Airline Unions Won’t be Fooled a Second Time

The withdrawal of US Airways from the Air Line Pilots Association yesterday should be recognized as more than simply a disgruntled group of aviators in search of someone to plead their case about integrating an airline seniority list. The militant move by enough US Airways pilots to pull out of a union alliance like ALPA represents a shot across the bow to airline management. And no pun is intended here, especially since the US Airways pilot whose gun discharged a few weeks ago was reportedly fired from that carrier for the incident.

Pilots at United are just as ready for action over a possible merger with Continental or anyone else. ALPA members there said they’ll “fight, on every possible front, any attempt to merge our airlines at the expense of the pilots.” In general, negotiations with American and it’s pilots are also not going well. Northwest pilots are not ready to surrender their stake in that airline easily either.

A few weeks back, a story appeared in the Wall Street Journal article about the reduced bargaining power of unions now that the price of fuel seems headed for the stratosphere. The piece made mention of the airline industry as an example of where things are not simply sticky now, but will become even more so over the next year. The story says airline unions should be prepared for the worst.

I’d say everyone needs to be prepared for a fight because labor is coming back and their hands are out.

This may not be a time when a union is ready to chew off its own foot to send a message to management as the pilots of Eastern Airlines did to Frank Lorenzo in the early 90s, but the story about airline labor this year is not going to be a pretty picture for employees, passengers or shareholders.

All this labor strife couldn’t come at a worse time for the airlines, but I think that’s also the union’s strongest bargaining chip.

The pilot’s unions now have the ability to simply cross their arms and say “No, not this time,” to a proposal that doesn’t offer them a seriously considerable stake in any of the new ventures sure to be formed before the next president sits down to his or her desk in the White House next January.

For consumers though, the rest of this year is probably not going to be pretty, especially during this summer’s travel season. Don’t be surprised if there is at least one major airline strike designed to fire one more shot where management can’t miss the message.

And also watch for a few more airline brands to disappear.