News

Support US Airways Agents!

07 Nov, 2013

By Vickey Hoots, President, Local 3640

CWA recently conducted a poll of American Airlines passenger service and reservations agents to find out how they feel about their working conditions and the union. The poll results show that when AA agents have contact with union agents at US Airways, they are more likely to support the organizing effort.

We must support their efforts to organize with the CWA because, just like us, they deserve a voice on the job and the protections of a union contract. And if the merger of our two airlines proceeds, we’ll be in a better position to negotiate a strong new contract for the combined work group if AA employees are already union. (If they have not voted for union representation by the time the merger goes ahead, we will have to proceed with a union election for the combined group.)

Several of our members have been actively organizing, including Tracy Binkley from the Winston-Salem reservation office, who has been organizing AA agents for 14 months. Recently Tracy sent us this update.

I have worked in reservations at US Airways in Winston-Salem, NC, since 1994. I was very active when we organized our union back in 1996 and 1997. And I’m proud to be helping agents at American Airlines win a voice on the job now.

Every week, I talk to American Airlines employees and hear their stories of what it’s like to work for a non-union carrier, especially one that’s fighting against the workers’ efforts to organize their union. The home-based agents have a very difficult time. They have to pay out of their own pockets for the equipment they use for work. They do not get any paid vacation or sick leave, and their wages are so low that most have to work another job to make ends meet.

I tell them about our contract, which says that if US Airways ever institutes a home-based program, it will be optional and agents who choose to work from home will get the same benefits as those who work in the reservations office.

It’s incredibly gratifying to help agents organize their union and really build a movement for workers’ rights. I was raised in a CWA household as both my parents worked fo Western Electric in Winston-Salem from the late 1940s until 1982.

I knew from a very early age the importance of having a union and a collective voice. I am trying to instill in my teenage son an understanding of the real power of union solidarity. When we stick together, we can make real changes at our workplaces and in society. I hope one day he’ll share that message with his kids.