” American tried to find replacements — but to no avail, according to MyFOX New York. The airline had to put everyone up in a hotel and fly them out Monday afternoon.

Adding insult to injury? Flight 1908’s passengers flew into LaGuardia, but their bags arrived at JFK.

photo credit: Cubbie_n_Vegas

Tracing their history back to the tradition of the Pullman porters during the railroad era, skycaps used to be decent-income jobs for African Americans who supplemented their meager wages with tips – enough to buy their own homes and send their children to college.

Today, that reality is becoming more like a dream for skycaps across the country, according to a Los Angeles Times article.

“This used to be a solid job where guys could make a decent living,” said Howard Mcgee, 64, of Los Angeles who has been a skycap at LAX for eight years. “But with rising ticket prices, more baggage fees and increased security, it is getting harder and harder to make the kind of money we used to make.”
…

Skycaps and union officials who represent airport service workers estimate that the earnings of the typical skycap have dropped 35% to 50% during the last several years.

Meanwhile, they say, the hours some skycaps work per week have been cut from 40 to less than 25, forcing many to take second jobs. In addition, US Airways plans to phase out the use of skycaps at LAX and other airports.

In California, local and state elected officials are stepping in to protect the income of the skycaps.

The Los Angeles City Council and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have directed their attorneys to research measures that would protect the incomes of skycaps and other airport service workers, such as wheelchair attendants. No action has been taken yet.Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who requested one of the studies, said the effort could result in ideas similar to the city’s protections for wages and tips earned by hotel workers.

“The airlines are nickel-and-diming passengers, and the people who try to make a person’s trip convenient and pleasurable are losing out,” Hahn said.

Click HERE to read the full article.

photo by superciliousness

An American Airlines flight from San Francisco to Miami carrying hydrochloric acid in the forward cargo was diverted to LAX after pilots reported smoke in the cockpit. Authorities at first suspected that the hydrochloric acid was leaking, but later said the smoke probably came from the hydraulic system.

HERE is the full story from the LA TImes.
photo credit: Cubbie_n_Vegas

In an era of nickel-and-diming by the airlines, passengers are seeing all kinds of fees being placed on their flights – 1st baggage, 2nd baggage, leg room, snacks, etc. Every airline has its own fee scales, and it can be confusing – not to mention costly – for passengers.

Fortunately, Rick Seaney, the CEO of Farecompare.com and airline industry expert, has put together a convenient chart of all fees that U.S. airlines charge the passengers. Click HERE to see the chart.

photo credit: Alan Nakkash

More news on the fee for curbside check-in and tipping ban:

• American Airlines drops fee for curbside check-in service (The Boston Globe)
• American to halt curbside check-in fee, lifts tips ban (Dallas Business Journal)

In the latest in a long string of new fees imposed on passengers, many airlines have now chosen to charge passengers a new $2 per bag fee for skycap services.

The airline race to the bottom hurts their low-wage workers too. After airlines implemented a $2 per bag fee for skycap services – which used to be complimentary – many skycaps report that they have lost as much as 60% of their income, as passengers now tip less or not at all.

Skycaps also report longer lines as passengers avoid the bag fee. And after Boston skycaps sued to get their tips back, and won, American Airlines flat out banned tips and threatened workers with discipline for accepting what for decades has been vital income.

In response to American Airlines’ apparent retaliation against skycaps at Boston’s Logan Airport, the Boston Globe editorialized for the skycaps, writing of American Airlines actions…

At worst, this is petty, mean-spirited retaliation. At best, it’s the most convenient course for the airline – and one that just happens to hit a group of workers who stood up for themselves.

Read the whole editorial here.

California Assemblymember Introduces Legislation to Protect Passengers, Tipped Airport Workers

In response to the airline race to the bottom, CA Assemblymember Lloyd Levine introduced AB 408, protecting the integrity of skycaps services and ensuring that money passengers intend for skycaps isn’t siphoned off by unscrupulous airlines. The bill is headed for its first committee hearing on June 11. Stay tuned.

• Measures would help skycaps get tips
• Airlines Criticized for Skycap Service Fee
  
• Lawmakers Consider Skycap Legislation
• Baggage handlers watch income fly away

History of Skycaps: Airlines Destroy Previously Middle-Class Jobs

The first skycaps come from a rich tradition of the Pullman porters of the 1920s and 30s during the railroad era. These porters were predominantly African American men, and were among the most poorly paid workers on the railroad. They therefore relied heavily on tips to supplement their income, which helped many to purchase homes and provide for their families.

As the railroad industry was replaced by air travel, railroad porters and red caps, who were responsible for carrying passengers’ luggage, were no longer needed. It was then that skycaps came into being at airports.

Today, skycaps are predominantly older African American men, with some that still retain the history and legacy of the railroad era. Many have worked for the airlines for over 20 years, and their low salaries continue to be supplemented by tips.

Most skycaps are subcontracted workers who do not receive family health care, despite their years of providing valuable services for the airlines.

Want More Information?

• Skycaps tips litigation website
• Justice for Skycaps

• Skycaps sue airline over tips lost to bag fee (Boston Globe)
• 9 skycaps win $325,000 in tips in suit over curbside fees (USA Today)
• Kicked at the curb (Boston Globe)
• Airlines face more skycaps lawsuits (The Washington Post)

UPDATE: AMERICAN AIRLINES DROPS FEE AND LIFTS BAN ON TIPPING

Faced with lawsuits and criticism, American Airlines announced it would drop the $2-per-bag fee and lift the controversial ban on tipping at Logan. This announcement, however, comes at the heels of AA’s new $15 fee for checking in a piece of luggage. Many skycaps, according to a Boston Globe report, fear that passengers would tip less with the higher fees.

More news on the fee for curbside check-in and tipping ban:

• American Airlines drops fee for curbside check-in service (The Boston Globe)
• American to halt curbside check-in fee, lifts tips ban (Dallas Business Journal)

photo by superciliousness

The Aviation Consumer Protection Division of the Department of Transportation reported an alarming number of disability-related complaints received by American Airlines in 2006. American Airlines received 3,453 disability-related complaints, while American Eagle received 600. Complaints against American were more than two times that of the next highest number of complaints received by Delta at 1,700.

To get a sense of how disproportionate the numbers are, in 2006, Delta ran 506,086 total operations, or 78%, compared to American’s 643,597.

One such complaint was filed with the DOT by Louise Caplan, who alleged a series of violations that spanned four trips from June 1996 to September 1997. She claimed that she had specifically requested wheelchair assistance on those flights, only to be denied, in violation of the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA), which requires that wheelchair assistance be provided for passengers with disabilities. The DOT, upon review of complaints sent to both American Airlines and directly to the DOT, found that there were “a significant number of apparent violations… [and] a number of the complaints appeared to reflect deficiencies on the part of the carrier in meeting the requirements of” the ACAA. The DOT determined, given the serious nature of the violations and the number and nature of the apparent violations involving American, that enforcement action against American was warranted, and American was assessed a civil penalty of $1.2 million.

photo credit: Daquella manera