Unfriendly Skies

On May 9, Southwest Airlines will arrive in Philadelphia offering 14 daily nonstop flights out of this union-laden city. By July 6, the low-price carrier plans to increase that to 28 flights. When that happens, the U.S. Treasury Department says Philly will experience the "Southwest Effect" in which airfares drop and the number of passengers takes off. Still, all’s not rosy at Philly International.

The union representing Southwest's flight attendants, TWU Local 556, plans to conduct "informational pickets" because negotiations with the airline for better salaries have apparently stalled. They've already demonstrated near City Hall on Feb. 24 and March 18, and they aim to do so again at Southwest's Philadelphia christening at the airport.

Kevin Onstead, a flight attendant from Dallas, was one of about 40 demonstrators at the March rally. He says this once employee-friendly company has taken a hostile turn toward flight attendants. He blames CEO Jim Parker.

In his three-year tenure, Onstead says, Parker has "alienated the flight attendants and destroyed his credibility." Onstead hints that the lower pay increases may be sexist; he notes that the union is 80 percent women, and that the company has settled contracts with its other, mostly male, unions for twice as much as they have offered to the flight attendants.

However, company spokeswoman Ginger Hardage insists the company respects flight attendants and is anxious to settle so they don't have picketing in Philadelphia. But would union demands affect Southwest's fares?

Not according to union figures, says TWU representative Susan Kern who calculates a $0.09 increase in the figure they call CASM, meaning cost per available seat mile. What they want, according to Kern, is parity.

"In the past five years, unions representing pilots, mechanics, customer service reps and reservationists have been given an average of 6 percent annual salary increase while the flight attendants are only being offered 2.8 percent," she says.

Hardage says the company is offering much more than that. Declining to cite figures, she says it's an "industry-leading contract."

"We are a long way away from a strike," says Kern, explaining that the Railway Labor Act requires them to wait 30 days after being released from negotiations by the labor mediator before a strike vote. Even so, to get what they want, she says flight attendants are willing to "do what it takes."--Sheila Weinhardt

In February, Planned Parenthood began offering women a chance to take control of their lives using a medical procedure that had only been available through private physicians. With Essure permanent birth control, women can now undergo a nonintrusive sterilization procedure without a hospital stay or general anesthesia, and can usually return to normal activities within 24 hours.

The FDA approved the procedure in November 2002 but Planned Parenthood had been waiting for a federal OK before offering it. Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania (PPSP) is one of two Planned Parenthood sites in the country that now offers Essure.

PPSP has performed three procedures already and has four more scheduled this month, at a cost of $2,000 each. Dayle Steinberg, president and CEO of PPSP, says many women had been asking about the procedure. As more women get the procedure, word-of-mouth will make it increasingly popular, she says. The procedure takes about 35 minutes and a woman can leave the clinic as shortly as 10 minutes after it is performed. While there is a slight chance the procedure might be reversible, women are warned that it should be considered permanent.

Steinberg says she has "complete confidence in the procedure," noting that one woman celebrated by going out to eat afterward, something rare for other sterilization procedures. Essure is "easier and less traumatic, and women are back to work the next day," Steinberg says. The procedure uses a metal coil, "like a spring on a pen," that has Dacron fibers inside it, explains Dr. Carl DellaBadia of Drexel OB/GYN. "As you place it inside the [fallopian] tube, the spring opens up and the Dacron fibers cause irritation causing the tube to close up around it."

DellaBadia has done more than 50 procedures in the past year. In fact, his practice is the country's fifth-largest location for Essure procedures.

Essure is replacing tubal ligations, or "getting your tubes tied," which requires entry through the belly button and burning of the fallopian tubes. According to DellaBadia, Essure is an improvement on "tubals" because of few side effects and decreased risk of organ damage. DellaBadia said that, while the required abdominal X-ray three months after the exam inconveniences some women, he feels it gives assurance that the procedure was successful, something women could not be totally sure of after tubal ligations. Both Planned Parenthood and Drexel OB/GYN offer counseling to any woman considering the procedure. Both offices said that the majority of women who have had this procedure are in their mid- to late 30s and have already had several children. More Planned Parenthoods are planned to incorporate this procedure once the facilities are available.--Sunday D'Arcangelo