Everyone would like to work for a company that’s fair, pays competitively and looks out for their employees. Magic Carpet Airlines is not a company who are practicing those three aspects. They are trying to pay their flight attendants minimal, but still requiring long hours. The flight attendants and the League of Flight Attendants are fighting back and saying they work hard and are worth more. “Magic Carpet Air (MCA) began operations in 1961, serving 2 cities, and grew to serve 18 cities by 1987.
River City Airlines (RCA) began in 1969 with service to 4 cities and grew to serve 12 cities by 1987. In January 1987, Magic Carpet Air purchased River City Airlines and merged the two operations. The joining of these two regional airlines created a small “national” airline (defined as a carrier with sales between $100 million and $1 billion) with sales of $140,265,000 in 1987. Even so, the firm competed primarily in only one region of the country, and managers constantly compared it to other large regional airlines” (Lewicki, Saunders, & Barry, 2006) .
In 1988 Magic Carpet Airlines decided to enter an agreement and merge with RCA. Neither companies prior to 1989 were unionized this quickly changed and with 82 percent of the votes, LFA became their union. Magic Carpet Air and RCA flight attendants were not part of a union before or after the merger. Therefore, they were not receiving certain benefits that other flight attendants that were working for other airlines were receiving. In 1997 when the old contract was expiring the flight attendants decided to become a union and fight for what they believed they deserved.
By joining a union this helps the flight attendants become a stronger team together and have support in fighting for what they feel is right and they deserve. The stakeholder for the Magic Carpet Airlines representing the League of Flight Attendants is Dixie Lee. Dixie had 14 years of experience and had also assisted with the 1994 MCA contract negotiations. Having Dixie Lee becomes the spokesperson for the committee is a smart negotiating move because she is not part of the union and does not have an emotional interest.
If a flight attendant was a spokesperson then they are personally and emotionally involved then this could be harmful because they can say something inappropriate while negotiating. The negotiating team was formally chaired by Ruth Boaz, LFA MEC president at Magic Carpet Air, other members were local LFA union presidents Peggy Hardy, Marie Phillips, and Jody Rogers. For the Magic Carpet Airlines two of the stakeholders are Bill Orleans, director of labor relations and Willie Sanders, senior vice president of operations.
Recently Bill Orleans had been demoted from director of human resources, a move that he was not very pleased with. The issues were not between the union and its members. The League of Flight Attendants is being a proactive union and making sure they are taking care of the concerns of the union members. They are doing this by sending out a survey to each union member and asking questions about what they would like to see different. They have also come up with four strategies for achieving its objectives through bargaining. First is keeping union members informed of negotiation process.
They did this by after every bargaining session they sent out a short letter explaining the issues discussed and general content. The second step is getting the union members involved by supplying with shirts and pens that has a printed slogan “We make the difference and they make the money. ” The third step is convincing the company that the union’s demands are serious. The union will make sure they have all the proper permits so that if it comes down to picketing they are able to do it. The fourth strategy is settling an issue with unanimous consent from the union.
The issues between the union and the Magic Carpet Airlines are that the airlines do not pay their flight attendants duty rig pay, there is no job security, and they weren’t able to use their sick leave when they were sick. They did not agree with the way they had to give a five day notice to swap routes with other Magic Carpet Airlines flight attendants. Their major concerns were their direct wages, they wanted to be paid more and have duty rig, and have job security. These concerns were all determined by surveys that were mailed out to each of the union members, and flight attendants voicing their concerns.
The union’s proposed strategic plan it to increase the base wage from 13. 00 an hour to 15. 45 an hour and after five years the wage would go from 20. 20 an hour to 25. 55 an hour. Magic Carpet Airlines currently does not have a duty rig pay so that would change to 1 hour pay to 2 hour duty (50%), daily guarantee of 3. 25 hours to 4. 5 hours. There isn’t job security currently, they would like to change that to contract will still be binding Arbitrator combines MCA seniority list with that of the other airline. Working conditions would go from trip trade leading time from 5 days to 24 hour notice, no shoe allowance to 100. 0 a year, no winter coat allowance to total cost and uniform maintenance allowance from 16. 00 a month to 20. 00 a month. These propositions came from research, looking at other contracts within the company such as pilots and being competitive with other companies. Having Dixie Lee is their spokesperson and the support from the union and all their members is how they are going to achieve their goals. The union is engaged in an integrated bargaining because they want to receive everything they are requiring, but are willing to meet half way and work with Magic Carpet Airlines.
The union has shown that by their initial proposition was for the uniform maintenance allowance to go from 16. 00 a month to 20. 00 a month. After going back and forth with Magic Carpet Airlines they settled at 18. 00 a month, they are willing to compromise. Magic Carpet Airlines is engaging in the distributive bargaining because they are trying to get as much work out of the flight attendants by paying the least amount of money. They are definitely trying to work on getting a zero sum. Both parties are engaging in two different bargaining strategies and this is one of the reasons why this situation is going to be more difficult.
Bill Orleans of the Magic Carpet Airlines seems to not be taking this seriously and is cracking up at the League of Flight Attendants new contract proposal. He is not being professional and is not taking the flight attendants concerns into consideration. He was also being very sarcastic in certain conversations throughout the meeting. One would wonder that this could be one of the reasons why he is not in Human Resources anymore. Unfortunately he is not the only one who is being difficult to work with.
Others on the panel, Sanders and Andrews are also making it difficult to have additional meetings and they are dragging out the process instead of coming to an agreement quickly. This was frustrating Dixie Lee and the League of Flight Attendants because they thought as if these meetings were not going to accomplish what they set out to. On July 18 they finally were able to meet again and talk about grievances and uniforms. The League of the Flight Attendants was very excited because this is becoming one step closer to meeting an agreement. Although Dixie unfortunately definitely had her work cut out for her this day. Mr.
Orleans still was not taking their concerns and requests seriously. He was still making snide jokes throughout the meeting. Finally after several disagreements Magic Carpet Airlines and the League of the Flight Attendants came to an agreement. Magic Carpet Airlines are going to purchase a new coat for each flight attendant for the life of a three-year contract, $25 for shoes and $18 per month for uniform and coat maintenance. After the meeting was adjourned the union team finally felt that some progress was being made. Reference Lewicki, R. J. , Saunders, D. M. , & Barry, B. (2006). Negotiation (5th ed. ). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
