- Nov 4, 2003
- 7,550
- 3,767
[SIZE=medium]Fighting Intimidation with Intimidation[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]TWU Local 514 leadership is out once again communicating to the membership in the workplace and once again they are using fear and intimidation to attempt to get us to cower down and once again follow their lead. The only purpose of this intimidation and fear based leadership is to protect themselves from exposing their own weakness and incompetence. This time the fear is that if you fail to vote for the TWU/IAM alliance, you are going to be without a union. The TWU has used TWA employees (2003), the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (2013), and now the USAIR/AA merger (2014) as a fear based tool to prevent you from ever receiving a ballot or voting in a way that might displace them from AA property. I submit that no union at all would be better than one that is weak, incompetent and currently only the property by using fear, intimidation, and political influence. How strong can your union be, if the majority would vote to remove them if given a chance? Every fear they have used (Bankruptcy, Outsourcing, Job Loss, and Failure in the Political Arena), has come to pass despite the fact that we have cowered to their fear and voted in concession after concession, and allowed them to remain our representative, all in the belief that we would prevent these horrible losses if we would just do as they fearfully tell us to do.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Over 30 years of TWU Union experience has given me a front row seat to observe all the tricks and treats of intimidation in industrial union survival, which is really nothing more than overall failed results for the TWU Membership. From that experience, one observation clearly stands out: Those who consistently use their position or power in an organization to intimidate others do so in response to their own inner anxieties of insecurity, weakness and fear of being exposed as incompetent. This type of union leader uses intimidation as a defense mechanism and protective moat intended to prevent the membership from breaching the leadership’s wall of insecurity. I remember back in the 1980's during a Presidential Election Year, I was young, knew little about unionism and politics, and was told that "If Ronald Reagan were to be re-elected President, that there would be a for sale sign on the Union property and I would return to sweat shop work for minimum wage". Needless to say, I made political opponent signs at the sign factory, spent hours at precinct meetings, conventions, and labor council sessions living in total fear of Ronald Reagan. Well guess what? Reagan was re-relected, and not only was the Union Hall not sold, a bigger and better building was instead built after the fact. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]So the first step to dealing with intimidation in union workforce is to recognize that it is thrust upon us from a sense of insecurity and weakness, rather than confidence and strength. Once we recognize the purpose of intimidation, we are well on our way to thwarting its impact. This understanding gives us the power to rise above the situation and turn it against the intimidator. Think of it in terms of reverse intimidation. This is the embodiment of the old saying, “Fight fire with fire!” That is, creating a “back-draft” that turns the intimidation back on the intimidator. AA Management does this to the TWU leader, but the membership fails to implement the tactic against the leadership of the TWU.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Like a mirror used to reflect and increase the power of the sun, intimidation reflected back on intimidator magnifies its impact. The person who consciously uses intimidation in an effort to gain control is like the schoolyard bully. He will keep pushing so long as he thinks he can get away with such action. On the other hand, as soon as the intimidator realizes you will not be intimidated, then the whole relationship will change, as well as the outcome of your union experience.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]You may be thinking that challenging the intimidator is easy to say, but that it is only Pollyanna and not realistic in the real world of Aircraft Maintenance, and especially if you are in overhaul. It is true that standing up to the intimidator may, in and of itself, be intimidating and career-threatening, but as long as we hold to this attitude we are, in effect, validating the power of intimidation. It may seem like a risk to stand up to the intimidator, but once we scrunch up the courage to do so, the weakness of the intimidator will be exposed and the power will shift.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]This is not to suggest that how we deal with intimidation in the workplace will be as dramatic and impactful, but it will be for us and our future. At the very least, understanding intimidation and the motivation for some to use it will enable us to better deal with it. But we can actually do more than that. We can use the understanding of motivation to intimidate the intimidator; exorcising it from our lives and allowing us the freedom to achieve all that we have the potential to achieve.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]And the moral of the story …[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Intimidation sucks! It creates an artificial feeling of fear that inhibits its victims from performing to their potential. But intimidation is a cold fact of life – especially in the workplace – that can only be conquered when confronted. The way to neutralize the impact of intimidation is to understand it and recognize why it is being used. When we identify intimidation as a desperate tactic of a weak and insecure union leader, it loses its fearsome influence and can, in fact, be used against the intimidator to nullify it.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]The truth is that only by understanding intimidation and identifying its purpose and then turning it back on itself, will we be truly free from its impact and influences on our performance. When we conjure up the vision of the TWU leading intimidator as nothing more than a schoolyard bully and comprehend that the only way to stop them is to stand up to them, we will have discovered the only antidote to intimidation.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]STOP COWERING TO FEAR AND INTIMDATION AND STANDUP TO THE BULLY.