Reno Air attendants looking to unionize

Monday, Feb. 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Teamsters union officials said they have secured enough signatures of the airline's 500 flight attendants to ask the National Mediation Board to conduct such an election, likely by the spring.

"I like my job; I like it," said a Reno Air flight attendant who asked not to be identified. "I just wish the company would treat the flight attendants as though we're worth something."

Asked if the union would win if an election were held today, Reno Air flight attendant Bettie Haywood replied, "Yes, hands down ... Morale, I have to say, has been down."

But Jimmy Duke, Reno Air's vice president of flight operations, said he doesn't think unionization is necessary because management is working with employee committees to address attendants' concerns.

"We would like to think that we manage this company well enough that a third party's not needed here," he told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "We think we have done an awful lot of positive things."

Vicki Frankovich, a spokes-woman for the Teamsters airline division in Los Angeles, said many workers had hoped the committees would result in positive changes.

But their "failure to deliver anything has caused a lot of people to change their minds," she said. "The solution is to be paid more money."

Flight attendants complain they're not being paid for ground duties that range from cleaning the cabin to mandated arrival an hour before flights.

Although they earn $13 an hour to start and up to $17.01 for four years service, flight attendants are only paid for the published flight time.

Entry-level flight attendants are bringing home $700 to $900 a month, but working 200 hours and up, Frankovich said.

A three-day trip could include about 26 hours of duty time, only 15 of which are paid flight hours, said Haywood, adding she would like to see "per diem" pay of $1.25 an hour for ground time.

"When we're on the ground cleaning the airplanes ... we're not getting paid and I think that's the biggest complaint," she said.

The low-fare, Reno-based airline offers about 200 flights to 21 cities across the West. It has 2,200 employees and a payroll of more than $40 million.