Swissport Strike Threat: Air Travel Chaos Ahead?

LISTEN UP, FOLKS! The aviation industry is on the brink of a major disruption, and it's all thanks to Swissport's greed. More than 150 air fuelers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike against Swissport, a commercial aviation services company. The workers, represented by Teamsters Local 174, took the vote after Swissport repeatedly refused to bargain in good faith. A strike could bring air travel through SEA to a standstill.

DO YOU HEAR THAT? The sound of Swissport's greed echoing through the halls of the aviation industry. The air fuelers are demanding fair pay, good benefits, and basic amenities like parking facilities, lockers, a clean space to eat meals, and the opportunity to wash off jet fuel from their clothes at the end of their shift. These demands reflect broader labor issues within the aviation industry, such as the need for fair compensation, adequate working conditions, and safety measures.

Swissport is the largest provider of airport ground services in the world and reported nearly $4.2 billion in revenue last year. A strike by air fuelers at SEA would directly impact operations for major airlines, including American, Alaska, Delta, United, JetBlue, and others. The financial impact of such a strike would be substantial. Airlines would incur costs due to delayed or canceled flights, including compensation for passengers, rerouting of flights, and potential penalties for not meeting scheduled flight times. Additionally, airports would face financial losses due to reduced passenger traffic and the associated revenue from services such as parking, concessions, and retail.

The potential strike by Swissport air fuelers could have far-reaching impacts on the aviation industry, including operational disruptions, financial losses, and increased labor strife. These impacts would be felt not only by Swissport and the airlines it serves but also by the broader aviation industry and its customers.

The crisis collective agreement was approved by Swissport employees at a staff meeting and will take effect retroactively from June 1, 2021 to Feb. 28, 2022. After several rounds of negotiations, Swissport agreed this Wednesday, July 21 with the majority of unions on a proposal to implement crisis collective agreements for a period of 9 months. This proposal was put to a staff vote at the meeting on Wednesday evening and was accepted by staff with an 87 percent approval rate. The crisis CBA is valid for a period of 9 months, retroactively from June 1, 2021 to Feb. 28, 2022 and is based on the working conditions of Jan. 4, 2021 and the elements for improvement. It aims to establish a conventional field with a guarantee to initiate new negotiations for a long-term collective agreement from October 2021.

Swissport promotes a work place environment that allows our employees to unlock their full potential. We believe in the power of cultural diversity and equal opportunity, and support positive employee relations through transparency and dialogue. At our Zurich head office alone, we employ colleagues from more than 25 nations. We believe that a diverse employee population can positively contribute to problem-solving abilities, professional experience, skill sets and overall creativity. At Swissport, we are convinced that a competition of ideas will lead to better solutions.

Despite all the technology, tools and equipment we use to support an excellent service delivery to our customers, it is our people who make the real difference. Beyond technical skills to fulfill their roles, it is the mindset of our employees to go the extra mile which differentiates Swissport as the partners of choice for airlines around the globe. Every year, airlines entrust us with over 250 million service contacts with their passengers. We serve them as if they were our own customers.

Centers of excellence for learning & development, compensation & benefits, talent recruitment, and labor relations help ensure that HR policies are consistent across the organization and can be relied upon as best-in-class for our employees. EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION Introducing our new corporate values The bedrock of a strong team lies not only in robust values, but also in uncompromising standards at the workplace. To understand the needs, characteristics, and wishes of our workforce, we gathered direct insight through an extensive employee survey. The input we received heavily influenced the formulation of our three new core values: Show You Care, Do the Right Things, and Win as a Team. Furthermore, the survey played a pivotal role in defining our employee value proposition as well as our six Red Rules – minimum standards for every station which serve as vital commitments to our staff.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS Impartiality and equality We offer our employees equal opportunities in terms of recognition and career advancement. Compensation is based on the nature and responsibilities of the role and the required skill set, along with the qualifications and relevant experience an individual brings to their specific role. We pay competitive salaries in line with the respective local market conditions as well as with our internal compensation structure.

COLLABORATIVE LABOR RELATIONS constructive engagement Swissport employs a large, diverse global workforce operating in many countries under a wide variety of jurisdictions. We strive to maintain an open and stable working relationship with all our employees and their representative bodies. With currently over 100 active formal collective labor agreements in over 20 countries, we have established appropriate frameworks to enable an effective staff representation, covering almost 65 percent of our global workforce.

EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION AND COMMUNICATION next-generation mobile solution To ensure that our employees remain committed, consistent communication and information sharing is required throughout the company. Recognizing that most of our Swissport employees do not have desk jobs with computer access, we made a strategic investment in a next-generation mobile solution – the Swissport oneApp. The oneApp is designed to meet the diverse needs of Swissport leaders, frontline, and back-office staff globally. It keeps our teams updated on the latest Swissport news and initiatives specific to their workplace and the broader organization.

