Sunday, June 24, 2001
Comair must heal wounds
Informal talks show progress
By James Pilcher
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Now that the Comair strike is over, the airline must perform a variety of mechanical and other tasks to put its fleet back in the air.
But perhaps more daunting than reopening Concourse C at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport or making sure the baggage system is working is an issue that can't be seen or easily measured, yet must be solved.
The airline and its pilots must heal some raw feelings. The need for healing is made all the more apparent by the fact that more that 400 pilots rejected the contract — and that 1,600 local nonpilot employees have been out of work for as long as five weeks and counting.
(New story: Comair taking reservations)
Both sides realize the importance of this issue. A workplace with a poisoned atmosphere can translate into poor customer service — and that's damaged a number of airlines over the years.
Aware of the need to avoid workplace divisiveness, officials from the Erlanger-based regional carrier and its branch of the Air Line Pilots Association began informal discussions about restoring good will at Comair even before the last contract talks began.
“This is tremendously important,” said Max Roberts, who served as a union spokesman throughout the strike but was the first point of contact for airline executives to begin discussions about healing the wounds. “And in all honesty, what we've been coming up with has been not only on the same page, but pretty darn close to being the same paragraph.”
“We have to move forward as a team and all together, and that means communicating with mutual respect,” said company spokesman Nick Miller.
The pilots, who walked out on March 26, ratified a new five-year contract Friday, 733-408.
The vote ended the 89-day strike that had grounded Comair. The walkout caused the airline and its parent company, Delta Air Lines, to lose more than $320 million, and forced 2,400 layoffs of nonpilots, including those 1,600 in the Tristate.
The union, which began the strike with about 1,350 pilots, now has about 1,200 members. The strike caused its members to lose $12.8 million and counting in wages; the pilots won't get their first post-strike checks until August.
Airline officials said Friday that flights will resume to 26 cities on July 2, with most cities served by Comair prior to the strike to receive some service by December.
But to make that happen, union and airline officials say all employees and management need to be looking forward, not back to the past three months.
Saturday, pilots began receiving calls from the company to begin scheduling training sessions. If the strike had continued, all Comair's pilots today would have lost their “currency,” or ability to fly commercially, because they hadn't kept up with federally required training.
But beyond such technical requirements, the airline and the pilots face the practical problem of dealing with the emotions and feelings of the reassembled work force.
According to George Hopkins, a Western Illinois University history professor and author of two books on airline pilot unions, the human aspect of restarting an airline is crucial to any future success.
“It's an article of faith that the strike is hard, and the back-to-work part is harder,” Dr. Hopkins said. “You have to be aware of the difficulties of the transition.”
As the company brings back workers who were laid off, union and company officials expect some tension.
“It's not going bother me, but I'm sure there will be some upset people,” said Jim Stone, a 58-year-old ramp worker among those laid off May 14. “I know some people who lost some things because they couldn't keep up the payments. But a strike is like a war. There's no real winner, just a lot of collateral damage.”
And because nearly 40 percent of the pilots voted against the contract, they will return to the job not liking their new working conditions.
“That's why the contact (about healing the wounds) was initiated so early on,” Mr. Roberts said. “The company, and we at the union, want to take this head-on from the get-go.”
Mr. Roberts, an eight-year veteran with the company who says he has many friends at the company within the nonpilot ranks, said the initial contact came the same day both sides met with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta and pledged to return to the bargaining table.
The Tennessee native said company vice president for customer service Mike Willis — a fellow Tennessean — made the first call, and that those calls soon turned into informal planning sessions that also involved Ken Marshall, a former pilot and former vice president of flight operations who now oversees in-flight service.
Some of the ideas include:
• Having pilot representatives stationed in the scheduling and bidding office for the next few months.
• Holding retraining sessions that include pilots and nonpilots.
• Making sure all parties “act with impeccable professionalism.”
“That's what we have to do as the pilots, because even though some people may not like the contract, our pride is involved here,” Mr. Roberts said. “This is a great window of opportunity for the company to change the way it views employee relations, and we as the pilots certainly don't want to give them any excuse to be able to point the finger at us and say we're the reason it's not working.”
Mr. Miller wouldn't comment on possible plans, but said “both sides have made a commitment to work hard toward these goals.”
Mr. Roberts said he thinks the efforts will pay off, and believes the company when it says it wants to start fresh.
“These two men I've been dealing with are honorable men,” Mr. Roberts said. “They weren't at the bargaining table, but are the same guys who make the airline work on a daily basis.
“And we're as committed as they are to getting this back up in the air. It's our company too.”
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