Obama presidency may mean higher US airline labor costs

Many airlines in the U.S. may be forced to pay higher labor costs during Barack Obama’s presidency.

Obama has pledged to limit foreign ownership of airline stock, and may well speed up the process of upgrading air traffic control as well as improving the working conditions of controllers, according to representatives of unions and airline industry groups.

Illinois’s junior Democratic senator comes to the presidency with ties to the airline industry in his home state. O’Hare airport in Chicago is the second-largest airport in the world by passenger numbers, and United Airlines the third-largest carrier in the U.S. is also based there.

“We would expect an Obama administration would live up to its strong commitment to not only support, but strengthen, the collective bargaining right of workers,” commented the president of the AFL-CIO transportation trades department, Ed Wytkind,

The Air Transport Association is projecting airline industry losses at over $5 billion for 2008, but airlines may show a profit collectively in 2009, owing to increases in airfares and a fuel price decrease that is now amounting to around 50 percent from a high in July of this year.

Delta Air Lines, the largest carrier in the world, is also the least-unionized in the U.S. airline industry, with only its pilots organized. Next year, it is anticipated that unions, such as the Association of Flight Attendants, will begin organizing drives in 2009.

Thanks to www.bloomberg.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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