Global airline deregulation was among the issues batted around at a high level international industry-labor-government forum in Washington, D.C. last month.

TWU Asst. Air Transport Division Director Robert Gless, a member of a blue chip panel on the history of labor relations in the U.S. airline industry, told the group that deregulation does more harm than good.

Gless said that U.S. airline deregulation, enacted by Congress in 1978, did not live up to its promise of lower fares, more flights and better service.

Quite the opposite, said Gless, who affirmed that “deregulation brought us uncertainty and upheaval that is still with us today.”

Gless said that deregulation imposed three major periods of concessionary contracts to the workers, including 1981-1984, 1993-1995, and 2002- 2006, resulting in layoffs and outsourcing, two and in some cases three-tiered pay scales, part time jobs, and a general acrimonious bargaining climate.

Gless concluded that TWU and American labor will aggressively fight further deregulation as part of the new U.S.-European “open skies” agreement. “In the past, government assurances and ‘protections’ have proven to be illusions,” said Gless. “Lessons of deregulation are clear.

Open skies negotiators on both sides of the table must look beyond low fares and more service. They must consider the workers who provide that service. They must be protected and valued as an integral part of civil aviation’s future.”