Mesaba Airlines employees stage local protest
by Kelly Grinsteinner Staff Writer

The Hibbing Daily Tribune
Monday, April 17th, 2006

HIBBING — A group of Mesaba Airlines employees found themselves grounded Thursday as they traveled to Brainerd and then Hibbing to protest their employer.

Representatives of Mesaba’s pilots, flight attendants and mechanics unions picketed at the two northern Minnesota airports to bring awareness to management’s plans to obtain pay cut rights through bankruptcy court.

The airline filed for bankruptcy in October.

The unions, collectively working as Mesaba Airlines Labor Coalition, are objecting to what they consider “excessive and unnecessary pay cuts” by management. The unions include the Air Line Pilots Association International, Association of Flight Attendants, and Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association.

A decision on whether Mesaba Airlines has the right to impose its terms on the labor groups is slated for Tuesday, April 25. According to the coalition, management is proposing 19.4 percent in pay and benefit concessions from each employee over the next six years.

“We’re not willing to work for less than poverty level,” said Jason Stein, president of Mesaba Airlines Council 48, Association of Flight Attendants. “That would put a first-year flight attendant at $11,000 a year before taxes and health care, and a pilot at $13,000 a year. We’d be the lowest paid in the industry.”

According to a press release, salaries for flight attendants, pilots and mechanics currently stand at $21,000, $45,000 and $32,000 respectively. The proposed cuts, in addition to a 66 percent increase in health care premiums, would all but guarantee them the lowest rung on the industry pay scale.

“We want to be able to reach a consensual agreement with management, but we also want a fair wage,” said Stein. “If we don’t, we assert that Mesaba will not be able to stay in business.”

Stein also said the unions are poised to strike if needed. A strike would ground almost all commercial air service to northern Minnesota. Two flights leave the Chisholm-Hibbing Airport daily.

The coalition is also calling for removal of top executives at the airlines and MAIR Holdings in an overwhelming “vote of no confidence.” Mesaba Airlines is a wholly-owned subsidiary of MAIR Holdings, and produces more than 95 percent of MAIR Holdings’ revenue as a Northwest Airlink partner.

Union members protesting Thursday volunteered their time. They planned to take their message to regional airports in International Falls, Bemidji and St. Cloud on Friday.