Magic Carpet Airlines The case study this week is about an airline company called, Magic Carpet Airlines or MCA. The company came into existence in 1961 and served only two cities in the United States. By 1987, they experienced enough growth to expand to 18 US cities. A separate company, River City Airlines or RCA, began service in 1967 with service that included 12 US cities by 1987. In that same year, MCA purchased RCA to form a small national airline, mainly serving the one region of the country.
The successful acquisition gave the airline a stronger presence in the market and led to a marketing agreement with a national carrier to become a “feeder” airline. MCA passengers were under the impression that they were purchasing tickets
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The reason being the handling of issues surrounding personal and the merging of seniority lists. (Roy J. Lewicki, 2007) The flight attendants contacted the League of Flight Attendants (LFA), and acquired a union certification to protect themselves. Although, there was opposition from the Airline, the flight attendants won the union certification with a vote of 82 percent.
Union Preparation and Sources
There were to contracts negotiated between 1989 and 1997, both of which went smoothly due to the preparation and strategy development on the part of the LFA and the realistic expectations of the company. Furthermore, an experienced bargaining representative was the primary representative who spoke for the negotiating team to ensure that the negotiations were handled without emotional responses and demands to did hinder the process or create conflict.
Strategy. Planning sessions were held by the negotiating team that was comprised of selected flight attendants, the LFA MEC chair at Magic Carpet Airlines, Ruth Boaz, and the local LFA presidents, Peggy Hardy, Marie Phillips, and Jody Rogers. They collectively developed four strategies to accomplish the objectives through bargaining. (Roy J. Lewicki, 2007) The strategies were as