Although $10 an hour sounds good in theory, pay attention to the fact that $10 an hour at 40 hours per week (a full time job!) comes to an annual salary (before taxes) of just under $21,000. You could probably do better on welfare. Even at top salary, an agent makes no more than $36-37,000. Before the merger/acquisition/buyout, HP paid their senior agents $13/hour ($27,000 annual). To repeat my favorite riddle.......What is the difference between a pizza and an airline employee..?......These days, a pizza can still feed a family of 4!
When I first started out, 21 years ago, most of the employees were full-time. We had part-timers (I was one....by choice) who worked only 20 hours per week to supplenment. In the mid 90s, the company re-defined part-time and expanded the part-time hours to 30 per week (and getting paid for 27.5 because of unpaid 30-minute lunch), reducing the need (and ranks) of full-time employees. (In the last few years, part-timers are now working 32.5 hours per week...and paid for 30!) The company loves this equation as they are getting almost full-time service and not having to be responsible for full-time benefits. (The unions love it too as part-timers and full-timers pay the same amount of union dues. As long as they collect your dues, they really don't care who gets screwed.)
As to the unions, they are so in bed with the company that it is beyond belief. They are powerless. The last bankruptcy judge, who gave the company carte blanche to completely throw out the IAM Fleet Service contract, created a frightening moment in the history of organized labor and stripped unions of what little power that was left over from Reagan's rape of unionism in the 80s.....remember the ATC strike? Many of you may also remember that the rampers worked for many years supposedly represented by IAM before they actually GOT a contract. The only union that has anything to say is the pilots' union. And that is only because the only group of employees that are, on a large scale, unreplaceable, are the pilots....and even their contract is no longer sacred.
Since you get what you pay for, trying to find middle-class employees with a middle-class work ethic is impossible when you offer poverty-class opportunities and wages. At least Mickey D feeds you!