> Airline alliances lead to pilots in foreign carriers getting *higher*
> salaries. So going global need not be a race to the bottom, it can mean
> harmonizing upward.
>
> Arthur Cordell
>
> =============================
>
> Unseen Product Of Airline Links: Labor Solidarity
>
> 06/01/2001
> The Wall Street Journal
>
>
>
> With U.S. pilots as personal trainers, Europe's airline-employee unions
> are flexing their muscles.
>
> The Americans aren't acting without self-interest. The alliances of
> recent years involving the
> world's carriers have sparked worries among U.S. pilots that their jobs
> will be outsourced to
> lower-wage foreigners. And one way to ensure that U.S. wage gains in
> recent years aren't
> compromised by cheaper foreign labor is to equalize labor costs, says
> Duane Woerth, president of
> the U.S. Air Line Pilots Association.
>
> European unions are getting the message.
>
> Lufthansa pilots, seeking a 24% pay increase, are in arbitration with
> management after almost two
> months of unusually acrimonious talks and three one-day walkouts.
> Americans who fly for UAL
> Corp.'s United Airlines and other U.S. carriers in the 13-member Star
> alliance -- established by
> United and Lufthansa in 1997 -- have been providing Lufthansa pilots
> with wage data, negotiating
> tips and moral support. While officials at the German union Vereinigung
> Cockpit decline to talk
> about the specifics of the foreign aid, they say it has been valuable.
>
> Pilots are "becoming a much more international family because of the
> alliances," says
> negotiating-team member Bernd Kolender.
>
> The carriers wish it were otherwise. "This is a world-wide trend, and it
> is very worrying," says
> Xabier de Irala, chairman of Spain's Iberia, a member of the
> eight-airline oneworld alliance that has
> been in bitter wage talks with its pilots since January. With the
> economy cooling, he says, "pilots
> have to realize that profitability isn't high" and that richer contracts
> could financially squeeze
> airlines.
>
> That view is unlikely to be in evidence today in London, where the
> International Federation of Air
> Line Pilots Associations, an umbrella group for pilot unions, is holding
> a three-day negotiating
> seminar. Supervised by U.S. pilots, attendees will break into two
> role-playing groups and vie with
> each other as management vs. labor.
>
> The alliances -- and the associations the pilots have created for
> themselves within them -- "are
> really starting to show up one airline against the other," says Stan
> Clayton-Smith, director of
> professional affairs at the pilots' federation. "Pilots are seeing what
> terms and conditions they're
> getting for the same work."
>
> Last month, a two-day meeting of the Oneworld Cockpit Crew Coalition at
> the Miami Airport Hotel
> brought together more than 20 pilots from the oneworld alliance, which
> AMR Corp.'s American
> Airlines and British Airways PLC formed in 1998. Host John Darrah,
> president of the Allied Pilots
> Association, American's union, offered tips to members from LanChile on
> fighting what they
> consider to be union busting in Latin America, and discussed with pilots
> from Ireland's Aer Lingus
> that airline's unusual requirements for flying additional flights after
> long-haul trips. The American
> Airlines union also is refashioning part of its Web site so oneworld
> pilots can exchange contract
> details online.
>
> European pilots are happy for the trans-Atlantic help. It's not that
> they are green when it comes to
> contract negotiations, but they are entering an increasingly competitive
> environment more familiar
> to U.S. pilots. Four years ago, the European Union copied Washington's
> 1978 airline deregulation,
> unleashing a new wave of competition. Combined with a continuing
> sell-off of state-owned airlines
> to profit-minded shareholders, Europe's aviation market is looking a lot
> more like America's.
> European pilots say they can gain profitable insights about bargaining
> in a deregulated market from
> their seasoned U.S. colleagues.
>
> "They are showing us how they do studies and statistics" on contract
> terms, says Jaime La Casa, a
> spokesman for the Iberia wing of the Sepla union in Madrid.
>
> In the U.S., management disputes the premise behind the American pilots'
> involvement in labor
> affairs abroad. Delta Air Lines' chief executive officer, Leo Mullin,
> says pilots in America have "no
> basis in fact" for their fears that carriers will import less costly
> labor to fill U.S. flying jobs. "Pilot
> alliances are formed under the presumed necessity to respond to this
> created idea," Mr. Mullin
> says.
>
> Success for pilots at Europe's contract-negotiating tables is sure to
> breed further militancy,
> analysts predict. "If Lufthansa gives a substantial pay increase, I
> guarantee you every other
> European airline's pilots will demand it," says Ian Wild, European
> airline analyst at SG Securities in
> London.
>
> Analysts say further that pilots' victories at the contract-negotiating
> table could prompt similar
> demands from flight attendants, baggage handlers and other staff, which
> could spell bad news for
> travelers. Mr. Wild warns that the airline industry could respond by
> limiting capacity growth. With
> demand for airline seats continuing to rise, he sees one conclusion:
> "The result will be higher
> pricing for passengers."
>
> Trans-Atlantic employee camaraderie wasn't on anybody's mind when
> United, Lufthansa and
> others started the alliances. Thwarted in their efforts to merge by
> complex aviation treaties, airlines
> saw the less-formal links as vehicles to achieve some of the same
> efficiencies they might have
> attained by buying each other.
>
> The benefits for the carriers and their passengers are considerable.
> Through alliances, the airlines
> share everything from marketing and pricing data to aircraft. That helps
> build revenue while cutting
> costs. Fliers get smoother ticketing and better options on
> frequent-flier plans.
>
> As for the resulting, if unintended, employee togetherness, it seems
> likely to endure. "We're not
> going to see one group of pilots exploiting another," says Mr.
> Clayton-Smith of the pilots
> association in London. Americans "have the resources," he adds, "and
> they share them."
>
> ---
>
>
>
