(Source: International Brotherhood of Teamsters press release, June 8, 2012)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Teamster pilots, flight attendants and mechanics who work at Republic Airways—which provides regional jet passenger service for mainline U.S. carriers—distributed fliers today at 10 airports nationwide to educate the flying public about the company’s ongoing attacks on its employees. View photos from this event.
Republic flies for American, Delta, United and US Airways, and a series of bad management decisions and antagonistic labor relations at Republic is hurting this important part of airline service. Today’s hand billing took place at airports in Houston, Indianapolis, Newark, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Columbus, and Dulles, Virginia.
“Republic’s poor management decisions have demoralized its workers and has caused tremendous anger and resentment among pilots, flight attendants and mechanics,” said Capt. David Bourne, Director of the Teamsters Airline Division. “We want the flying public to know this because at some point it could impact travel.”
“Our pilots are tired of waiting on management to do the right thing for their employees,” said Craig Moffatt, a Republic pilot who is President of Teamsters Local 357 in Plainfield Ind. “Some of your pilots can make more waiting tables than making sure you get where you are needed, safely and on time. The company complains to us that it can’t afford to do the right thing. However, their show and tell for Wall Street says that they can. This goes beyond pay though. This is about honesty, fairness and respect.”
The problems at Republic include:
• There is a serious pilot shortage and Republic continues to take actions to make it worse;
• In some cases, pilot pay and working conditions are so low that they are eligible for food stamps;
• Aviation mechanics face management abuse and violation of their rights;
• Republic continues to delay contract negotiations with pilots and flight attendants;
• Republic took action to eliminate Frontier mechanic work and their union;
• Republic management has committed blatant violations of federal labor law.
The hand billing activity is aimed at alerting the flying public that mismanagement is destroying morale and creating anger and resentment among Republic’s workforce. For more information, visit http://rahcontractnow.org/ and www.teamsterair.org/Republic.
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4 million hard-working men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico including more than 75,000 workers in the airline industry. Go to www.teamster.org for more information.