Southwest agrees deal with workers

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents Southwest Airlines’ 6,000 customer service agents and customer support and services representatives, recently agreed to a new four-year contract. According to Southwest, the agreement makes provision for pay increases, along with bonus opportunities, that are linked to both company and employee performance. Southwest said in a statement that overall it is almost 83% unionized and that it is actively engaged in negotiations with six out of its 12 unions.

New glycol recovery facility at Montreal

Aéroports de Montréal and Aéro Mag recently inaugurated a state-of-the-art ethylene glycol recovery, recertification and re-use facility at Montréal-Trudeau International airport’s de-icing centre. This is set to significantly reduce the airport’s environmental record while reducing de-icing charges for airlines.

Representing a US$10m investment, the facility uses a sophisticated process to concentrate ethylene glycol employed in aircraft de-icing operations and restore it to a level of at least 99.5% purity for re-use. Interestingly, this process is considered a world first. ADM has contributed US$7.1m to the construction of the facility while Aéro Mag invested US$2.9m.

Remuneration policy to change?

Doug Parker, American Airlines’ Chief Executive, has suggested that airlines should stop sharing profits with employees and instead look to improve wages. This rather flies in the face of ongoing pressure from his own workforce, who wish to have part of their pay linked to the airline’s annual performance figures. In an interview, he dismissed profit-sharing as an outdated concept, despite the fact that other US carriers are happy to publish the pay-outs given to employees each quarter.

“They’re bankruptcy-era contracts, and we’re past those days,” he asserted, adding that airlines offered profit-sharing in the last decade to make up for wage cuts. “We should move back to what normal industrial companies do, which is pay people (what) they earn. People prefer to have the certainty of wages.”

Tanaris Power bought out

Recursos Montana has announced that it has initiated the purchase of Tanaris Power from Enterprise Asset Management. EAM is currently in negotiations to spin out Tanaris Power, which holds contracts for evaluation and sales for ground support equipment.

Keeping the Spirit alive

Integrated De-icing Services has announced that it has been awarded the de-icing provider contract for Spirit Airlines at Detroit’s Metro airport.

Daniel Young, Director of Sales, Marketing and Customer Relations said: “The new contract became effective on October 1, 2014. Everything came together quickly because we already de-ice Spirit’s aircraft in Minneapolis and Chicago, so we have resources readily available in this part of the country.”

Integrated De-icing Services actually began its relationship with Spirit at Chicago. The association grew with an additional award at Minneapolis St Paul. Stan Berton, Senior Manager Airport Affairs, added: “We have enjoyed a very productive relationship with IDS in recent years. The Detroit award is a natural extension of our relationship and is part of a strategic regional alignment for the three airports.”

Sal Calvino, President of IDS also commented on the latest signing.

“Both companies are leaders in their categories, youthful and growing. Our operating philosophies are very similar in terms of service and providing the best value to our customers. We are very pleased with the addition of Spirit at Detroit.”

Phili-buster: a sign of the times?

Passengers at Philadelphia International airport experienced some disruption on November 20, when strike action by a number of bag handlers from Prime Flight got underway. In all, more than 100 baggage handlers voiced their unhappiness over wage levels, which currently stand at US$9.00 an hour: they claim that they have been promised US$10.88.

Some of the affected airlines said that they had made arrangements to cover the staff who were involved in the dispute. This action isn’t isolated: in recent weeks there have been other, wage-related actions, notably at Los Angeles, JFK and La Guardia airports.

Menzies initiative aims at improving LAX

Just a couple of months after state investigators fined Menzies Aviation a total of US$77,250 for serious safety violations that culminated in the death of a worker at Los Angeles International, the handler and employee unions have formed a partnership with the aim of improving working conditions for ramp staff.

Menzies officials and the Service Employees International Union, United Service Workers West, will work together in order to draw up new health and safety standards for many workers at Los Angeles.

Amongst other things, the partnership seeks to establish joint health and safety committees that will be staffed by Menzies and union officials, health and safety advocates as well as Menzies employees. In addition, worker health and safety training programs developed with industry experts will be formulated to address the hazards faced by Los Angeles ground service teams. Moreover, new vehicle and heavy equipment inspection initiatives will be introduced and new methods whereby workers can raise health and safety concerns with senior Menzies management staff will be implemented.