Alaska
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers reaches tentative agreement with Alaska Airlines
On June 22, the Worldwide Affiliation of Machinists and Aerospace Employees (IAM) reached a tentative settlement for a contract extension with Alaska Airways which might cowl roughly 5,300 Alaska Airways employees who work in ramp, shops, clerical, workplace and passenger service within the airline’s six hubs at Anchorage, Alaska; SeaTac, Washington; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; and Los Angeles, California.
The tentative settlement extends the present contract two extra years past the slated 2024 expiration, making the brand new proposed expiration date September 27, 2026. The proposal would elevate base wages at a price between 8.9 p.c and 17.4 p.c on August 10. This quantities to an roughly $1 to $6 increased hourly price relying on the job classification. Miniscule 2.5 p.c raises can be issued yearly for the following three years beginning August 10, 2023.
In 2024 and 2025, the tentative settlement requires an “trade overview” which can give employees the two.5 p.c elevate or the share required to match the highest of the size because the No. 4 airline within the trade, whichever is larger. This pathetic “concession” is made with consciousness of the insubstantial raises it could generate in both case, pay will increase far under the present 8.6 p.c inflation price that may quantity to an enormous efficient lower in wages.
Additional, inflation charges within the excessive value cities that Alaska Airways makes use of as its hubs stand at round 10.5 p.c. These paltry raises don’t almost sustain with the price of dwelling. Even the utmost elevate of 17.4 p.c in August 2022 wouldn’t make up for years of stagnated wages.
Further token raises listed within the highlights referred to as “longevity will increase” will do little to vary the image. They’ll enhance employees’ hourly wages by a mere 5 cents after 6 years, 10 cents after 7 years, 15 cents after 8 years, 20 cents after 9 years, 25 cents after 10 years, 30 cents after 11 years, and 35 cents for yearly after that.
The tentative settlement reportedly made no modifications to present medical and different advantages.
The IAM has a historical past of betraying airline employees. In 2018, unionized baggage handlers employed by McGee Air Companies and cargo ramp employees employed straight by Alaska Airways had been found to be working for lower than the minimal wage. These employees do their jobs below grueling circumstances, regularly throughout antagonistic climate. As well as, the airline ensures that passengers’ luggage will arrive at baggage carousels inside 20 minutes of touchdown, which creates burdensome speedup circumstances for employees.
Alaska Airways has been capable of depend on the IAM for its corporatist assist to superexploit these employees by outsourcing these jobs to distributors which might be exempt from native minimal wage legal guidelines. These distributors are sometimes exempted from native legal guidelines by regulatory provisions that let airports like SeaTac to function with a measure of autonomy not topic to native legislative interference.
Throughout negotiations for the 2005 contract, Alaska Airways outsourced baggage dealing with to Menzies Aviation, a non-union vendor, with no objection from the IAM. Baggage handlers instantly noticed their wages slashed by 40 p.c.
After an extended courtroom battle over employees’ stolen wages below Menzies Aviation that didn’t see employees get well their pay till 2017, the bags dealing with contract was restored to McGee Air Companies. Alaska Airways was nonetheless permitted to pay baggage handlers lower than the minimal wage resulting from provisions within the contract with the IAM that gave the corporate the exemption in return for restoring the contract with unionized McGee Air Companies. This cynical and cutthroat deal bought out contract employees to amass further dues income for the union paperwork. IAM Assistant Airline Coordinator James Carlson reported that the union had “shaped a really collaborative relationship with the management of McGee. They appear like bunch of people who care about their employees.”
The IAM betrayals stretch again to 2005, when it ordered its members to cross picket strains through the strike by members of the Plane Mechanics Fraternal Affiliation (AMFA) at Northwest Airways. Fellow AFL-CIO member unions, the Air Line Pilots Affiliation (ALPA) and the Skilled Flight Attendants Affiliation (PFAA), additionally continued to work through the strike, ensuing within the defeat of the strike and the destruction of the union. Not solely that, the IAM sought to straight revenue off its scabbing operation by grabbing a few of the Northwest mechanics’ jobs.
The 2005 AMFA strike at Northwest Airways was about extra than simply cash to the airways. The airways needed to outsource as many roles as potential to save lots of on payroll and crush the militant employees preventing for a greater dwelling. The airways had the acquiescence of the AFL-CIO and the backing of the state, together with the Democratic Social gathering, which had nothing to say concerning the trampling of employees’ rights. Northwest Airways knew that if it didn’t get the cuts it needed that the corporate may declare chapter and have the cuts enforced by the courts anyway.
The working class has a big selection of enemies it confronts, some overtly and others just like the commerce unions that are ready to stab them within the again for the egocentric pursuits of a corrupt and wicked paperwork. It’s clear that the one manner for employees to battle and win is to kind unbiased employees’ organizations outdoors of the pro-company and nationalist commerce unions. For this, Alaska Air employees ought to comply with the instance of autoworkers, educators and well being care employees by constructing rank-and-file committees, democratically run by employees themselves.
With a view to hyperlink the rising community of rank-and-file committees throughout crafts, corporations, industries and continents, employees want the Worldwide Employees Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) launched final yr by the WSWS and the Worldwide Committee of the Fourth Worldwide to unite employees in a globally coordinated battle in opposition to the airways and different transnational firms.
For extra details about forming a rank-and-file committee at your office, contact the World Socialist Internet Web site immediately.