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]YOU ARE SKILLED, CAPABLE, and COULD BE MORE COMPETETIVE WITHOUT THE BULLY IN YOUR FACE![/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]SO STOP LISTENTING TO AND REACTING TO FEAR BASED UNION LEADERSHIP[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]TWU Local 514 leadership is out once again communicating to the membership in the workplace and once again they are using fear and intimidation to attempt to get us to cower down and once again follow their lead. The only purpose of this intimidation and fear based leadership is to protect themselves from exposing their own weakness and incompetence. This time the fear is that if you fail to vote for the TWU/IAM alliance, you are going to be without a union. The TWU has used TWA employees (2003), the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (2013), and now the USAIR/AA merger (2014) as a fear based tool to prevent you from ever receiving a ballot or voting in a way that might displace them from AA property. I submit that no union at all would be better than one that is weak, incompetent and currently only the property by using fear, intimidation, and political influence. How strong can your union be, if the majority would vote to remove them if given a chance? Every fear they have used (Bankruptcy, Outsourcing, Job Loss, and Failure in the Political Arena), has come to pass despite the fact that we have cowered to their fear and voted in concession after concession, and allowed them to remain our representative, all in the belief that we would prevent these horrible losses if we would just do as they fearfully tell us to do.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Over 30 years of TWU Union experience has given me a front row seat to observe all the tricks and treats of intimidation in industrial union survival, which is really nothing more than overall failed results for the TWU Membership. From that experience, one observation clearly stands out: Those who consistently use their position or power in an organization to intimidate others do so in response to their own inner anxieties of insecurity, weakness and fear of being exposed as incompetent. This type of union leader uses intimidation as a defense mechanism and protective moat intended to prevent the membership from breaching the leadership’s wall of insecurity. I remember back in the 1980's during a Presidential Election Year, I was young, knew little about unionism and politics, and was told that "If Ronald Reagan were to be re-elected President, that there would be a for sale sign on the Union property and I would return to sweat shop work for minimum wage". Needless to say, I made political opponent signs at the sign factory, spent hours at precinct meetings, conventions, and labor council sessions living in total fear of Ronald Reagan. Well guess what? Reagan was re-relected, and not only was the Union Hall not sold, a bigger and better building was instead built after the fact. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]So the first step to dealing with intimidation in union workforce is to recognize that it is thrust upon us from a sense of insecurity and weakness, rather than confidence and strength. Once we recognize the purpose of intimidation, we are well on our way to thwarting its impact. This understanding gives us the power to rise above the situation and turn it against the intimidator. Think of it in terms of reverse intimidation. This is the embodiment of the old saying, “Fight fire with fire!” That is, creating a “back-draft” that turns the intimidation back on the intimidator. AA Management does this to the TWU leader, but the membership fails to implement the tactic against the leadership of the TWU.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Like a mirror used to reflect and increase the power of the sun, intimidation reflected back on intimidator magnifies its impact. The person who consciously uses intimidation in an effort to gain control is like the schoolyard bully. He will keep pushing so long as he thinks he can get away with such action. On the other hand, as soon as the intimidator realizes you will not be intimidated, then the whole relationship will change, as well as the outcome of your union experience.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]You may be thinking that challenging the intimidator is easy to say, but that it is only Pollyanna and not realistic in the real world of Aircraft Maintenance, and especially if you are in overhaul. It is true that standing up to the intimidator may, in and of itself, be intimidating and career-threatening, but as long as we hold to this attitude we are, in effect, validating the power of intimidation. It may seem like a risk to stand up to the intimidator, but once we scrunch up the courage to do so, the weakness of the intimidator will be exposed and the power will shift.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]This is not to suggest that how we deal with intimidation in the workplace will be as dramatic and impactful, but it will be for us and our future. At the very least, understanding intimidation and the motivation for some to use it will enable us to better deal with it. But we can actually do more than that. We can use the understanding of motivation to intimidate the intimidator; exorcising it from our lives and allowing us the freedom to achieve all that we have the potential to achieve.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]And the moral of the story …[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Intimidation sucks! It creates an artificial feeling of fear that inhibits its victims from performing to their potential. But intimidation is a cold fact of life – especially in the workplace – that can only be conquered when confronted. The way to neutralize the impact of intimidation is to understand it and recognize why it is being used. When we identify intimidation as a desperate tactic of a weak and insecure union leader, it loses its fearsome influence and can, in fact, be used against the intimidator to nullify it.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]The truth is that only by understanding intimidation and identifying its purpose and then turning it back on itself, will we be truly free from its impact and influences on our performance. When we conjure up the vision of the TWU leading intimidator as nothing more than a schoolyard bully and comprehend that the only way to stop them is to stand up to them, we will have discovered the only antidote to intimidation.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]STOP COWERING TO FEAR AND INTIMDATION AND STANDUP TO THE BULLY.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]YOU ARE SKILLED, CAPABLE, and COULD BE MORE COMPETETIVE WITHOUT THE BULLY IN YOUR FACE![/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]SO STOP LISTENTING TO AND REACTING TO FEAR BASED UNION LEADERSHIP[/SIZE]
