WASHINGTON, D.C. — Midway Airlines flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, AFL-CIO, will begin mediation with the company on Wednesday in their three-year old contract talks, the union announced in a press release.
The flight attendants and airline management had reached tentative agreements on 75 percent of the contract when the flight attendants originally requested mediation. However, sessions had not yet begun when the airline shut down in September. The flight attendants resubmitted their request for mediation in January after Midway resumed operations.
Contract provisions covering seniority, furlough and recall of employees had already been decided but financial issues such as pay, benefits and scheduling are still open. Now the company wants to renegotiate the already agreed upon portions of the contract, bringing three years of negotiations back to square one.
Midway management showed its complete disregard for its flight attendant workforce when the company restarted operations. Midway ignored the agreement on recall of employees and refused to recall flight attendants to work based on years of service to the airline. Instead, flight attendants were brought back arbitrarily and a vice president and supervisors who were not flight attendants prior to the shutdown were given flight attendant positions over furloughed flight attendants. Other Midway employees have been recalled in seniority order as has been done in the past.
On behalf of the Midway flight attendants, AFA filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Feb. 11 for injunctive relief to force the company to recall flight attendants in seniority order. The lawsuit also encompasses a number of other issues, including anti-union animus and bad faith bargaining. The case is still pending.
“We’re fighting for respect, fairness and a legally-binding contract that management can’t change on a whim,” said Gwendolyn Savoy, a Midway flight attendant and AFA council 63 secretary who hasn’t been recalled to the job. “All Midway flight attendants, whether or not they have been recalled, have worked hard for our airline and it is shameful what management has done. We’ll continue to fight at the negotiating table, in the courts and in public and do whatever it takes to win a good contract that protects our careers and our families.”
Over 50,000 flight attendants at 26 carriers, including 368 from Midway Airlines, join together to form AFA. Visit us @ http://www.afanet.org .