Teamster democracy............... lack of

[whoop whoop]

While AMFA let it's members at southwest dictate how they wanted to integrate seniority lists, and let them vote on it. TWICE!!!!

We have just found the teamsters at the new UAL have unilaterally decided we will merge by date of hire. While I do agree with the decision, I adamantly do not agree with how it came to be.

The CAL mechanics wanted a different kind of integration because of the huge gap in the 2 different seniorities. The ibt even let them form some king of fake integration committee to make it seem they had a voice, in the end..................................


......................THERE WAS NO VOICE.................... NO VOTE.............................NO CHOICE!!!!!!!!

We are being told how it's going to be like children, by people that this decision WILL NOT AFFECT, and are NOT EVEN A&P MECHANICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


We are not far behind you AA people in our AMFA drive, I here the rumbling already.

 

[whoop whoop]

This is an email by a member from CLE that thought he might have an input into the process. A guy that thought he could make a difference within the ibt. Then reality smacked him in the face!!!


I'm sure he will be signing an AMFA card.


Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 5:56 PM


Fellow Airmen and Related,
Bad news. Just got out of EWR meeting w/ the National Seniority Integration Committee (SIC), business agents and 3 attorneys. 30 attendees total. Mediator Ralph Berger shared his opinion that "DOH is the only fair and equitable method in this merger of equals." Teamster attorney Ed Gleason and an independent attorney agreed. They also agreed the Consent Decree, aka original hire date less time -in- management,should be applied to the new seniority list. This would create leapfrogging within the CAL list for layoff and recall, because craft date would not be used for furlough. We at CAL-S spoke in turn and defended the relative rank position and adamantly against the CD. I said " 90% of the bottom 1,000 are CAL-s employees - How is that fair and equitable?" I showed a chart that detailed the imbalance in a DOH list. They did not see that as unfair. Charlie Alferio chimed in that CAL had a much better 15 years leading up to the merger and that success allowed them to hire over 1,200 and buy a new fleet. They rebuttled.
I asked if this would go to a membership vote and , like the IBT at Airtran vs the AMFA vs Southwest , I stated that we should vote separately from UAL -S, and the new list is only approved when BOTH parties vote 50% plus 1. LAX Clancy Griswold disagreed stating that the joint CBA vote would be appropriate place to approve the list by the 8,800 membership. Of course that's 65% UAL-S.
I asked if IBT would work with our monthly dues to acquire CAL-S an independent attorney of our own, the response "no we won't, we can't pit our guys in each shared local against eachother."
I asked how many will vote on a new seniority list , "5 Chairs from Cal , 5 Chairs from UAL. with the IBT as the tiebreaker. Continental Air Mic chair won't be able to vote because they are attached to CAL by name. The list would go into effect at the signing of joint contract. Next meeting is in July TBD. And there will be many more meetings because as Clancy repeated often, there is a ton of work to do on this seniority integration.
To overcome these odds and obtain fair representation which may include a legal firm of our own , I believe we would need solidarity at a level we haven't seen . Beyond a dozen names that come to mind , who has the stomach for a prolonged battle?
Regards,
Brad Himes
CLE SIC CHAIR
HGR 2. GY. SAT thru TUE

 

[TWU informer]

Get your AMFA Card signing going and let's file A Massive AMT Movement in this industry on the same day!