Madhouse24

JetBlue management plans to step up its employee communication and education work to fend off unions, some of which are stepping up their own work to try to represent the airline's employees.

"Some companies need unions, but we don't believe it is in our crewmembers' best interest," said Chief Operating Officer Dave Barger. Two months ago, the International Association of Machinists filed an application with the National Mediation Board to become the collective bargaining representative for ramp service workers at JetBlue. "Ramp service workers at JetBlue currently have no job security, no paid sick leave, no paid vacations and no pension," the union said at the time.

The NMB will was planning to hold a secret ballot election after an investigation confirmed the IAM filed with the required authorization cards from at least 35% of the bargaining unit. Barger told reporters in Washington yesterday that JetBlue is following NMB rules and not making any promises to employees, but he said "education is the key word."

Barger is not surprised that the unions are trying to represent JetBlue employees, considering that nearly 90% of airline workers are unionized. He noted that IAM, in particular, is being "pretty hypocritical," especially since the union objected to JetBlue's launch when the carrier was formed as New Air in 1998.

Barger expects additional unions to try to represent JetBlue employees, but the best way to fend off those groups is to take a cooperative approach with employees. "Why should crewmembers pay a third party to talk to me," he said. "Let's just sit down and talk about any concerns and solve it together."

The carrier is working hard to keep staff up on the latest news by sending out an internal note before it is released to the public. "You have to keep educating," he said.

Separately, JetBlue yesterday made the second network expansion announcement in as many days. JetBlue will start one daily flight from New York Kennedy to Tucson, Ariz., starting Sept. 28 with an Airbus A320. The carrier on Sept. 21 will start a daily flight from JFK to Sarasota, Fla. Barger said the routes are consistent with the airline's strategy of starting service on routes that are overpriced and underserved.




http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/new.../JBLU06296.xml

JetBlueFA

The only ground ops people that are crying are the ones in JFK. I've talked with dozens of other stations and they are dead set against having a union represent them. Not to mention that just about all of the IAM's claims about the ground crews and their hardships are false. They guys on the ground have the same benifits as the rest of the crewmembers. I have said it before and I will say it again, if they want to unionize then that is their business, but if they do they are going to have things a lot worse than they have it now.

Also rumor has it the AFA has been knocking but so far the inflight crews have told them to shove it.

ContinentalFan

Southwest is unionized without problems. It's not necessarily a bad thing, if management knows how to treat its employees--IMHO, it should be clear that everyone is part of a team.

H3A3H3

In my opinion organized labor will lead to the demise of the jetBlue that we know today.

It comes as no surprise that in a city in which organized labor's presence is robust, with corporate and organizational dysfunction equally robust, that employees - - most likely those who want to skate (not those with genuine concern for their own professional security) - - might want to organize. I would suspect that the impetus for this is coming from New York.

I wonder, do the ramp employees really have no sick leave, or is that just one of the many distortions of the truth that I would expect the Union to employ?

jaxdtw2196

Yeah what Ive been hearing here from people is that it seems the only people in the company that want to unionize are the ramp workers at JFK... Everybody else Ive talked to in my travels thinks that unions should "shove" it, as JetBlueFA put it.... I listened to Dave Barger speak in Orlando once, and the man knows what he's doing, very down to earth.. Same with David Neeleman.. Theyre great people and have created a great place for me to work. I ENJOY my job.. I work more hours than I probably should, but its because I dont MIND being here... Its a GREAT place to work. Why on earth would they want union reps? If I had a problem I would have no problem talking it out with people in this company.... Its just a great place to work.

flygirl2004

Many of the statements made by the IAM have been false (or distortions), including this one.

In reality, no JetBlue crewmembers recieve what is CALLED paid sick time. What is accrued by all crewmembers is PTO (paid time off) hours. As you accrue these hours, they are used as both sick and vacation time. So technically, they may be able to claim that no sick time is given since it is given under this larger umbrella of PTO. What they aren't saying (and what the targeted ground ops crewmembers already know) is that this system extends to ALL crewmembers in the company, all the way up the ladder.

