One subject I have covered numerous times in the past is unions, and how they do nothing but cost Americans jobs due to their inflexibility. I almost always do this in the context of Michael Moore, who is not only a huge proponent of unions, but someone who is largely setting the Democratic agenda in this country. Here’s something Moore wrote in one of his recent books.
I’d rather have a non-union job that paid me $573 a week than a union job that used to pay me $717 a week before I was laid off when the factory closed down.
Alaska Airlines said Friday it has hired Menzies Aviation to provide ramp services at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the carrier’s busiest hub, and is laying off 472 workers.
A statement issued by the airline, which is operated by Alaska Air Group Inc. of Seattle, said the move would save $13 million a year amid rising fuel costs and fierce competition.
Edward W. White, vice president of ground operations, said displaced workers will be offered “a more lucrative severance package than that specified in the current contract” with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
And what kind of severance package did they get?
He said the company’s severance offer, “in line with the severance offered to management, maintenance and fleet service employees last year,” will include two weeks of base pay for each year of service, a cash bonus of $3,000 to $15,000 based on length of service, a year of company-paid health care coverage and travel benefits for each worker and eligible dependents, plus a nine-week extension of wages and benefits as required by law.
That’s a spectacular package, far better than any I have ever gotten in my life, and I’ve been laid off multiple times before. I have to hand it to the company for taking care of their employees this way. So, why are they being laid off in the first place?
The airline’s news release said the Seattle decision followed a long evaluation of moneysaving and cost-cutting options and 20 months negotiations for concessions from the Machinists union.
“Unfortunately, we were unable to achieve a contract approaching the savings available from service providers,” White said.
In other words, an outside company was able to come in and offer to perform exactly the same job for cheaper than the union was willing to accept. Or, to paraphrase Michael Moore, the union wanted $717 a week, and the non-union workers were willing to do exactly the same job for $573. Thus, once again, proving me right when I said, “I’d rather have a non-union job that paid me $573 a week than a union job that used to pay me $717 a week before I was laid off when the factory closed down,” or in this case, the work was farmed out to a third party. And what has the union said?
The decision was announced Friday morning before the union’s local office opened for the day, and there was no immediate comment from union leaders.
Earlier in the week, however, Bobby De Pace, president of Machinists District 143, said hiring an outside company to take over baggage handling in Seattle could mean chaos for passengers during peak travel season for the airline’s and the airport.
“The new people coming in cannot do as good a job as the ones who have been doing it,” De Pace said. “There’s a learning curve.”
Come on, let’s be real here. This is moving baggage. Generally speaking, you take bags from a plane, put it on a cart, then put it into a computerized baggage system, that routes the bags where they need to go. I’m not saying that this doesn’t require a degree of skill, only that I can’t imagine the learning curve on this job is so steep that the replacement workers couldn’t get up to speed in a relatively short period of time. The displaced baggage handlers are free, of course, to go to work for the new contractor, making exactly what they would have made had the union simply accepted the airline’s offer. And therein lies the rub. I would imagine that most of the displaced workers will do just that, pretty much negating the whole “learning curve” argument altogether.
So, what is the end result we see from union meddling? Well, all the baggage handlers lost their jobs, got laid off, and now they’re going to have to go work for less wages. Isn’t this exactly what unions are supposed to prevent? Did anyone make out good on this deal? Well, yeah. The airline will hopefully stay solvent, thus reducing even more layoffs in other areas. The passengers will still be attracted to fly that airline because the cost cutting measures will offset the higher fuel expenses and the ticket prices will remain as low as possible. And the union bosses will still have their jobs, won’t they?
Who gets screwed by unions? The workers. Every time.
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