Pinnacle's Union Threatens to Fire Members over Late Dues

Many U.S. airline employees have been stung by layoffs and pay cuts over the past few years, but dozens of Pinnacle Airlines flight attendants were jolted this month by an unusual threat to their job security.

The attendants received letters from their union, the United Steelworkers, saying they must pay their delinquent union dues within 15 days or their names would be turned over to Pinnacle management for "termination."

Many of the flight attendants who got the letters are first-year employees who earn about $19,000 a year.

Kathy Rugila, a Pinnacle flight attendant and president of the Steelworkers Local 772, said she sent about 80 or so letters to attendants who owed delinquent dues of up to $250.

"It's a hardship for the flight attendants because they have to come up with a lump sum," said Gregg Corwin, a St. Louis Park attorney who has been representing airline employees for more than 30 years.

Corwin said he could not recall an instance where a large number of airline employees risked losing their jobs because they had not paid their union dues for several months.

"This normally doesn't happen," Corwin said, because most unionized airline employees receive membership cards at the beginning of their employment and authorize the airline to deduct union dues from their paychecks.

Corwin does not represent any Pinnacle attendants.

Rugila said the Pinnacle attendants fell through the cracks because union officials failed to contact them when they were hired in 2006.

Full-time flight attendants at Pinnacle pay union dues of $23 a month, regardless of their seniority level.

Rugila said that since she mailed the letter to attendants last week, "I've received a lot of phone calls. The large majority of people just want to know what they have to do to become current." She said the union is offering a payment plan for those who need it.

Phil Reed, Pinnacle's vice president of marketing, said the airline did not notice that 80 or more of its flight attendants were not paying union dues. "We're sort of an innocent bystander in this process," Reed said.

Pinnacle has more than 600 flight attendants and is currently recruiting new hires.

The Memphis-based carrier operates regional flights for Northwest Airlines, including 50-seat jets that fly out of all three Northwest hubs, including the Twin Cities.

Reed said management has a good relationship with the attendants' union, and he does not envision that anyone will lose their job over the union dues issue. Reed said the United Steelworkers was simply enforcing the attendants' contract.

Wakefield Gordon, chairman of the Pinnacle pilots union, said the pilots have a similar dues clause in their contract. But Gordon added that union leaders do everything possible to help members keep on schedule with their dues payments.

"We don't want to cost anybody their job," Gordon said.

On March 1, Pinnacle announced that the attendants union members had ratified a new four-year contract. Rugila said about 325 attendants cast ballots on the labor agreement, with 62.5 percent voting to approve the labor deal. She said the recent dues problem did not affect the election.

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