Freedom......I understand that you guys out West want more money. Believe me! One thing you guys have to understand though, is that you are giving the IAM an easy way out by stating your views on pay increase, here. We are the lowest paid in the industry and we have made profits lets see oh 6 quarters straight. We can't settle for a measly $18.00 dollars an hour. That is poverty wages out East!
We are working our tails off here in the East, working short and taking it in the shorts. I just get tired of people discussing wages on this forum. This is not the place. The negotiating table is where that should be done. Make the union work for those dues. These guys will sell you out if you give them the easy way out. Nobody is discussing the ending date of this transtion agreement. They probably want to stretch it to 2012 and that is not acceptable out here for those wages.
You guys talk tough well show them you are. Don't talk wages because believe me they read this crap and you are playing right into the companies hands. Please use common sense when posting so as to not show our hand. Let the union do the negotiating not do it her.
I wish you guys well out West cause it don't look to good for the future.
Ish,
I pretty much agree with everything you have always said but any misunderstanding started with PHL a long time before the west was won. Contrary to popular thought, PHL is the most anti union station on the map if we hold unionism to the strictest definitions.
Unionism has always been about 'equal work equal pay', or "one for all". When the antiunion and antiworker IAM Bosses agreed with the company to the innovative and original 'second class' pay station, PHL was all to happy to piss on all of their union brothers and sisters to keep $17bucks an hour with their incredible majority vote that pushed in the worst contract on the planet. The IAM mustered this anti union sentiment within PHL by giving PHL a few chiefs to preach the antiunion anthem of division.
So, the 'tag team' [insert westies and majority of east side stations] 'fully understand' the game being played. They were the ones that PHL hosed. It's not, 'one for all' but 'everyone for himself', that's the game that was played and will most likely continue to be played unless the 'tag team' decides to back PHL and forego a 15% pay raise. It ain't going to happen ish!
Again, IMO, the arbitration is the ONLY place where justice could be found against injust institutions [insert IAM and companies], but as you and me agree, arbitration is the furthest thing from the IAM.
There is no question that the vast majority of the 'tag team' will push through a contract that gives them a 15% pay raise but limits the pay % for the other half dozen east side cities to just under 3% raise. Unfortunately, I also have heard that the starting pay will be at $10hr and I don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that many of PHL's own with less than a couple years will be all too happy to vote 'yes'. And if the buyout is finally resolved, it would not surprise me if the older employees voted for this contract also. Everyone must make thier own choice.
Unfortunately, unions and even union members don't understand the unions of old. Once you give up the 'all for one and one for all' and the 'equal pay for equal work', it's caddy by the door for whoever gets the short end of the stick [insert minority here]. This time, the minority will be PHL and the other half dozen stations on the east.
regards,