Pennypinching airlines skimp on safety

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Staff: Paul Colvin, May May Gong, David Kirschner, Hayden Perry, Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly for $8 per year Francisco, CA 94110. Second-class postage is paid at San Francisco, Calif.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Socialist Action, 3435 Army RATES: For one year (12 issues)—U.S. 2nd Class: $8, 1st Class: $12; Canada and Mexico 2nd Class: $12, 1st Class: $15; All other countries 2nd Class: $15, 1st Class: $30. (Canada money orders or checks should be in 2 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 1989 SOCIALAL • April a "Coffee, tea, or a parachute?" Yes, I too am afraid to fly. I never buy an airline ticket without first studying the AMTRAK timetables. But considerations of time and money point toward the inevitable: It's JFK, La Guardia, or bust for me. So I try to make the best of it.

Recently, when the roof flew off an Aloha Airlines jet, I thought it was par for the course. When a Boeing 737 lost its engine near Chicago and another lost a piece of its wing , near Atlanta, 1 still thought, "That's the breaks."

When engine failure resulted in the deaths of 44 people in Britain, I tried hard to keep a stiff upper lip. And I tried even harder when nine people blew out of a hole in a United Airlines jet.

Last month, however, I heard on the radio that a supersonic Concorde plane (it costs over $3000 for a London to New York flight) "developed cracks" while it was preparing to crash the sound barrier.

There was cause for worry! If even the aircraft reserved for rich folks are structurally unsafe, the "super-saver" cattlecars we working people jam into must be in bad shape indeed.

Older planes

Several of the planes that developed structural or mechanical difficulties in recent months were quite old. In fact, the average age of U.S. airliners has risen since 1979 from 10.28 to 12.67 years.

Older planes require increased inspections and maintenance. But the percentage of the airlines' budgets devoted to maintenance has actually been reduced during the last decade.

The number of mechanics per plane has dropped from 16.6 to 11.8 since 1979. "No problem," say spokespeople for the industry. They claim that "labor-saving equipment" has made the mechanics more "productive." Thus a relatively small workforce is supposedly able to cope with a fleet of airliners that has nearly doubled in size in 10 years.

Generally, when the employers call for "productivity," the workers know they mean "speedup." When workers are forced to work faster, safety always suffers. The chances are that rivets will pop, cracks will form, and engines, roofs, and wings will fall off.

New equipment?

New safety equipment-such as collision-avoidance systems and windshear-warning devices-have been widely publicized. But it'll be a long time before they come into standard use. The pennypinching airline corporations are not going to purchase this equipment until ordered to do so by the FAA (or until doomsday, whichever comes first.)

Frank Lorenzo's Eastern Airlines and Carl Icahn's TWA recently cut back their weather departments, thus increasing the workload of flight dispatchers and the possibility of errors.

Eastern also imposed strong disciplinary measures to reduce "absenteeism" among pilots. As a result-before the strike-many pilots were flying while sick and on medication. And Eastern's sister non-union airline, Continental, has raised the time that pilots can be required to spend in the cockpit to the monthly legal limit of 100 hours-from 75 hours a decade ago.

Lorenzo says that such conditions are necessary because he was "losing money." In reality, the workers have been forced to give concessions (and safety has been thrown overboard) solely to pay off the banks and other junk-bond holders.

"Open your books!"

The airline industry as a whole has been making money hand over fist-a record $3 billion in operating profits last year.

United's operating earnings increased 89 percent during the first nine months of 1988—to $540.6 million. But the bosses at United (often portrayed as "good" capitalists compared to "bad" capitalists like Lorenzo) are asking for even more wage concessions from flight attendants and pilots. Again, the bondholders must be paid off.

Another moneymaker, Northwest, has required employees to work as much as 14 hours without a break. Crews returning from Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Asst. Editors: MICHAEL SCHREIBER JOE RYAN Kwame M.A. Somburu, Sylvia Weinstein.

Business Manager: KATHY SANDS St., No. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110.

U.S. dollars.)

Signed articles do not necessarily These are expressed in editorials.

overseas often must make a domestic trip before they are allowed to rest. Northwest refuses to pay the microscopic fines ($11,000) levied by the FAA because no "accidents" or "incidents" have yet resulted from the long hours its employees must work.

As Continental 737 Captain Don Henderson told The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 19, 1988), "Years ago airlines were expected to do better than the minimum standards. Now the attitude is, 'As long as its legal.' The airlines are prime candidates for the slogan, "Open your account books!" The bosses and the banks must not be permitted to cover up the fact that they have sacrificed represent public safety in their rush for bigger profits. In the meantime, I wonder if I can still get a ticket on AMTRAK.

Trial update

In last month's issue, we reported on the case of Greg Wiggins, a Black bus driver in San Francisco who was attacked by police while on the job-and then framed up in court. On March 4, Wiggins was found not guilty on the charge of battery against the cops. But the jury found him guilty of resisting arrest—which could carry a sentence of one year in prison. Wiggins told Socialist Action that he plans to appeal the decision.—M.S.

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El Salvador after the elections

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CTION end women's rights

Closing date: March 25, 1989