Atypical forms of employment in the aviation sector', European social dialogue, European Commission, 2015 (original) (raw)
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Journal of Industrial Relations, 2009
We discuss deregulation (liberalization) and some of the international institutions that influence the management of people in airlines. As a point of departure, we summarize contrasting models from successful ‘new entrant’ airlines: Ryanair and Southwest. We consider examples of various categories of airlines in different ‘ideal types’ of institutional context: liberal-market economies and coordinated-market economies. These are two varieties of advanced capitalism. The former include the USA, Britain, Ireland (and Australia). The latter include the Germanic and Scandinavian countries. We classify airlines according to which strategies dominate their efforts at cost reduction. Alongside these differences in strategies, we analyse differences in two aspects of employment-relations strategies. First, employers can focus on controlling employee behaviour or seeking their commitment to the goals of the airline. Second, employers can seek to avoid, accommodate or partner with unions. We...
2014
The focus is on the protracted dispute (2009 - 2011) between British Airways (BA) and its cabin crew and their union BASSA (British Airlines’ Stewards and Stewardesses Association). Against a historical legacy of adversarial employment relations, the dispute was triggered by the company’s imposition, in disregard of collective bargaining procedures, of reduced crewing levels, transformed working arrangements and a new ‘mixed fleet’ on inferior terms and conditions. Despite the fact that the company marshalled considerable resou rces against the union, including a ‘strategy of decapitation’ of the BASSA leadership, the cabin demonstrated a profound commitment to collective action that saw very large ballot majorities and 22 days of strike action. The question driving the paper is how to explain such powerful collectivism given the adverse conditions facing the crew. Specifically, the paper is concerned with how BASSA was able to organise when confronted with a number of spatial probl...
Labor History, 2015
In a single European aviation market (SEAM) that is open to innovative new business strategies, most notably the (ultra) low cost model developed by Ryanair, non-territorial forms of sovereignty have been used to redefine employment relations, exert contro l over labor, and extract surplus value. Although aviation unions recognize the need to 'shift scale' from a predominantly local focus on their national (flag) airline, they have yet to develop effective strategies at the supranational level as low fares airlines continually extend their geographical reach in the open skies over Europe and beyond. Union strategies are considered at different levels (national and EU) as well as the different processes to enact these strategies (technocratic and democratic). Unions need to develop a Euro-democratization strategy if they are to arrest the anti-unionism and social dumping of European 'sky pirates' such as Ryanair and Norwegian Air Shuttle.
British Journal of Industrial Relations, 2020
's latest collaborative monograph is an account of the 2009-2011 dispute between British Airways (BA) and the cabin crew union BASSA. The authors' stated intention is to provide an account of the strike, which 'in the first instance, is written for the BASSA cabin crew' (p. 12) and which contributes to literature on industrial relations and strikes (and implicitly, literature on union renewal). Cabin crew, union representatives and union activists participated in interviews with the authors over a two-year period. The resulting book is, as Len McCluskey notes in the foreword, a 'celebration' (p. xiv) of the achievements of the strike participants, yet it is also an account of 'very dark days' (Duncan Holley, former BASSA branch secretary p. xv). In both respects, it is an immensely absorbing read. The introduction provides an accessible rundown of literature on strikes and strike processes and details the authors' research process and use of oral testimonies. The second chapter situates the dispute in terms of a UK-wide downwards trajectory of strike action, union membership and collective bargaining agreements, and also in the context of deregulation and cost-cutting in the aviation sector. Having provided context, the authors outline the history of BA and the increasing antagonisms between BA and BASSA, and then give an overview of the dispute. The following chapters are organized chronologically and thematically, and bring the individual voices of those involved in the strike action to the fore. Chapter 3 focuses on the 'step-change in managerial control' (p. 51)-including reduced staffing levels and inferior terms and conditions-that led to the industrial action. The actions of management are contextualized within, but not excused by, the broader changes in the sector described in Chapter 2. Participants vividly describe the stress caused by cost-cutting initiatives, the resultant 'dying fleet' (p. 61) and the emergence of a new collectivism-an 'amazing camaraderie' (p. 52) between cabin crew. Taylor and Moore convincingly assign this camaraderie to 'the intimacy of a distinctive labour process' (p. 53), whereby bonds form quickly between crew members, and the labour is both physical and emotional. Chapter 4 describes the vote for strike action, the retaliatory actions of BA, and the hostility towards the strike from the UK legal system, the media and the general public. Participants' testimonies demonstrate the human impact of this opposition. One striking worker recalled the high court injunction against initial strike action, which 'just broke my heart' (p. 77). This evidence of the extent of opposition towards the union is followed, in Chapter 5, by testimonies demonstrating the strength of solidarity among workers. The chapter alone could function as a handbook for organizing contemporary workforces, with its description of the importance of
Civil aviation and its changing world of work
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2017
The tourism industry is responsible for creating nearly half of all new jobs in Iceland over the past six years. These jobs are in large part of service nature and do not require university education. At the same time, more individuals than ever are graduating from universities and entering the labour force. Considering these developments, it is compelling to explore who is filling these jobs and this research focuses on doing so for the flight attendant occupation in Iceland. This research aims to evaluate the level of education amongst Icelandic flight attendants and the extent of potential over-qualification within this group. A questionnaire was used in order to gather the necessary data. The results were thoroughly analysed with the intention of establishing links between levels of education and attitudes towards the job, satisfaction levels as well as turnover intentions. The results are quite striking, revealing that nearly three in four flight attendants have attained tertiary education, which is not a requirement for the job in question. The underlying reasons for this choice of occupation are intricate and vary between which fields of study individuals come from. Wages have the highest weight in the decision for all groups but other factors such as working hours and travelling are important as well. A pronounced difference exists between individuals who report under-utilization of skills in terms of job satisfaction, attitudes and turnover intentions. If this large-scale over-qualification is truly a trend in the Icelandic labour market and not only a short term phenomenon it can have far-reaching ramifications for economic prosperity in Iceland in decades to come. Foreword This research is the final project for a B.Sc. degree in Business Administration at Reykjavik University. The thesis accounts for 12 ECTS and was conducted in the spring of 2017. I would like to thank my instructor, Dr. Axel Hall, for being exceptionally accommodating, helpful and encouraging during this process. I would also like to thank Dr. Þorlákur Karlsson for lending me his expertise in designing the questionnaire. Finally, I am very thankful to all the cabin crew members who took the time to complete the survey, without them it would not have been possible to complete the project. Lastly, on a personal note, I want to thank my family for their endless support, thank you Rakel Matthea for putting up with living with me and for creating illustrations for this project on demand. Finally, thank you Geir for always listening and making me feel better when I am feeling a little hopeless.
Ryanair is now Europe’s largest low cost airline. It is also one of the most controversial, due to its outspoken boss, its cost containment strategies and its hostile relations with organised labour. Ryanair has consistently denied accusations that it is anti-union, stating that it respects the right of workers to organise and even claiming to be a champion of its employee’s right to non-unionisation. However, this claim does not hold up in the face of extensive evidence of union suppression. This paper addresses such evidence, particularly the various methods by which Ryanair have avoided and suppressed unions. In Ireland, Ryanair successfully crushed an organising campaign by the country’s largest union, the Services, Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU), after a lengthy and bitter strike. The only other union continuing to challenge Ryanair is the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA). However, its efforts recently suffered a major setback when the Supreme Court ruled that Ryanair’s non-union ‘Employee Representative Committees’ were a form of collective bargaining, allowing the company to affirm its non-union status.