Look for the Union Label

Over the last nine months, as the world financial crisis has deepened, I've been in a number of conversations in which someone has floated the idea that unions are dinosaurs and no longer necessary. The irrational demands of organized labor are the reason we all have to pay so much for goods and services, and a big reason why some businesses are foundering. Union members get paid not to work. Union members get cushy jobs that many people would love to do (but can't because they're not in the union) and they're overpaid to do them. To hear people talk, the unions are the evil Goliaths and the poor corporations are the pitiable Davids.

I was reading this article in the Times this morning and my first thought was, "This is why unions are still important." Yes, there is a pilot's union with which the major carriers have to negotiate: thank God! It should come as no surprise that "Sully" Sullenberger is a union member. I understand that these low wages and absurd hours are one of the ways that the regional airlines can afford to operate—they have to keep their expenses down so that they can keep their ticket prices down—but they're ignoring a very real (and potentially very high) cost of doing business. Even if you can justify the idea of Asian children working 16 hours in a sweatshop or Wal-Mart employees being cheated out of their health care benefits so that the rest of us can buy tube socks for $1.99, are peoples lives worth having a $50 plane ticket? Or $100 or $150—whatever the cost, if their personnel are working for this little money under these conditions, it just doesn't seem to be very cost-effective.

To be fair, there was another article a last year about the difficulties smaller communities are having trying to get or keep routes—for these cities and towns, the major carriers are not even an option. Am I saying that Hagerstown, MD shouldn't have any air service at all or that their flights should be prohibitively expensive? Of course not. But I think it's safe to say that the problem is a system that is operating inefficiently, that the needs of the workers are being minimized (or even ignored) and the consumer is being put at risk. Surely, there must be a way to run an airline without a pilot having to drive or fly for hours to get to her/his starting point!

I appreciate that it's a complex issue and I don't think that unions are the salvation of any industry—while nothing specific comes to mind at the moment, I know there have been instances where I thought a union's agenda was detrimental to the negotiations. But I truly believe that they can be an effective tool in identifying the problems and potential solutions. Their ultimate goal—to protect the rights of individual workers—is especially vital when virtually every industry is struggling under their own economic burdens. In difficult times, it's just too easy for management to say, "If you don't like my deal, I can find someone else who'll do the job for less;" and they'd be right. While that might not be be a huge problem in a grocery store, is that any way to run an airline?

More Less Than Friendly Skies

As much as I am a firm believer in the golfer having to pay extra for taking along his clubs when he flies to Myrtle Beach, there are other aspects of the growing problems for air travelers that I find troubling. The Times today had story about smaller cities that are rapidly losing passenger service as fuel costs continue to rise. The airlines say that they can't afford to provide service, even with the Essential Air Service subsidies. As a rule, I'm skeptical of these sorts of claims by Corporate America—unless it's a guaranteed cash cow, C.A. will always say it's too expensive to get involved in a smaller market—but I know that on none of the flights I've taken to one of these airports has there been enough people to even warrant the small aircraft we used. Many of these airports are served by smaller airlines partnered with a larger carrier; these lean and mean companies with lower overhead and costs than the major carriers are still saying that the costs are just too prohibitive—and given how many small businesses are struggling in our current economy, I trust them when they say they can't make it work (as opposed to C.A., which would have us believe that anything less than unbelievably obscene profits are the same as losses—yes, I'm talking about you, Exxon).

So what's the solution? I really don't know. I can't see petroleum getting less expensive, so until we can run airplanes on some other kind of fuel, the costs of air travel are just going to keep going up. I don't see more subsidies as a very good solution, either; I don't mind paying a little more in taxes to help out someone else, but that's a short term approach, at best. As I've said recently, I'd love to see at least part of the answer be building a bigger, better and faster rail network: it won't erase the problem since trains need fuel, too, but they use a lot less of it to move a lot more people around. For the time being, though, I expect we'll just see more people driving a couple of hours or more to get to the nearest larger airport.

Excess Baggage

The Times reported yesterday that airlines are going to start charging for checking more than one bag. In my opinion, it's about time. Catherine and I have always done our best to keep what we take on a trip to the bare minimum: we have only once taken more than one clothing bag and one small toiletries bag (both of which we share), and that was when we went to Europe for 16 days. Part of the reason we need to be so compact is that we can't load our suitcases into cars and drive them to the airport, as most people can: we have to carry them a block to First Avenue to get a cab to Penn Station, then through the station and onto the AirTrain (the BEST BEST BEST BEST thing that ever happened to Newark Airport, I believe).

I'm tired of subsidizing people who want to take their whole lives on vacation with them—we all ultimately pay for the extra fuel used, in the end. It's just going to be getting more expensive in the future—and we all know the airlines are going to pass those costs on to us, the consumers. If the very least we can do (and I feel it really is the very least we can do) is take fewer changes of clothing on vacation, let's concede that it's a worthwhile sacrifice!

Now, I know the article also addresses the business travelers who must bring along sample cases and the like. I'm sure Corporate America would disagree with me (as, indeed, It does on most issues, I'm sure), but I believe that if the company demands that you take the samples, the company pays for them. Perhaps if Corporate America starts feeling a harder bite every time they fly someone to a meeting, they'll figure out ways to avoid the extra expense (read: not flying people to meetings). Sadly, since business travel subsidizes lower fares for leisure travel, all fares will go up dramatically if Corporate America follows my advice and I won't get that cheap get away to Madrid again....

You can't win, my friend, you can't win...

The Less Than Friendly Skies

What the heck is going on with maintenance in the airline industry? First British Airways completely fouls up the new Heathrow Terminal 5; Southwest gets smacked down by the FAA for failing inspections (in this administration? really? I may never fly Southwest again...); then United has to ground a half dozen or so planes because their altimeters were improperly calibrated (we'll call that an 'oops!'...); now American cancels well over 1,000 flights for for not properly correcting problems identified by the FAA last week (I know I'm never flying AA again!). I know that the costs of running an airline have all gone up while the prices are staying relatively low (which is how Catherine and I could afford a short trip to Spain last month), but when the Bush Administration is more worried about the public safety than in the welfare of a big business, it's time to re-evaluate the industry's business model!

On the other hand, AA.com is announcing a new route: JFK to Barcelona... hel-l-l-l-l-l-l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o....!