514 YouTube message

[CIO]

Now let me see if I understood the individuals in this video that was obviously shot in a sign making shop and not on the Line or even Hangar floor.

One guy states that we do "all" our heavy maintenance in-house. And that United sends their heavy maintenance to China and that the teamsters represent the United AMTs. So he is insinuating that twu = good and teamsters = bad. But AA sends our 777s to China? Did I miss something here or is this individual confused?

Another individual states that a union isn't the name over the door but the members within the union. So this person is insinuating that the twu structure of appointed, unaccountable sell outs who never take pay cuts when the membership does is better than a craft union structured on all officers being elected by the membership and being held accountable by the membership and live under the contracts they help negotiate? Did I miss something here or is this individual confused too?

Thanks for the video as it did garner more signed AMFA cards after the comment about our doing "all" our heavy maintenance in house. I guess China is considered part of the AA house.

I will say that at least these individuals weren't reading from a telepromtor like that scientist in the earlier twu video.

Go AMFA!

Go AMFA!

TWU Constitution: http://www.twu.org/Portals/0/PDFs/constitution_2009.pdf

Page 6 Section 5. The International officers and the members
of the International Executive Board shall be
elected at each regular International Convention, shall
be obligated and installed at the Convention at which
they are elected, and their term of office shall run
until their successors are obligated and installed at
the next regular International Convention; except that
the number of International Executive Board members
may be increased, when between regular conventions,
the International Executive Council determines
that an increase is necessary to give representation
to any newly affiliated or organized group. Such
additional members shall be appointed by the International
Executive Council from such newly affiliated
or organized group.

The TWU Officers are elected locally and Internationally, Convention delegates are voted on by the respective membership in turn vote at the convention.
In Solidarity,
CIO

 

[1AA]

This is the problem. Lots of people in Tulsa who feel this way. They go to the hall and get their free soda and popcorn and believe all the crap that is fed to them from the international wannabes. I know some of the guys in this video and they are good guys. I have worked with three of them in the hangar. I just don't understand it. These guys I know are intelligent and I am just at a loss as to how these guys can think this way. They have seen their pay and benefits go out the window. They see fork lift drivers with better benefits than they have. Yet they still claim the TWU is looking out for them. Jim, Jay. Brad....... Please think about this. Does a stock clerk deserve more vacation than you? Do fleet service and stores deserve longevity pay and not you? Do they deserve to get 100% sick time when you don't? Skill pay for driving a fork lift but lose your license pay when you get bumped to OSM? And you say the TWU is looking out for you? Seems to me they are looking out for everyone but you. Again. These are not stupid guys. I am wondering what they are drinking though. The TWU has declaired war against every employee who holds an A&P license and welders and machinists.

I do not think they are stupid. They are afraid of change. With overhaul on the chopping block they feel the TWU will save their jobs. Two years down the road Tulsa will not look anything like it is today. They are fed information or lies that AMFA does not care about overhaul. Lies but how do you overcome this when you are convinced your livelihood is at a bigger risk by removing the only union you ever knew?

 

[767 mechanic]

O/H is defently down sizing. June 8th another 767 C=check will be going out. This time it is going to TPA. Another problem management is having is its ability to change 777 T/Rs. Headquarters brilliant decision to close AFW is already biting them in the arse,but everybody knows this is not about making good decisions for the long term health of the company. They don't care what happens because they won't be here to clean up the mess that they made. They will be walking off with our money in their pockets. Speaking of pockets where is burchette at? Maybe he can reach in THEM THERE pockets and come out with a handful of money instead of what his hand is usually filled with.

 

[TWU informer]

O/H is defently down sizing. June 8th another 767 C=check will be going out. This time it is going to TPA. Another problem management is having is its ability to change 777 T/Rs. Headquarters brilliant decision to close AFW is already biting them in the arse,but everybody knows this is not about making good decisions for the long term health of the company. They don't care what happens because they won't be here to clean up the mess that they made. They will be walking off with our money in their pockets. Speaking of pockets where is burchette at? Maybe he can reach in THEM THERE pockets and come out with a handful of money instead of what his hand is usually filled with.

Burchette reached in the pockets, took the $40 grand and retired.

 

[TWU informer]

I do not think they are stupid. They are afraid of change. With overhaul on the chopping block they feel the TWU will save their jobs. Two years down the road Tulsa will not look anything like it is today. They are fed information or lies that AMFA does not care about overhaul. Lies but how do you overcome this when you are convinced your livelihood is at a bigger risk by removing the only union you ever knew?

While I agree with your point, AMFA will not and has not stopped outsourcing either. NO AMT Union has succeeded in stopping this trend. AMFA will have to live with the 35% outsource with peak demand, and the new aircraft will create a massive decimation of Tulsa.

 

[aapitbull]

Burchette reached in the pockets, took the $40 grand and retired.

Now thats funny!!

 

[Bob Owens]

Dont think the message will have its desired affect.

As of today there are 9775 members, between Title I and Title II (8217 and 1558 respectively) in our contract group.

