Southwest attendants protest over contract

Friday, July 18, 2003 | 11:40 a.m.

One of the reasons Southwest Airlines stays profitable is that the company keeps its planes busier than those of other airlines by taking them on more flights per day. Employees contribute by minimizing the amount of time planes stand idle on the ground.

Now, Southwest flight attendants want to be compensated for doing work that isn't in their job descriptions -- tidying up the aircraft immediately after a flight so that it can be ready to go in 20 minutes.

Most airlines have special ground crews that board planes after they arrive and prepare them for the next departure. Southwest flight attendants save the airline time -- and money -- by doing those chores themselves.

Flight attendants took their compensation message to the public in Las Vegas Thursday in a two-hour demonstration in the noontime heat at McCarran International Airport.

The demonstration was part of a series of informational pickets the Transport Workers Union Local 556 is conducting nationwide. The union is in the economic phase of contract negotiations that began 14 months ago for the airline's 7,300 flight attendants.

The contract between the Dallas-based airline -- the busiest at McCarran with an average of 167 flights a day -- and the union became amendable June 1, 2002.

"We're happy to be able to contribute to the profitability of Southwest and its on-time performance," said Thom McDaniel, president of the TWU in Dallas and head of the union's negotiating team. "But this is one of the issues that's on the table since with our existing contract we get no overtime or other compensation for things like cleaning up the plane."

About 10 flight attendants, the maximum allowed for demonstrations by McCarran administrators, chanted union slogans and carried signs outside Southwest's ticketing area at the airport during the protest. The flight attendants carried signs that read, "Discount fares, not discounted employees" and "Southwest keep that Luv'n feeling," a reference to Southwest's stock symbol, LUV.

Several of the protesters were Las Vegas residents who regularly commute to Southwest flight-attendant bases in Phoenix or Oakland, Calif.

Sonia Hall, a 10-year flight attendant based in Phoenix, participated in the Las Vegas demonstration and said the work has become more challenging, but there has been no additional compensation.

"Since 9-11, the work has gotten harder," Hall said. "There are more security concerns, more air rage to deal with and we have to work harder to maintain our competitive edge."

She said the median flight-attendant salary is $24,500 a year at Southwest and beginning flight attendants make $14,000 a year. She said a survey of Southwest flight attendants indicates that 53 percent of them are the sole moneymaker in the household and 60 percent said they worked another job to make ends meet. Hall said she works part-time as a substitute teacher to supplement her income.

"We really don't mind cleaning up the airplanes after each flight," Hall said. "We're the most productive flight attendants in the industry.

"But we feel that it's time that we were compensated for the work we do."

A spokeswoman for Southwest in Dallas said informational pickets are a normal part of the negotiation process.

"Southwest is optimistic that there will be a contract that will benefit the flight attendants and the airline, because they truly are the best flight attendants in the industry," said spokeswoman Angela Vargo.

Vargo said she could not address specific issues that are a part of contract negotiations, including the airline's position on compensation for cleaning planes.