US Airways set to lay off all skycaps

A skycap in Washington, D.C. US Airways said all 10 of its skycaps at Boston's Logan Airport will lose their jobs July 31. (Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

US Airways will start replacing its skycaps with unionized employees at airports nationwide next month so that its new baggage-fee policy won't violate a labor contract.

The airline confirmed it will stop using skycaps contracted through third parties starting July 9, the day the carrier institutes a $15 fee for a single checked bag. The transition may take longer at the carrier's hubs and other major airports.

All 10 skycaps working for US Airways at Logan International Airport in Boston were notified yesterday that their jobs will be eliminated on July 31 and that they'll receive $400 if they stay on the job until then, according to the notice obtained by the Globe that PrimeFlight Aviation Services distributed to its skycaps.

The skycaps will gradually be replaced by US Airways customer-service agents and eventually by self-service kiosks, said airline spokesman Philip Gee.

"Our new first-checked-bag policy prompted us to rethink what we do at the curb and how to best continue our longstanding practice of curbside check-in," Gee said. Implementing the new policy has been complicated by the airline's labor contract, which "requires us to use our own customer-service agents, rather than skycaps, to accept these baggage fees at the curb," Gee said.

US Airways already collects $25 from passengers who are checking in a second piece of luggage. Since that fee went into effect on May 5, passengers have been required to wait at the ticket counter or kiosks to pay for their second bag. But since customer-service agents will be curbside starting July 9, passengers with two pieces of luggage will once again be able to hand off their bags without toting them to the ticket counter.

However, an employment lawyer representing US Airways skycaps said this looks like retaliation for a recently filed federal lawsuit alleging minimum-wage violations tied to the airline's $2 fee for curbside bag check-ins, which some passengers mistook as skycap tips. The lawyer, Shannon Liss-Riordan, said US Airways is using its union contract "as a convenient excuse" to get rid of the skycaps.

But the airline said the legal action didn't have any bearing on its decision to stop using skycaps.

"We terminated the contract because we are changing our business model," Gee said.

Nicole C. Wong can be reached at nwong@globe.com.