The National Mediation Board’s (NMB’s) ruling shifts the legal landscape for companies that provide services to airlines and will require significant, proactive change by both the customers (airlines) and the service providers to address this new reality unless reversed by the incoming Trump-Vance administration. NMB’S JURISDICTION AND HISTORIC APPLICATION TO AIRLINE SERVICE PROVIDERS AS ‘DERIVATIVE CARRIERS’ The NMB, established by the Railway Labor Act (RLA), is composed of three members who are nominated by the president with the Senate’s advice and consent. Members are appointed for three-year terms but may serve until replaced. Unlike the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the NMB requires RLA-covered employees to organize in system-wide bargaining units (known as “crafts or classes”) rather than in location-specific units. This requirement is intended to avoid localized disruptions in air and rail transportation. The NMB also plays a critical role in promoting peaceful negotiations and preventing disruptions in essential transportation services by prohibiting strikes, lockouts, and other forms of self-help until all avenues of negotiation and mediation have been exhausted and a cooling-off period has expired. For many decades, the NMB has asserted jurisdiction over “derivative carriers,” entities that provide essential transportation services to their airline customers. Examples include freight, baggage, catering, fueling, maintenance, passenger support, and other related functions necessary for airline operations. Since the 1980s, the NMB applied a two-part test to determine whether entities that are neither airlines nor railroads are subject to the RLA as derivative carriers. This test asked first whether the employees performed work traditionally done by railroads or airlines. It then asked whether an airline sufficiently controlled the service provider. The factors that determined the requisite control varied over time. Recently, the NMB typically analyzed (1) the extent of an airline’s control over how the service provider conducts its business; (2) the airlines access to the company’s operations and records; (3) the airline’s role in the company’s personnel decisions; (4) the degree of airline supervision of the company’s employees; (5) whether company employees are held out to the public as airline employees; and (6) the extent of the airline’s control over employee training. NMB’S RECENT SWISSPORT RULING ELIMINATED DERIVATIVE CARRIER TEST FOR AIRLINE SERVICE PROVIDERS On March 23, 2022, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO (IAM) filed a petition with the NLRB seeking to represent all full and part-time cargo handling and warehouse employees employed by Swissport at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). The Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ (SEIU), intervened based on a separate showing of interest among the petitioned for employees. The IAM and the SEIU contended that Swissport’s operations and employees at EWR are subject to National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) jurisdiction, while Swissport argued that its EWR operations and employees are subject to RLA jurisdiction. In July 2022, Region 22 of the NLRB issued a Decision and Direction of Election (DDE), finding that Swissport is subject to NLRA jurisdiction and that Swissport’s sole customer at EWR, United Airlines, does not have sufficient control over Swissport’s EWR operations. After Swissport filed a Request for Review, the NLRB referred the case to the NMB for an advisory opinion on jurisdiction. In the Swissport ruling, the NMB abandoned the derivative carrier test—effectively retreating from RLA regulation of airline service providers. In a 2-1 opinion with a vigorous dissent, the NMB explained that it analyzed the plain statutory language and found that, almost 90 years ago, Congress failed to fully align the railroad and airline jurisdictional definitions in the statute; the derivative carrier doctrine emanated from railroad and not airline jurisdiction language; and, absent congressional intervention, the NMB decided to cease RLA jurisdiction over airline service providers by eliminating the derivative carrier category for such entities. The statute itself provides that the RLA applies to every “common carrier by air”—i.e., airline—and “every air pilot or other person who perf

The crisis collective agreement was approved by Swissport employees at a staff meeting and will take effect retroactively from June 1, 2021 to Feb. 28, 2022. After several rounds of negotiations, Swissport agreed this Wednesday, July 21 with the majority of unions on a proposal to implement crisis collective agreements for a period of 9 months. This proposal was put to a staff vote at the meeting on Wednesday evening and was accepted by staff with an 87 percent approval rate. The crisis CBA is valid for a period of 9 months, retroactively from June 1, 2021 to Feb. 28, 2022 and is based on the working conditions of Jan. 4, 2021 and the elements for improvement. It aims to establish a conventional field with a guarantee to initiate new negotiations for a long-term collective agreement from October 2021. "Our desire has always been to act in a socially responsible manner and to reconcile the needs of our employees with the demands of the airline industry during the crisis. With the adoption of the crisis collective agreement, we have taken a first step in this direction and we are convinced that we have laid a good basis for the renegotiation of a long-term collective agreement,” declares Antoine Gervais, director of Swissport Geneva. Swissport has always wanted to return to a conventional context as soon as the sector's economic recovery has taken hold. However, this required negotiating partners ready to explore the possibilities existing in the context of the current crisis and a certain willingness to compromise on the part of all parties. With the conclusion of this crisis collective agreement, the company is achieving this objective.