AMFA or TEAMSTERS?

[Desert Snake]

I'm a US mechanic in PHX. I'm wondering who is the most likely new union to represent us post merger. I know they both (AMFA and IBT) have enough cards to submit to the NMB. We at US have enough IBT cards to submit now. Ultimately AA techs will decide who we have by the numbers (no brainer). Does AMFA have the majority of the support? It seems that by the chatter on this forum that they do. I don't know that this forum is a true indicator of who has the majority of the support though. I hope AMFA wins personally. It seems that they have the most interest in helping our craft (by far). I would like some input from the techs over there. Please keep it on topic, as it gets old having to scroll through the non-techs putting their 2 cents in and rambling on about some other b.s. all the time. Thx for any info.

 

[1AA]

Teamsters DO NOT have enough cards. They do not even know how many cards they need to file. Your info is inaccurate. AMFA will file in May as per the AMFA organizing committee release. Teamsters are a bunch of liars and will tell you anything you want to hear except the truth. NO teamsters at AA. They do not have enough support.

If the Teamsters have enough cards at USAir then why don't they file?
Airtran had the teamsters. They did not get enough support for a run off election. SWA had the Teamsters and they had enough AMFA cards signed in two weeks to get rid of the Teamsters. Teamsters lie over and over again. All they want is your dues money. If you have a pension plan they will try to go after that as well. Here at AA they said they were going to file on three different occasions but yet they are knocking on doors again and sending out mailers again. That does not sound like they have enough cards. Again they LIE like a cheap Chinese walmart throw rug.

 

[Desert Snake]

Teamsters DO NOT have enough cards. They do not even know how many cards they need to file. Your info is inaccurate. AMFA will file in May as per the AMFA organizing committee release. Teamsters are a bunch of liars and will tell you anything you want to hear except the truth. NO teamsters at AA. They do not have enough support.

Ok that is good to hear.

 

[CactUSmx]

Teamsters Blow. I'm happy with AMFA or IAM. No one else.

 

[blue collar]

I agree IAM would be better than teamsters, but I think AMFA would be your best choice. Totally transparent all the way to the top, and also has mechanic's best interests in negotiations

 

[dfw gen]

In truth the majority in tulsa support the twu ( why I can't imagine) they voted the contract in by a 74% margin. EVERYWHERE else line, afw support amfa we voted against the contract pretty much with a 74% majority. The numbers might not be exact but they are representative of the opposing views.

The sad thing is that tulsa basically voted them selves out of a job. Time will tell but the twu sold them a line of crap.

What I don't understand is if maintenance leaves the twu chances are that in a few years they will lose the whole ball of wax I.e. fleet service that had numbers equal to maintenance. If maintenance leaves what leverage would the twu have for fleet service? Unbelievable the short sightness of the twu leadership.

 

[dfw gen]

Rest assured one way or another tulsa will be a shell of itself. The twu has assured that by giving away the store and then pudding everyone off with this one line local crap

 

[chilokie1]

Welcome aboard Desert Snake, The Teamsters were able to get a foot hold in Tulsa and a few
line stations with their snake oil salesmen approach and billboard funding. But their misinformation
and the truth coming from its members and ex-members has slowed their momentum.
The TWU's time is over at AA, and I be leave even its KOOL-AID drinkers see the writing on the
wall. I can only speak for my area on the power plant side of Tulsa that it is 90% AMFA.
Even if I was a Teamster supporter I would vote for AMFA because I don't think the Teamsters have
a clue what it will take to rid us of the company union. AMFA filed once before at AA with 60%
cards on hand, but even that did not make up for the false numbers of eligible employees that were
submitted by the company and its company union.
the company and its company union.

 

[dfw gen]

Chilokie1 I hope for all our sakes that you are right and tulsa is starting to wake up to reality!

 

[Anomaly]

I'm a US mechanic in PHX. I'm wondering who is the most likely new union to represent us post merger. I know they both (AMFA and IBT) have enough cards to submit to the NMB. We at US have enough IBT cards to submit now. Ultimately AA techs will decide who we have by the numbers (no brainer). Does AMFA have the majority of the support? It seems that by the chatter on this forum that they do. I don't know that this forum is a true indicator of who has the majority of the support though. I hope AMFA wins personally. It seems that they have the most interest in helping our craft (by far). I would like some input from the techs over there. Please keep it on topic, as it gets old having to scroll through the non-techs putting their 2 cents in and rambling on about some other b.s. all the time. Thx for any info.

I would not go by the chatter on this forum as a gauge for amfa support. What you have on this forums are those relatively few individuals who spin the same thing over and over and over and over...... It never ends.

The association followers like the buzz words that keep them alive. They like to pretend how important their opinions are and back up their notions with a constitution that has done little to actually protect members.

Recalling an officer sounds good when you say it, but does that really get you any gains in benefits or wages? What you end up with, hoewver, is an officer who is afraid of making a decision for fear of getting recalled at any time.

The association has never CREATED a succesful contract, but the followers spend a lot of time expressing how strong they are. I was an amfa supporter for many years and changed my opinin of them only AFTER becoming a member and experiencing just how much damage could be done by an irresponsible union. Ironic because those here claim the opposite, however fail to relate the mob rules attitude. With amfa it is truly mob rules.....right or wrong. What good is it to recall a leader AFTER he gave everything away?