4329 members in Tulsa. The Line and AFW still outnumber Tulsa, by over 1100 but they are spread out among 6 mechanic dominated Locals and around 7 Fleet service dominated locals. If the ATD had consolidated all of T-I and T-II mechanics in 591 it would have been bigger than 514, but under Dons plan 591 they will remain spread out with Fleet Local representatives outnumbering the Maint local representatives, in other words it makes it worse for Line Mechanics. Clearly their plan is to divide and conquer. Putting all the T-II line mechanics in 591 would result in an equal number of representatives from both Title groups, 3 each, but Don could not have that.


There are more AMTs on the line now than there is in Tulsa, 3639 on the Line, all A&Ps and just 3234 AMTs in Tulsa. Line A&P Mechanics makeup 37% of the title group and Don and the ATD have done their best to alienate every one of them.. Most if not all the TWU projected additional loss of around 2000 more jobs will be from OH (that’s assuming the TAESL partnership continues, if not the losses will be even greater as that allows the company to increase the outsourcing percentage “accordingly”.). Despite the comments from the three guys they got to speak in favor of the TWU apparently 50% of Tulsa has signed cards for the IBT(thats what the IBT claimed months ago).

The fleet size is projected to grow, so line maint headcount should remain stable, attrition will drive hiring, and the company is not having an easy time recruiting suitable candidates. Currently the company really can’t afford to let many from Line Maint go, in NY they are still holding over 20 guys from the EO and SIS, and the company is hiring off thee street in several cities. (So by 2017 Tulsa, if it’s still open will likely number around 2700 to 2300, The AA headcount will likely go down by the 4000 they said it would if we did not agree to concessions even though we did agree to them, so much for saving jobs)



AFW saw half their base closed and work moved to Tulsa and Asia, the TWU cannot count on many votes from what remains of AFW.



By having the IBT in the race the TWU could stay in place with just 34% of the vote but more than likely they will not get that, and they know it. In a three way race the IBT will draw some votes from the TWU in Tulsa and Title II but more votes from the AMFA on the line. To me it seems that despite the very public efforts the TWU has resigned itself to losing the mechanics. The so called fight against the IBT is an effort to try and ensure that the IBT wins over AMFA. The IBT drive started three months after the AMFA drive, if AMFA files in May and the IBT still does not have the cards it would be an AMFA vs TWU vote. So by staging a fight in Tulsa they are hoping to win more support for the IBT on the Line where the members prefer AMFA and believe that the TWU and IBT are actually working together to keep AMFA out. If this was truly about saving the TWU then why would the TWU focus its efforts on Tulsa? The IBT claimed to have gotten 50% months ago from Tulsa, AMFA never got that, so its on the line that the IBT is lagging AMFA. If the TWU were really trying to win why would they treat the line the way they are? Instead they continue to make moves that push the line away from the TWU, to the point that they would vote for any union other than the TWU, and it apparent that Don and the ATD want that Union to be the IBT, not AMFA.



591 sealed the TWU’s fate on the line and also alienated many T-II guys on the line. If the TWU had decided one Local for the entire class and craft based in DFW and sent Bobby Gless and Don Videtich back to their boxes they may have had a shot but if they can’t inflate the numbers like in 2004 (22000???) and it sounds like they wont be able to, and a vote comes, in my opinion they will likely lose by wide margins. It’s a shame that Little, Gless and Videtich put so much effort into giving the company everything they want and screwing over the mechanics they claim they represent. Clearly they hate us, we are the only group that is so far away from our peers in the industry, other groups are actually close to UAL and DAL, we are even below USAIR, dead last by a wide margin. The only way the TWU was able to deliver the company what the company wanted was with the EO and SIS. That probably got them the 700 or so Yes votes they needed, but it removed 1700 people from the list that has kept the TWU in place, with the 2003 RIFs falling off the list in May that shrinks the list even more, leaving the people who voted NO on the contract clearly in the majority and the actions of TeAAm Videtich have only driven them further away from the TWU.



My prediction, if the IBT actually did get 50% from Tulsa and it gets to a vote, would be TWU getting 20%, IBT 37% and AMFA getting 38%, with 15% voting “No Union” or not voting at all. I believe that once the ballots are sent out the company will announce they are exiting BK and the TWU will claim that if members leave they are not entitled to their Equity stake which will be at least five figures. That of course would be challenged in court because the equity stake was given in exchange for the sacrifices made by the workers and not the Union which was already made whole. (If AA exits BK and is valued at $10 billion we would get around $24k each if divided among all groups equally, if they are valued at $5 Billion we would get $12k –UAL, which didn’t have $5 billion in cash and operated under DIP got around $40k. Keep in mind that even though we went into BK at the bottom of the industry we as a group are giving $2.2 billion for 4.8% of the company, so if the company is valued at $10 Billion we would be paying $2.2 billion for $480 million of equity. In order for us to get an equity stake worth closely to what we are giving, and thats from the bottom, the company would have to be valued at over $40 billion) The IBT will claim they have more money to fight this in court than the AMFA has but even then I think that if it gets to a vote AMFA would win because if the members decide to leave the TWU why would they chose the Union that Jim Little wants them to go to? Even Bobby Gless said in 2004 that if it got to a vote that the TWU would lose and we are much worse off now than we were then.

