There has never been a worse time for the USA to consider the liberalisation measures required to further progress European Union-US Open Skies, argues Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the USA's AFL-CIO union
While US airline workers suffer, many in the global aviation community are circling the wagons around America's aviation market and carriers. US aviation workers, who are already reeling from job cuts, weakened bargaining rights, outsourcing and bankruptcies, watch with great suspicion as Europe advances its interest in a new vision of "open markets" and "complete liberalisation" between the European Union and the USA.
News of possible mergers, bankruptcies and job cuts confronts aviation employees daily. High fuel costs are putting great pressures on the airlines. And labour-management relations have badly deteriorated as the major airlines - after exacting billions of dollars in concessions from their workers in the wake of the economic downturn that followed 9/11 - think there is virtually no limit to how much they can squeeze from their employees or interfere in the rights of workers to form and join unions.
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"US aviation workers view [EU-US Open Skies] with great suspicion"Edward WytkindPresident Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO |
Some carriers have sought to weaken employees' collective bargaining rights and one US carrier, Delta Air Lines, just completed one of the most anti-union campaigns I have ever witnessed, by denying its flight attendants a union voice while the National Mediation Board sat on its hands. Even workers at our Federal Aviation Administration operate in an environment where management believes it can ignore its bargaining obligations and unilaterally impose harsh terms and conditions on its employees.
RECESSION FEARS
The financial crisis dominating the world stage over the past several weeks only serves to revive fears of a long-term recession that will surely dampen demand for air travel. It is against this backdrop that US aviation workers have great reason to be concerned with the latest stage of EU-US Open Skies negotiations. There could not be worse timing for the EU to formally ask the USA to abolish rules that prevent foreign airlines from owning and controlling US carriers and engaging in point-to-point domestic service.
In the first round of Open Skies talks, the Bush Administration, in an effort to placate the EU, sought a regulatory end-run around the rules that would have allowed foreign interests to exercise control over US airlines. After this poorly veiled plan was overwhelmingly rejected by Congress, a first-round Open Skies pact was reached that nonetheless created loopholes in our foreign control rules. EU nations could even withdraw from the deal if they did not get their way in second-stage talks. The next US Administration should reject this type of economic blackmail in any future aviation agreement.
US airline workers understand that aviation is a global business and that many can benefit from sensible air service agreements that expand opportunities and open markets. But not at any cost. Proposals to eliminate cabotage restrictions and open our domestic markets to foreign carrier operations remain a bad idea as there is no basis for an even exchange of benefits with another nation.
Relaxing foreign control rules would allow carriers to more easily shift work to cheaper, non-US labour options. Since it is not clear whether US labour law extends to airline crews based abroad, this proposal is especially threatening to US flight crews. If embraced, the EU's liberalisation agenda in these talks could push our airline workers on to the same slippery slope of unfair trade policy that has wreaked economic havoc on hundreds of thousands of manufacturing workers in the USA.
US carriers are also well-schooled in scouring the globe for low-cost repair and maintenance operations for their domestic fleets. Already, some 70% of US carriers' maintenance work is outsourced, and much of it sent abroad. It does not seem to bother our current FAA leadership that these foreign facilities are not adequately inspected and are not held to the same safety and security standards as US stations.
In this time of great anxiety and uncertainty, US negotiators must reject policy changes that would tear down long-standing, effective structures and regulations. The magnitude of the changes the EU is seeking in these talks - and the backdrop of economic turmoil against which these negotiations occur - give US airline workers ample reason to be worried.
The next President and Congress are better served by focusing on creating and preserving good airline jobs here in the USA - strengthening the right to organise new unions and bargain collectively, reforming perverse bankruptcy and merger laws, and protecting pensions. That is a wagon to which we can hitch our members' futures.
For more on how the EU and the US are preparing for round two of Open Skies: flightglobal.com/openskies2
Source: Airline Business
