Teamsters Rally/Info Picket

Andy does not seem too confident

"We're going to submit as many signature cards as we can, and we think we're over that 35 percent" of workers needed to call an election, said Andy Marshall, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 104, Phoenix. He would not say how many cards have been collected, but the union apparently needs 2,607.
 
Would like to invite the TWU to our rally Mon 13 Feb *At 10 am an informational picket will assemble for an hour or so at the Las Vegas Airport. Pat Porter will be there and is working on the permit. We will try and get press to the event. *At 11 am PHX will be holding a rally/press conference at Corporate HQ-Andy will be spokesperson.
show that there is no one wanting the IAM at the new US AIRWAYS

Have you contacted TWU at their office? There are 2 meetings scheduled for that day.
 
TEXAS HOLD THEM you don't show your hand tell at the end. See we are still raising and you are sitting back and checking.

THATS NICE for your concern 700UW
 
YEP just like headquarters and if you look at a map you will see there is more room to grow west of old MISSissippi like there is more room to grow with the IBT

The PHL boys sure helped the IAM name. :up:
 
Makes you wonder, doesn't it?? Makes you wonder about a lot of things. I hope that there is a HUGE turnout on Monday so the company knows that this is NOT what we want, this is NOT what we believe in and this is NOT something we should have to tolerate or accept........from individuals or a union.

Read this article from Philadelphia Inquirer "5 airport union organizers attacked". This will get your blood boiling. Two of the guys had serious eye injuries but the IAM officials continued to kick and punch them. I hope these animals lose their jobs and end up living on the streets eating dog food.
 
Wow things are getting busy over here!

Three unions competing for you!!

I dont work for either carrier but I am a TWU member, have been for 20 years.

I can tell you one thing, YOU DO NOT WANT THE TWU. They are a company union.

Think about what has happened over the last twenty years. The TWU has led the industry in concessions. The present head of the TWU, Jim Little came from AA management. I guess that once he realized that his phony degrees from Columbia State University would not get him far within the company he decided to see how far he could go in its subsidiary-the TWU.

Here is how I see it.

TWU-better off with no union.Only a fraction of the size of the IAM. There is one Local with a decent track record in the TWU, thats Local 100, and the International stabs them in the back every chance they get, the International doesnt like the fact that Local 100 President Rojer Toussaint is a true unionist who does not believe in giving concessions.The International consists of a bunch of highly paid, poorly educated, management wannabees. Get the TWU and you are screwed.

IAM- better than TWU, but the fact is the IAM is a dying union. Their leadership may be well meaning, as opposed to the TWU who are corrupt company unionists, but they are inept. Their main concern appears to be trying to float the organization long enough to fund their pensions. They lack direction and creativity.

IBT, well they have their problems, but of the three choices they are by far the best.

They are big, well over 1 million members, so you dont have to worry that they are more concerned about dues flow than members.

They are more Democratic than the the TWU. So despite their huge size you have more of a voice than you would with the much, much smaller TWU.

International officers at the TWU are not elected by the members.They are elected at a Convention where the majority of the delegates are officers who are forced to swear an oath of allegience to the very same International. Dont believe the lies the TWU tells you about "autonomous locals". Its simply not true. There is an abundance of lawsuits where, despite the claims of "autonomous locals" and other "rights" that the TWU claims their Constitution grants, the International told the courts that the locals are not autonomous and the International can do as it pleases. However they often step over the line and are sued by their own members.Former President of the TWU Sonny Hall, was found guilty of violating workers rights. Usually International officers respond to this by saying "The court only awarded $1 so how serious could the violation have been". Well the fact is the judge awarded several hundred thousand dollars, not one dollar, because the award included all the legal fees. The plaintiffs were not seeking a monetary settlement but for proceedural reasons in tort cases the judge had to grant it.

IBT mechanics at UPS are the highest paid in the industry-by far.

The IBT also negotiated the best mechanics contract in the industry at SWA, they are the highest paid of all the passenger Airlines.

Going IBT offers airline workers another option. Now that the IBT left the AFL-CIO they can raid all the other airline unions if they choose to. The fact is that airline workers need radical change, one thing for sure is that the labor movement in this industry on the whole has been completely ineffectual.

What we need to do as airline workers is get us all into one union. One union that can standardize rates across the industry so that our wages are not the primary means through which airlines compete.

The current setup, where we all belong to different unions that can only compete for members by undercutting each other-due to the AFL-CIO no raid clause, thus providing the employer with a competative edge which allows them to expand at other carriers expense (thus providing that union with more members)-a strategy that the TWU pioneered over at AA, is disasterous for workers. The unions in effect end up working for the company instead of the members.

Over AA this has moved beyond "effect" and into reality. At AA the company actully funds the TWU to the tune of $3.1 million a year! This funding continues despite the huge concessions or probably due to them (the company threatened to cut off this funding if the TWU did not meet their unilateral demands for concessions).Thats right and when questioned about the legality and the ethics of this company funding of the union the response from TWU Representative Bobby Gless was "If the company did not do that (provide the funding) the locals would not survive". (At AA the 35000 members are split up between 21 seperate locals).

If you go with the TWU or the IAM ask them what their plan is. How are we going to get back what we lost? The TWU pretty much says "this is the new reality, forget about getting back what you lost". At least that is what they are doing at AA with their collaboration with the comapny in trying to squeeze out productivity gains without negotiations.

Do either of these organizations have a plan? The fact is they dont, they are just going after the much needed dues, dues that are needed to funbd their six figure salaries and generous perks. I dont know if the IBT has a plan either but if we all start going to the IBT then maybe once we all get there we can develope a plan, but seperately we never will and the guys running the IAM and TWU will continue to sit back, collect their six figure salaries and blame the members for accepting the crappy deals THEY negotaite than tell the members to accept!!!

One thing is clear. The IAM has not done a good job. The TWU will likely do worse and the IBT is the only option that provides us a chance to see real change in this industry.

The question is do you want to continue in the same downward direction? Then stay with the IAM.

Do you want to go with the union that undermined the IAM and every other union in the industry for the last twenty years by giving AA sweetheart deals. AA is what put USAIR in trouble, not SWA or Jet Blue. Then go with the TWU and prepare for things to get even worse.

Do you want to try something else? Sure the IBT has a troubled past, and some problems in the present but if the IBT sets its sights on the airline industry and decides that we should stick together as union members instead of sticking it to each other in a race to the bottom then go Teamsters-for a better future.

To me the choice is clear-we need change, that means Teamsters.
 
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