(The TTD issued the following news release on April 25.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The following statement was issued today by Sonny Hall, President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, in support of Northwest Airlines flight attendants — members of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 2000 — who today are protesting large executive bonuses at the airline s annual shareholders meeting in New York.
“On behalf of the men and women represented by the AFL-CIO s Transportation Trades Department, I want to offer my strong support for the Northwest Airlines flight attendants who today are taking a stand against outrageous and greedy corporate behavior. They are presenting the company’s shareholders with a multi-step plan to make the positive changes needed to help the airline and its flight attendants weather the crisis in the airline industry.
“The Teamsters’ protest is being driven by Northwest s top two executives receiving raises and bonuses totaling over $2.5 million at the same time they were asking flight attendants for massive wage and benefit cuts. This act of mismanagement was deeply hypocritical and grossly insensitive to the economic pain and suffering facing the company s workers each day.
“In times of great difficulty, workers and management must share equally in the pain. Airline workers have shown their commitment to rescuing their industry. It’s long past time others act more responsibly. The situation at Northwest is yet another example of a growing and dangerous trend in our economy — in 1980 average CEO pay was 42 times that of an average hourly worker. Today that figure is 411 times greater.
“Our airline industry is in the midst of its darkest days. A confluence of economic, global, and other factors have come together to drive away customers, lay off workers in droves, and drastically reduce air service to many communities. How paying large bonuses to airline executives helps make things better is beyond me.”
TTD represents 35 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, trucking, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit www.ttd.org