US Airways cabin crew threaten action to save merger
In an unlikely faceoff, the union representing the US Airways flight attendants have come out swinging against the US Department of Justice, promising to fight efforts to block the merger of US Airways and American Airlines.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) accused the DOJ of forgetting “that American Airlines was mired in bankruptcy without a viable strategy when US Airways announced it would purchase, and merge with, American”.
It charged that the agency “is engaging in a fantasy that risks destroying the only merger that has a chance of competing with the nation’s other mega-carriers in order to protect consumers”.
While US Airways became a success story on Wall Street, its “frontline workers have yet to see a full return on their sacrifice and hard work”, the flight attendants said.
DOJ created the major competitors to American and US Airways by approving the mergers of United and Continental, and Delta and Northwest.
Without a strong competitor like the merged US Airways and American, United and Delta will expand their market domination and prices will rise for all travelers, the union charged.
AFA promised legal action and a massive mobilisation of its 25,000 members in support of the merger.
“We will compel our government to right this wrong – law makers and the White House will know the pain workers have endured and we will not rest until justice is served,” AFA said.
The pilots’ union also came out in support of the merger, but its much more low-key statement said only that its members were “disappointed that the U.S. Department of Justice has challenged the merger and look forward to the opportunity to highlight the merger’s many benefits.”
By Cheryl Rosen
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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