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Non-Tech : Alaska Air (ALK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth Kirk who wrote (131)	5/18/2005 12:31:37 PM
From: Kenneth Kirk	Respond to of 152

SEATTLE -- Dozens of protesters picketed Alaska Air Group Inc.'s annual shareholders' meeting Tuesday, a day after the union representing 472 airport ramp workers laid off by Alaska Airlines asked a federal judge to tell the company it can't outsource the work. The airline replaced the employees at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport last Friday, giving the jobs to contract workers with Menzies Aviation in a bid to cut costs amid rising fuel prices and stiff competition. "It's called corporate greed," said Leann Tucker, 35 and a ticket agent who has been working for Alaska Airlines for 17 years. "These are our family members they're letting go, and it's a shame." Alaska Airlines, the nation's ninth-largest carrier, has said the layoffs are expected to save the company an estimated $13 million annually. "Our fundamental obligation is to ensure the long-term viability of the company, and we've had to make decisions I had hoped we could avoid," Bill Ayer, Alaska's chairman and chief executive, told reporters in a meeting before addressing shareholders at the Museum of Flight. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers has called the layoffs an illegal lockout. They came a week after the employees rejected Alaska's latest contract offer, which called for pay cuts and higher health care premiums. The union went to court on Monday, asking a federal judge to rule that Alaska did not have the right to outsource ramp service at Sea-Tac. Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Caroline Boren said the company's contract with ramp workers -- who handle baggage and guide aircraft into and out of gates -- allows the company to outsource work when its internal costs exceed those of a subcontractor. Boeing machinists, Alaska Airlines pilots and other union members joined the picket line to show support for the ramp workers. Some protesters shouted "Don't check your bags!" at passing cars and hoisted signs labeling the airline a "union buster" and saying "Wage cuts are not the path to profit." Scot Fitzgerald, a ramp worker for the past eight years, said he's trying to get a freight job with the airline. If that doesn't work out, he said he'll take his severance and go to school to become a labor lawyer. He said he understands the company's pressures to cut costs, but thinks it's going about it the wrong way. "We've got to get costs down to be successful, but you don't do it by laying off employees. I think that's going to cost them more money in the long term," said Fitzgerald, 26, and a union shop steward. The airline had four consecutive years of losses from 2000 to 2003 and just barely broke even last year. The company is about $50 million away from a goal it set two years ago of cutting $340 million in costs by the end of 2005, Boren said. Ayer noted the company started trimming expenses by focusing on non-labor costs like lowering insurance rates, streamlining ground operations and improving Alaska's Web site so more people buy tickets online. "Job losses are the last thing we want to do," Ayer said. Alaska Airlines is seeking union approval for a severance package it says is more lucrative than the one specified in the current contract. The offer includes 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, plus a nine-week extension of wages and benefits as required by law. Tyler Fullerton, one of several pilots who showed up in uniform at Tuesday's demonstration, held a sign that read, "Am I next?" "They're doing anything they can to hire the absolute cheapest employees possible," said Fullerton, 42, and a 17-year pilot with Alaska. The pilots' union filed a lawsuit against the airline last Friday seeking to vacate an arbitrated contract that cut pilots' pay by 26 percent on average. The Machinists union is still negotiating a contract covering more than 450 ramp service, air freight and supply agents here in Alaska; nearly 140 air freight and supply agents in Seattle; and 13 supply agents in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Phoenix and Oakland, Calif. Negotiations are expected to resume this summer with a federal mediator. Asked whether the company would lay off more workers if it couldn't hammer out agreements with the remaining bargaining groups, Ayer said, "Our intent is to get negotiated agreements in the very near future."