Parking workers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport have ratified a new contract that restores most of what they lost when the Metropolitan Airports Commission hired a new company to manage parking operations.

The workers, members of Teamsters Local 120, ratified the four-year contract on March 25, their first with Ampco System Parking.

"If you look at it as a new employer we just organized, it would be a hell of a contract," said Brad Slawson Jr., secretary-treasurer of Local 120. "If you look at MAC as the employer, it's not such a great deal."

The airports commission, which in the past year eliminated half the parking attendants' jobs, continues to whittle away at their future, the union says.

Parking rates go up, wages don't
MAC is stepping up promotion of electronic kiosks ? raising the discount that parkers receive if they use the kiosks, and staffing fewer attendants so that lines for their booths are longer. MAC is even hiring additional workers (who are not in the union) to encourage drivers to use the electronic ePark system instead, the union says.

"Essentially, they're hiring people for one job to get rid of other peoples' jobs," said long-time attendant Paula Tucker.

On top of that, MAC is raising parking rates on May 1 ? including doubling short-term rates. That will generate $12 million more from what is already the airport's largest source of revenue.

In 2004, the airport collected nearly $55 million in parking fees, about 25 percent of its total revenue.

"The employer is making multiple millions off of what we do," Slawson said. That makes it hard to understand why parking workers must swim upstream to maintain their wages and benefits, he said.

"I understand that if the employer is losing money, it becomes 'How can we make this work for them, how can we make it work for us?'," Slawson said. "But that's not the case here."

Nonetheless, when MAC handed over management of airport parking to Ampco on Aug. 1, Ampco ignored existing contractual standards, cut wages for the remaining 60 workers by nearly $2.50 an hour, quadrupled health-insurance premiums, eliminated seniority, and reduced other benefits, such as paid vacations and holidays.

The new contract reverses most of those cuts, though it doesn't get workers all the way back to where they were.

The top wage rate ? which Ampco had slashed from $14.98 to $12.50 ? now is $14.10, Slawson said, and workers will be reimbursed at the higher rates retroactive to last Aug. 1. Shift differentials and seniority bonuses can add as much as 45 cents an hour, and annual raises will push the top rate beyond the old scale by August 2006.

Meanwhile, health insurance premiums ? which Ampco had boosted to $60 a month for single coverage and $240 a month for family coverage ? are rolled back significantly. Workers also regain their seniority rights. However, Ampco is shaving the amount of paid time off workers get ? cutting one week of vacation, one paid holiday and one sick day for most workers, Slawson said.

"It's not the best deal, but with this MAC and ePark, it's not bad," he said. MAC is a quasi-public commission; 13 of its 15 members are appointed by the governor.

Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at advocate@mtn.org

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