Airline Strike Watch: British Airways and American on the Ropes
Posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
It's turning into a pretty rough month for the oneworld alliance. Founding members American Airlines and British Airways are both locked in labor disputes that threaten to escalate into full-blown airline strikes, with unions demanding benefits and managements insisting that the money just isn't there. In both cases it's pretty obvious that employees are playing a weak hand: what are they going to do, devastate the company and put themselves permanently out of work? But in both cases the unions seem intent on going right to the line of mutually assured destruction, which means lots of uncertainty for lots more time.
As if American Airlines wasn't having enough problems with their flight attendants threatening a walkout, now they've got to deal with a potential pilot strike. The money quote being run this morning is that they're "far apart" on a new contract, with the pilots asking to have their purchasing power restored to 1992 levels. The airline insists that's a no-go since their labor costs are already higher than the industry average. A federal mediator is trying to bring the two sides together, which distinguishes this dispute in no way from the negotiations between American and its flight attendants. Or between American and its ground operators. Lots of fun for everyone.