Opposition to President-elect Trump’s renewed suggestion to change the name of Alaska’s 20,310-foot mountain back to McKinley includes many Alaskans, including Indigenous people, and the state’s two Republican senators. Sen. Lisa Murkowski advocated for years to remove the name of the nation’s 25th president, who never visited the mountain or had any connection to it, the Anchorage Daily News reports. “There is only one name worthy of North America’s tallest mountain: Denali—the Great One,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski wrote on X.
Trump brought up the idea in a speech Sunday at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, where he praised William McKinley as a fellow supporter of protective tariffs. “We’re going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley because I think he deserves it,” Trump said. In 2016, Trump had said he might change the name back, a notion he dropped when Alaska’s senators objected, per the AP. Denali is the Koyukon Athabascan name that was used by Indigenous people for centuries. It translates to “the high one” or “the great one.”
The federal government named it Mount McKinley in 1896, which stood until Barack Obama’s administration in 2015. That switch came after years of effort by state officials and Native groups. Sen. Dan Sullivan once told an Alaska Federation of Natives conference that Trump made the same suggestion when he and Murkowski met with him at the White House in 2017. The senators objected vehemently, he said. An aide texted the Daily News that “Sen. Sullivan like many Alaskans prefers the name that the very tough, very strong, very patriotic Athabaskan people gave the mountain thousands of years ago—Denali.” (More President-elect Trump stories.)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Coming soon to Juneau-area roads; a trio of festively-named snowplows!
After hundreds of suggested names were entered in its annual naming contest, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities announced Monday that it had narrowed its search down to three winning names for three of its snowplows.
The winning names were Berminator, Salt-O-Saurus Rex, and Ka-PLOW.
The names were chosen by DOT staff who felt they were most appropriate and represented Alaska the best, according to Eli Kesten-Brackett, a project assistant with the department.
“Since they move in formation, [DOT] thought it’d be cool to have them all named as a unit,” Kesten-Brackett said.
The Name-A-Snowplow contest that ended on Nov. 28 saw over 400 individual entries from residents around the state.
Kesten-Brackett said after noticing the popularity of similar contests in other snow-laden states in the Lower 48, the state thought a way to get people’s creative juices flowing was what Alaska needed.
“We thought this would be an awesome way to foster community engagement,” Kesten-Brackett said.
The winning name in the inaugural contest last year was Darth Blader, according to Kesten-Brackett.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
Copyright 2024 KTUU. All rights reserved.
Alaska Air announced its acquisition of Hawaiian Air almost exactly one year ago. Since the deal closed in September, the airlines have kept up an admirably brisk integration schedule – it’s now possible to freely transfer miles between both programs, book Hawaiian awards with Alaska miles and earn elite-qualifying miles in both programs.
Alaska has told us that it expects both airlines’ elite programs to merge sometime in Summer of 2025. However, it’s now possible to match elite statuses between both programs online, allowing both Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles elite members to receive benefits regardless of which airline they’re flying.
How to match your Alaska / Hawaiian elite status
- Visit this link. You’ll have to log-in using your Alaska Mileage Plan number
2. Using the form provided, sign-in with your HawaiianMiles info. If you don’t already have a HawaiianMiles account, create one using the link provided. 
3. You should instantly reach a “match successful” screen that shows your new Hawaiian (or Alaska) status.
Which status will I receive?
You will receive matched status based on either your 2023 activity/current status OR your combined EQMs from both programs in 2024, whichever is higher.
If you’re matched by 2023 activity, or current status, it will be according to the chart below:
If you’re matched according to combined EQMs between both programs in 2024, it will be according to this chart:
Terms and Conditions
- Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles members who link their accounts will be eligible for a status match.
- We will either match your existing elite status in either program or award status in both programs based on your combined elite-qualifying miles (EQMs), whichever is higher.
- Please allow up to 72 hours for status to be reflected in your account after linking.
- Guests currently participating in a status match or fast track challenge are not eligible until they’ve completed the requirements for their challenge.
Members will receive status in both programs as follows:
- For status matched based on 2023 activity, status matched into Mileage Plan will be valid through December 31, 2024 and status matched into HawaiianMiles will be valid through February 28, 2025.
- For status matched based on 2024 activity, status matched into Mileage Plan will be valid through December 31, 2025 and status matched into HawaiianMiles will be valid through February 28, 2026. If Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles programs are combined into a single program prior to the end of 2025, equivalent status will be granted in the successor program through December 31, 2025.
- For status matched based on 2025 activity, status matched into Mileage Plan will be valid through December 31, 2026 and status matched into HawaiianMiles will be valid through February 28, 2027. If Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles programs are combined into a single program prior to the end of 2026, equivalent status will be granted in the successor program through December 31, 2026.
Quick Thoughts
Once again, I’m extremely impressed with how efficiently Alaska is managing this merger with Hawaiian. We’re barely three months past the close date and we already have reciprocal transfers, mileage earning and redeeming and now status matching. Both programs should be fully-integrated less than 12 months after the merger close.
You can see a full breakdown of Hawaiian elite benefits here and Alaska elite benefits here. As you might expect, Alaska’s benefits are more robust, but Hawaiian status can be good for discounted awards, club access, free checked bags, complimentary upgrades and more. It’s definitely worth doing if you’ll be flying Hawaiian within the next few months.
Note that Hawaiian status reset at the end of February, NOT on January 1 like Alaska. So, even if you have matched status to Alaska that terminates at the end of 2024, you can still squeeze an extra two months of Hawaiian status by matching now.
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