Seat13c

From what I understand (and if I'm wrong, please correct me), B6 offers more of a PTO option. This works in a way were you get so much time off for so much work. Once you earn the time off, you can use it for sick days, vacation days, or personal days. B6 recognizes that some people require more sick days than others and others like to opt for more vacation time. There are people like myself who never get sick and have no kids and people like my sister who gets a bout of the flue once a year in the winter that whips her out for 3 or 4 days. She, also, has 3 kids where one of them is seemly always gets sick, too.

The union probably sees that they don't have anything labeled as "sick days" and use that as their selling point.

Seat13c

That's just scary that flygirl2004 and I did a post on the same thing at the almost exactly the same time.

DCGuy

As JetBlue gets larger, the call for unions is inevitable. The larger the company is, the less likely an Employee can just walk in and talk to a decision maker about concerns. Bureaucracy gets larger and leadership becomes more distant. JetBlue's largest operations are also in heavily-unionized places (Boston, NYC).

Delta flight attendants are the only major airline employees not unionized, and they may soon regret it as contracts with pilots and machinists outweigh their needs. The relationship between unions and management don't have to be difficult; just look at Southwest which has a powerful union for all of its employees.

jetBlueNYFL

Mr. Neeleman has stated before that he doesn't "hate" unions, however he definitely does not want any part of jetBlue to be unionized. I agree with him that unionization has been a great development in American history - I'm talking decades ago when labor laws/regulations were not as tight as they are today.

You make a valid point when you say The larger the company is, the less likely an Employee can just walk in and talk to a decision maker about concerns. However.....jetBlue has a plan in place to continue holding pocket sessions with top management and crewmembers on a regular basis, and as they grow, each supervisor will have a group of about 150 crewmembers to watch. Obviously Mr. Neeleman can't personally know 30,000 crewmembers - but 1 supervisor can easily know 150 crewmembers! That way, Mr. Neeleman will personally know 200 supervisors who know 150 crewmembers...that will easily help make communication between 30,000 people in about 6-7 years much easier and help keep the small feel of a great company.

Unions have not provided anything good for who they represent in the airline industry in recent years. Look at UA - the pilots lost their pensions. Same at DL, NW, AA in addition to huge salary cuts. JetBlue management talks directly to their people and IMO, a 3rd party (who is not even using the right name for the position of the ground workers at jetBlue) is simply not needed.

NGisME

Unfortunately, as an employee of B6 Boston, management is out of control!!

Massachusetts sick time law, which JetBlue doesn't acknowledge is going to reap havoc internally, once the Attorney General understands the gravity of the situation.

They terminated a pregnant girl who had doctor notes and also a guy that was going through a medical crisis in his life. Even though they had doctor notes.

They underpay their staff, the benefits are horrible and also they try to intimidate the help.

Boston JetBlue needs the IAM in there, to straighten out the management!!!!

NGisME

JetBlue gives employees 'occurrences' for using their sick time. in 2015 a law passed in Massachusetts that states employees can use sick time without repercussions. However, JetBlue doesn't acknowledge the state law.

That's going to bring a lot of problems, and law suits their way.. Possibly even a class action lawsuit as the Attorney General is now getting involved. Should be interesting!

trooper

Given how management (everywhere) is so quick to pounce on any union deviation from laws (especially regarding strikes/work to rule etc) - which is of course quite reasonable - to find management in this case is ignoring laws themselves is not a good sign....very easy to suggest a little hypocrisy.....

And people wonder why unions are still seen as useful.....

BOSstorageguy

I'm not surprised. In Massachusetts there have been many companies running afoul of the sick time law. The biggest offenders are like JetBlue who are based out of state. There have already been lawsuits settled very quickly once the lawyers got involved.

This is not to mention that for pregnancy you are legally allowed to use FMLA time, so if this is true JetBlue will be on the losing end.

DCP2016

That's Massachusetts. Situation is probably worse for employees in "right to work" states like Florida where they can basically let you go for any reason.