Most on this site would rather accuse me of working for the IBT or some other union rather than accept that not everyone buys the snake oil that amfa sells. They want everyone to believe that there are only a small few of us who turned agains amfa. However, these same few will never try to explain with any truth why the vast majortity of us UAL mechanics gave up on amfa after only 5 years, or why there is no real effort to return to amfa by the mechanics at UA. They will show you an inoperative link on the amfa pages, but nothing more.

Between the two unions, I will take the IBT any day of the week. We have watched our wages go up at UA, and the nonsense drama go down. I come here to work, not put up with who will bw recalled today. My two cents having lived the associations lie's; amfa is a waste of time.

 

[Anomaly]

Teamsters Blow. I'm happy with AMFA or IAM. No one else.

Interesting....especially since the Teamsters are more like amfa than the IAM. Both Teamsters and the amfa have smaller independent Locals who keep the majority of the dues money for those LOCAL members (I will give amfa this credit at least). The IAM on the other hand, buffers it's officers in districts adding layers and a third portion to share in Local dues.

I have been a member of all three unions. What is your experience?

 

[CIO]

Each Union or Association has the ability to recall Officers. Each one has an election procedure in place. Direct election by members or elected or nominated by convention delegates? They are all elected to represent the members best interest. If you do not like an individual they can be removed. If an elected official under performs they can be replaced either by peer pressure or evidence of wrong doing.

With a membership less than 6000, The elected members are constantly afraid of being removed with little political clout to help put pressure on companies. Large Unions like the IBT, you will be lost in the internal workings. The TWU has an Air Transport Division with like members and common goals. They preserve more jobs in-house than any other Union/Association.

You have many individuals in our industry that have one common goal! Which is to be "disgruntled." These individuals consistently believe the minority should rule and really could care less about what or whom they destroy in their path.

Unions are here to keep corporations in check. When you have Brother against Brother constantly fighting it only helps corporations. You have the likes of a few individuals that want you to believe they have your best interest at heart? Go through their writings and look at their demeanor, you will soon see a common denominator.

I recommend you go to each constitution and become educated.

In Solidarity,

CIO
.

 

[Rogallo]

You have many individuals in our industry that have one common goal! Which is to be "disgruntled."

Brought on by having the worst pay and benefits in the industry.

Thanks TWU!

 

[Bob Owens]

Each Union or Association has the ability to recall Officers. Each one has an election procedure in place. Direct election by members or elected or nominated by convention delegates? They are all elected to represent the members best interest. If you do not like an individual they can be removed. If an elected official under performs they can be replaced either by peer pressure or evidence of wrong doing.

With a membership less than 6000, The elected members are constantly afraid of being removed with little political clout to help put pressure on companies. Large Unions like the IBT, you will be lost in the internal workings. The TWU has an Air Transport Division with like members and common goals. They preserve more jobs in-house than any other Union/Association.

You have many individuals in our industry that have one common goal! Which is to be "disgruntled." These individuals consistently believe the minority should rule and really could care less about what or whom they destroy in their path.

And Walmart employs more people than any other company, they are a "job creator", is that the business model you support? Work more but earn less? Exploit workers then claim that your exploitation is for their own good? Whose side are you on?

The fact is the TWU admits that the concessions we gave the company will result in the loss of 4000 more jobs, those jobs will primarily come out of OH, so who really benefitted from the concessions? The company told us that capacity for NB OH was "tight". In other words the only way they could have cut those 4000 jobs now was to cut service and dump their MD-80s and wait for new planes to come. We provided them discount labor at a time when we could have extracted a premium price. The jobs you claimed we saved are going away, but they are doing so when its convient for the company.

With salaries above $150K a year our ATD appointees are out of touch with the members, they sell us out every time.

Tell us how we can vote out Gless and Videtich, the guys who sign nearly all the LOAs and LOMs.

 

[TWU informer]

The pathetic truth is that is one way or another, each AMT representational system is failing.

The reason is because we allow ourselves to remain divided into different unions, and we have cards drives against each other, and all we hear is bashing of the other’s failures while we have all failed ourselves. Does not matter what union you want to argue about “failure” is within easy reach for propaganda and attempts to manipulate false hope and support.

The real challenge is to become united into one union, then spread that unity across the transportation system of United States and then call a nationwide strike and force the Politicians to come to our table and meet our demands. Instead of the same old strategy from the 1955 AFL-CIO merger that is failing us all, it is time for a new strategy.

Ask yourself, if you accept this concept or plan, then which union would you choose to begin the quest for a true reversal of the demise of our profession? I choose one that has Elected Mechanics from the top to the bottom of the organization, one which provides that when I take a concession the leader takes a concession, and when I make a gain the leader makes the gain. This accountability is the only structure that will lend itself to real change from the status quo.

The political institutions of the Industrial Union is so entrenched in failure a denial that we will spend years trying to change that first and never be able to move forward with a plan to reverse the negative trend.

How about forcing each union that desires to represent the AMT’s of this industry to lay out a full blown plan for a future with hope? Stop the bashing and provide us all a plan. All we have now is each union in denial about their own failures by pointing the finger at the other Union’s failures. This is not a plan for our future; this is not going to change the direction we are headed, this not going to provide you any hope.

I have experienced enough of the he said she said playground of failures and blame. Enough of the Union bashing while the real ememy and cause of our demise is never targeted by anyone.

I am ready for real change to a plan that has a future and hope.