The OP's premise that these people are getting a decent salary plus benefits plus tips is faulty. While that may have been true in the past, every story I've read about skycaps recently says they make minimum wage plus tips, receive no benefits, and work for contractors. SFO airport contracts with Premium Service Management for skycaps; OAK contracts with Huntleigh. You'll find the same throughout the country. There is no skycaps union.The airline bag fee has caused people to stop or greatly reduce tipping.
From the Dallas Morning News w/r/t AA:
The airline hires outside companies to provide the curbside service.
American officials expect travelers will tip less for the service, once they have to pay for it. Mr. Smith (AA spokesman) said the contractors have increased the base pay for skycaps, whose salary largely depends on tips.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...2.9660edc.html
One of several recent (January 2006) comments to USAToday after a story about charging for bags with skycaps:
i am a skycap at AA logan. i work for a contract company. now beacuse of the 2$ per bag charge,AA does not have to pay the contractor i work for. a percentage of the 2$ per bag we collect goes to the contractor, of which i get paid 5.15$ per hour.so i make my own salary. i am also not allowed to inform the passenger that i do not get to keep the 2$ and that i still work on tips, i keep track of the bags i check as does the airline. the previous post were correct, i have no union, health or any benefits at all. in fact 3 of my co-workers were fired for supposedly not checking enough bags. not only do we check bags at curbside, some people need help inside the terminal. they dont care, they want us to check in at the curbside and forget about the passengers who need help inside. these guys got fired for doing their job, helping passengers. we turn in as a group over 30,000$ per month and AA is not happy with that.something has to be done.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/2005/1...ands_fee_.html