Eleven hundred pilots, flight attendants and mechanics at Mesaba (MAIR) are now covered by new contracts after nearly a year of contentious battles between management and labor. (RAN, November 6, p. 8) The new contracts result in wage and benefits concessions of 15.8 percent, nearly two percent below what Mesaba said it needed to fly out of bankruptcy. The Northwest Airlink received permission to impose that on its work force but delayed pending further negotiations.

"The pilots, flight attendants and mechanics, along with every single Mesaba employees, are making a considerable sacrifice to ensure the survival of this company and I am confident we will see brighter days ahead," said President and COO John Spanjers in announcing the deals.

No one is calling victory at this point. "We gave concessions to save the company," said Tom Wychor, who heads the airline's Air Line Pilots Association unit.

Pilots voted 68 percent in favor of the new contracts along with 82 percent of flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and 65 percent of mechanics, who are represented by the Transport Workers Union. The move means at 2.7 percent drop for flight attendant wages and between five and 5.5 percent for pilots, depending on the equipment they fly. Mechanics have an 8.5 percent cut. The average flight attendant makes $24,000 a year while pilots were averaging about $45,000 and mechanics with five year's experience are at about $37,000.

With the agreements in hand, effective December 1, the company can now focus on maintaining its core business of 49 Saabs.

Mesa Pilots File Suit

Mesa's pilot corps filed a federal lawsuit again Mesa Air Group (MESA) seeking court enforcement of the terms of its collective bargaining agreement that would reduce pilot scheduling changes. Pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), charged the company with failing to implement the provisions of the arbitrator's decision six month ago.

This is the second volley fired by pilots in nearly as many weeks. (RAN, November 20, p.8) Frustrated over a lack of progress in reversing performance and quality problems, pilots charged management with ignoring operational problems prompting the group to issue a statement that they lack confidence in management. Pilots said management "passed off" such problems as "broken aircraft, crew shortages, dirty cabins, delayed and cancelled flights" as the result of rapid growth.

In this latest round, the pilot's unit noted the arbitrator agreed that company violated the pilots' collective bargaining agreement by engaging in a widespread practice of altering awarded flight schedules, re-assigning flight duties, rescheduling awarded flights and tranferring flight duties among pilots.

"Competent pilot scheduling is key to our pilots' quality of life," said Captain James Ackerman, chair of Mesa's ALPA unit. "It dictates how long you're away from home, how much you're paid and how productive you are while on duty." He complained that many of the scheduling changes were last minute, forcing longer duty time and erratic rest schedules, "which not only make family life difficult, but also promotes job dissatisfaction and fatigue."

Captain Darrell Cox, who heads the Scheduling Committee indicated this was predictable. "The irony is that our union foreshadowed a shortage of pilots long ago and many of these problems could have been mitigated if management had just hired appropriately according to the operation's needs."

While its current contract, amendable next September, calls for such scheduling adjustments resulting from weather, mechanical problems and other issues, the group siad Mesa systematically abused the contract. "The arbitrator's ruling affirms this," said the union. "After nearly six months of requesting that management modify its practices and abide by the arbitrator's decision, union leaders say Mesa pilots are frustrated about their management's lack of compliance."