Southwest ground workers agitate for improvements

Monday, March 5, 2001 | 11:23 a.m.

United Airlines has failed to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to stop class-action claims by flight attendants over a maximum-weight policy once imposed by the world's largest airline.

The justices, without comment, today let stand a decision requiring the company to pay damages to female flight attendants who say the policy required them to be lighter than comparable male workers. The lower court ruling also let related age-discrimination claims go forward.

The world's No. 1 airline argued that an earlier class-action fight with flight attendants precluded the latest suit. United also said federal law authorizes age-bias suits only if employers intentionally discriminate and not simply because company policies have a disproportionate effect on older workers.

United has been sparring with its flight attendants over its weight policy since the early 1970s. The most recent version of the policy, in effect from 1980 to 1994, required females to weigh between 14 and 25 pounds less than male colleagues of the same age and height, with older flight attendants allowed to weigh a few pounds more than comparable younger workers.

Representatives of about 400 Las Vegas-based Southwest Airlines employees represented by the Transport Workers Union Local 555 planned to wrap up their four-day informational picket at McCarran International Airport today.

The employees, who work operations at the airport gates, provision planes and on the ramp, say they plan more demonstrations to bring attention to a contract dispute with Dallas-based Southwest.

Southwest is the largest airline serving the Las Vegas airport. For the company, the Las Vegas operation is the second largest of 58 cities served. Representatives of about 5,300 TWU-represented employees manned picket lines at other cities served by Southwest and at the company's headquarters at Love Field in Dallas.

TWU pickets in Las Vegas carried placards near a passenger pickup zone at McCarran and on a sidewalk at Paradise Road near Tropicana Avenue, visible to most passengers who use the airport.

No flights were threatened by the action. The union is prohibited from a strike action until after a 30-day "cooling-off" period set by a mediator, but the mediator between the company and the union says the two sides are not yet at an impasse.

Mike Roach, a district representative of the TWU who is stationed in Las Vegas and oversees 12 northwestern cities for the union, said the dispute with the airline involves a number of pay and benefit issues. He said the union is working under an amendable contract, meaning that members continue to work under the existing agreement until a new one is reached.

But Roach said employees have been working 14 months under the last agreement and the union and the airline management are far apart on resolving disputes under a new pact.

The union voted down management's most recent proposal in mid-December and TWU officials hope the pickets will spur the company to return for more talks.

The union says the key issues are pay levels for longtime employees, retirement pay, mandatory overtime and attendance policies.

Carlton Vaughn, a Southwest ramp agent and a local union representative, said Southwest pays $4 to $5 an hour below the industry average for employees who have more than 10 years of service with the company. A Southwest employee makes an average $14.97 an hour, he said.

The union also wants the company to match a greater percentage of contributions to 401(k) retirement programs. Roach said other Southwest employees receive a company match for up to 7 percent of what an employee contributes to the program, but the existing contract with the TWU offers a match for up to 6 percent.

Vaughn and Roach said Las Vegas, as one of Southwest's busiest stations, handles more passengers and their baggage than most airports and is under-staffed. That leads to more mandatory overtime shifts, they said, and an attendance policy that is unfair.

During busy periods in Las Vegas, the representatives said, there are 20 to 40 overtime shifts a day.

Vaughn said during the holidays, one employee, whose name he would not disclose, worked 24 hours straight to handle a heavy load of passengers and, at night, sorted mail under Southwest's cargo shipping program.

Placards carried by demonstrators played off icons of the airline's tremendous success. The company's stock symbol is "LUV," a tribute to the airline's home airport as well a testament to the corporate culture of Southwest, which routinely lands atop lists of most-admired companies and best places to work.

But the pickets held signs that said, "What good is LUV without respect?" and "We can't live on LUV alone."

Demonstrators also were upset that the company's recent earnings haven't reflected more pay for workers. Their signs said, "Record profits, empty pockets," and "Pay not peanuts," a reference to Southwest's deference to serving meals on its flights.

A Southwest spokeswoman in Dallas said the company wants to negotiate a new contract with the union -- but not through the media.

"As far as the informational pickets are concerned, we're glad our employees go out and express their opinions," said Kristin Nelson. "We're working to negotiate a contract to address the concerns of the union."