TWU preparing Allegiant flight attendants for negotiations

By Richard N. Velotta

Monday, Feb. 14, 2011 | 3 a.m.

Representatives of the Transport Workers Union have begun meeting with Allegiant Air flight attendants to prepare them for negotiating the first union contract in the Las Vegas-based airline’s history.

Early indications are that it could be a slow and painful process.

While flight attendants are hopeful they can begin scheduling meetings with Allegiant management in the next few months, executives say the process could take two to three years.

Establishing consistent work rules systemwide appears to be the leading issue flight attendants want to address when they get to the bargaining table.

“We’re not looking to bankrupt the airline,” said flight attendant Hope Stagnaro, who has been with Allegiant for nearly five years. “We’re looking at work rules and some quality-of-life issues. I’m sure we’ll also get into holiday pay, sick pay and grievance procedures, things like that.”

Flight attendants in December voted 220-137 to approve TWU representation becoming the first work group in the airline’s history to invite union representation. A union representation vote of Allegiant flight attendants to affiliate with the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA failed in December 2006.

In early February, representatives of the TWU’s national office were in Las Vegas for a previously scheduled conference, giving flight attendants the opportunity to meet top union leaders.

“Our role is to help them set up their bargaining team,” said Frank McCann, organizing department director for the Washington-based TWU. “We’ll be advising them and supporting them.”

The first step for the flight attendants will be to draft governing documents and to elect officers. Once the new group’s leadership is in place, it will select a bargaining team to meet with airline management’s team.

Allegiant President Andrew Levy said management hasn’t selected its bargaining team yet.

“I think we have a pretty good idea who is going to be involved in the effort, but as far as I know, I don’t even think we even have a first meeting scheduled yet,” Levy said. “These first contracts, typically, take quite a bit of time. This is something that’s going to play out over the next two to three years in my opinion. Maybe it’ll go faster. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

But flight attendants are hopeful that it won’t take that long, adding that the reason the union vote was successful was because they are tired of waiting to resolve problems that have been unsolved for years.

“The company said they would be willing to work with us to resolve a lot of our issues,” said Diane Chimko, a Las Vegas-based flight attendant who has been with Allegiant for more than five years. “In November 2006, we formed a committee from different crew bases that met with the company periodically to talk about and try to improve some of our working rules and conditions.

“Now, it’s 2011 and many of those issues, if not all of them, have not been resolved nor really discussed with any seriousness,” she said. “It’s been total frustration.”

Among the concerns, Stagnaro said, involve uncompensated time on the job. She recalled being stuck in South Bend, Ind., when a mechanical issue on a plane arose.

“We ended up being in South Bend for 16 hours and got no compensation for it. We were stuck there on a day off. The next day, I got home but had to go back to work the next day. It was unforeseen and unscheduled and beyond the control of the company, but there was no compensation for that, no pay of any sort.”

Flight attendants also hope to make work rules consistent across Allegiant’s 10 flight attendant bases that stretch from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Bellingham, Wash.

While there has yet to be a bargaining meeting, it’s clear the two sides have polarizing views of each other. Airline management frequently refers to the union effort as “bargaining agents” and a “third party,” while the flight attendants see themselves as part of the same employment team they’ve always been a part of.

“There’s no question they (the union) are a third party,” Levy said. “We’ll see how they operate. We’ll learn that over time. There’s no question that they are people who don’t work for Allegiant. While I’m certain that there will be Allegiant employees in the negotiating committee, I’m certain there will be other people that are not Allegiant employees. I think it’s kind of silly to pretend that it’s not a third party.”

But Chimko said TWU leaders are guiding and advising them.

“We don’t consider it a third party,” she said. “The union is the engine in front of our train. They’re guiding us through the process. They help us with issues when they come up. We have a fabulous business plan and I’m proud to be a flight attendant with Allegiant.”