1. Airline Industry

According to most of the airline companies, labor is the second cost behind fuel in the airline budgets . The companies have to pay pilots and flight attendants, but also most of the employees on ground such as baggage handlers, customer service, dispatchers and others. In other words, labor in airlines companies includes and brings together completely different jobs with different skills needed from loading luggage to repairing aircrafts.

545’000 people are employed by 100 U.S airline companies. We can define four main groups of workers. Airline flight operations combine pilots, who earn the highest salary in the industry, and dispatchers who work hand-in-hand with pilots to plan the flight maps that are using during the flights. Flight attendants are in the second group, many are needed because of the limited hours that the Federal Aviation Administration requires and at least one flight attendant has to be in a commercial flight. Working hours are an important issue in this sector where a small mistake of distraction can have a huge repercussion on the passengers’ safety. The two last bodies of an airline company are the aircraft maintenance and ground operations. Mechanics work directly for airlines but can also work for vendors and contractors. Ground operations work is the job that requires less skills and knowledge than all the others; therefore the pay is lower but still has a high power in labor issues.

Labor unions in the U.S airline industry present a critical role. Almost half of the workers in 2007 are represented in a labor union and the union rate is even higher for the flight attendants and ground workers. To compare with, the average in the U.S. private sectors is about 10% in the first decade of the 21st century. It is the highest union density in private sectors. The bargaining power in the airline industry is