If I recall, united gave amfa a go for a little while. What happened?
Here's why:
Why It Happened
The restructuring of the aviation industry during the last decade is ongoing. The current economic reality — $117 barrel of oil, outsourcing, stagnant wages, high health care costs — will lead to new demands by UAL and other carriers to undermine the wages and benefits of aircraft technicians and other aviation employees.
In this context, our members’ high turnout and their rejection of AMFA as the bargaining representative resulted from several factors. The first, in our view, is the context in which AMFA took over in 2003. AMFA operated in an environment of bankruptcy-imposed concessions just prior to winning certification. Soon after it suffered a second round of bankruptcy wage and work rule concessions, followed by more layoffs.
This environment triggered fear, anger and frustration within the ranks. Members felt overwhelmed by the forces arrayed against them: United Airlines, the corporate-biased bankruptcy law, the courts, and an anti-worker administration in Washington D.C. Many decided that we needed an equally powerful agent to counteract the corporate/government juggernaut. They willingly overlooked IBT’s anti-democratic operations and long history of corruption while they bought into the myth of the Teamsters as a big and powerful protector.
Bankruptcy and Concessions
UAL entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 9, 2002. On January 10, 2003, the bankruptcy judge mandated a temporary wage reduction of 14%. On April 29, a six-year concessionary agreement was ratified with annual cuts of $340 million. By May the Indianapolis and Oakland maintenance bases were closed, leading to thousands of layoffs.
That was round one of the Chapter 11 process, just before AMFA came on board. A second round began in November 2004 resulting in more concessions in 2005. All five UAL pension plans were terminated, including the plan for mechanic and related employees. The pension blow was pre-arranged by UAL, imposed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), and signed off by the bankruptcy court.
UAL languished in bankruptcy for nearly 38 months — the longest in aviation history — finally exiting on February 1, 2006.
The IBT drive to replace AMFA began in 2006. The turmoil in the industry, however, put the issue of maintenance restructuring on the table. Would UAL sell the San Francisco Base? Would that division become a stand-alone Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility—separate from the main airline? AMFA still hadn’t negotiated its first full collective bargaining agreement.