 

[swamt]

TWU Constitution: http://www.twu.org/P...tution_2009.pdf

Page 6 Section 5. The International officers and the members
of the International Executive Board shall be
elected at each regular International Convention, shall
be obligated and installed at the Convention at which
they are elected, and their term of office shall run
until their successors are obligated and installed at
the next regular International Convention; except that
the number of International Executive Board members
may be increased, when between regular conventions,
the International Executive Council determines
that an increase is necessary to give representation
to any newly affiliated or organized group. Such
additional members shall be appointed by the International
Executive Council from such newly affiliated
or organized group.

The TWU Officers are elected locally and Internationally, Convention delegates are voted on by the respective membership in turn vote at the convention.
In Solidarity,
CIO

The TWU officers are a little different than the teamsters, however, Is there proceedures in the constitution for the membership to be able to remove any of the officers? And can the membership recall or remove the top dog in the TWU?

 

[aapitbull]

Burchette reached in the pockets, took the $40 grand and retired.

I've got mine brother to the very end!

 

[Bob Owens]

TWU Constitution: http://www.twu.org/P...tution_2009.pdf

Page 6 Section 5. The International officers and the members
of the International Executive Board shall be
elected at each regular International Convention, shall
be obligated and installed at the Convention at which
they are elected, and their term of office shall run
until their successors are obligated and installed at
the next regular International Convention; except that
the number of International Executive Board members
may be increased, when between regular conventions,
the International Executive Council determines
that an increase is necessary to give representation
to any newly affiliated or organized group. Such
additional members shall be appointed by the International
Executive Council from such newly affiliated
or organized group.

The TWU Officers are elected locally and Internationally, Convention delegates are voted on by the respective membership in turn vote at the convention.
In Solidarity,
CIO

Yes But Don Videtich, Bobby Gless and Gary Drummond , the people who control the ATD and our contract are all appointed. Of the Four people whose signatures are in our contract three are appointed and the one who is elected is not elected by the membership. Not one elected Local official is party to the contract, they are at best "witnesses".

If the ATD had done as I said and put us all in one local much like 556 or 100 then our elected President would be party to the agreement instead of three appointed officials. Then you could be truthful and claim that we elect the people who negotiate and sign our contract, but until that happens we are subjected to the worst of all situations, we have to pay for a Union but the Union takes away our voice because Appointed people sit above the people the members can elect. Our Union takes the same paternalistic attitude that management takes in that they know whats better for us than we do, that we should not be given such choices and that working for less is good as long as they themselves to not have to work for less.

 

[swamt]

Now let me see if I understood the individuals in this video that was obviously shot in a sign making shop and not on the Line or even Hangar floor.

One guy states that we do "all" our heavy maintenance in-house. And that United sends their heavy maintenance to China and that the teamsters represent the United AMTs. So he is insinuating that twu = good and teamsters = bad. But AA sends our 777s to China? Did I miss something here or is this individual confused?

Another individual states that a union isn't the name over the door but the members within the union. So this person is insinuating that the twu structure of appointed, unaccountable sell outs who never take pay cuts when the membership does is better than a craft union structured on all officers being elected by the membership and being held accountable by the membership and live under the contracts they help negotiate? Did I miss something here or is this individual confused too?

Thanks for the video as it did garner more signed AMFA cards after the comment about our doing "all" our heavy maintenance in house. I guess China is considered part of the AA house.

I will say that at least these individuals weren't reading from a telepromtor like that scientist in the earlier twu video.

Go AMFA!

Go AMFA!

It was also stated that no other airline mechanics have contract language covering heavy maint. The SWA mechs have heavy maint covered language. They also state on the video that the TWU is the only union with the ASAP. AMFA covered mechanics at SWA and AS have the ASAP program. I know are minor things to point out, however, it's all the little things that will add up in the end. I'm sure there is more, I will update as needed.

 

[swamt]

Yes But Don Videtich, Bobby Gless and Gary Drummond , the people who control the ATD and our contract are all appointed. Of the Four people whose signatures are in our contract three are appointed and the one who is elected is not elected by the membership. Not one elected Local official is party to the contract, they are at best "witnesses".

If the ATD had done as I said and put us all in one local much like 556 or 100 then our elected President would be party to the agreement instead of three appointed officials. Then you could be truthful and claim that we elect the people who negotiate and sign our contract, but until that happens we are subjected to the worst of all situations, we have to pay for a Union but the Union takes away our voice because Appointed people sit above the people the members can elect. Our Union takes the same paternalistic attitude that management takes in that they know whats better for us than we do, that we should not be given such choices and that working for less is good as long as they themselves to not have to work for less.

And are any of the 4 people signing off on the contract aircraft mechanics? Or are they in complete different work groups like over at the teamsters?

 

[Bob Owens]

And are any of the 4 people signing off on the contract aircraft mechanics? Or are they in complete different work groups like over at the teamsters?

Two of them are A&Ps that never want to turn a wrench again.

 

[1AA]

Sign shop video? Really.
The next sign he will be making will say....

Closed, Gone to China!