Reported on PIT E-line:
November 19, 2004
Dear Members of Local 40,
The AFA Board of Directors met at the down town Pittsburgh Hilton the past three days for their Annual Board meeting. During the President's report the first day, Pat Friend gave a compelling and passionate speech calling on the union's Board Delegates to authorize a nationwide strike AGAINST the concerted effort by airline management to wipe out union contracts and deprive employees of their livelihood. The entire Board was on their feet with huge applause and a profound revived energy of collective strength and empowerment... "THAT WE MUST NOW RISE TO THE OCCASION".
If you recall, I wrote out to you last month with this regard that if our contract is abrogated, we COULD have the right to "self help". Contrary to management's statements, this would be a "legal action" if abrogation occurs. The AFA Board Delegates voted on a resolution that unanimously passed that if just one AFA contract is thrown out, it would give a "green light" to all other carriers to CHAOS. There are currently 7 AFA represented carriers in bankruptcy....USAirways, PSA, Piedmont, Allegheny, United Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and ATA, with many carriers in concession negotiations. or on the brink of bankruptcy to get their "free pass". This is a monumental historical "call to action" by the entire AFA union and the sentiment of AFA flight attendants across all airlines is... "enough is enough". We stand steadfast in solidarity to preserve the integrity of our profession. An injury to one, is an injury to all.
On the second day of the meeting, AFA staged a "rally" with over one hundred supporters, including members of CWA, IAM and IAM Ramp, Hilton hotel union members, and the Allegheny County Labor Council, along with the Press.
USAirways management has motioned the courts on November 12 to abrogate (1113c motion) our contracts along with terminating our pensions and retirement medical. (Hearing on this motion is scheduled for December 2 in Alexandria, VA Court House). This is on top of the already 21% pay cuts which the true, full impact will show up on the November 30th pay check. The employees of USAirways have already given a total of OVER $1.5 billion including the latest round from the pilots, with the rest of labor at the table. We have suffered 20,000 jobs on the street along with the deepest cuts experienced by any airline carrier. The labor force is being "dismantled", and the company is once again using the bankruptcy court to obliterate our contracts. We can not continue to have this constant burden of supporting failed business plans by a management team that has not looked for ways, other than lowering labor costs, to run a more efficient airline. We have been forced to subsidize a business model that time and time again does not work. And the entire "transformation plan" is based on lower labor costs only. This management has not lead by example, and has not nearly sacrificed, nor have experienced the financial hardships that the rank and file have experienced. If you remember during concession #1 that MidAtlantic was to be the answer and a response to the "low cost carrier insurgence", and they needed major labor relief to fund and jump start MAA. We gave it...but that was not enough. We went into the winter with more concessions and liquidation threats. Here again, we sit with yet another bankruptcy and now the company is demanding more capitulation with threats of abrogation and termination of our pensions. The wages in this profession continue to drop and there is a fast "race to the bottom" in labor costs. When does this kind of management strategy end? We can no longer sit on our hands and do nothing but capitulate and acquiesce to these types of barbaric, draconian tactics that destroy our ability to support ourselves and our families.
This "call to action" by the AFA Board Delegates was not a mission to shut down our companies, but rather for the airlines to operate with employees who can afford to work at this profession and have a reason to dedicate themselves, give their heart and soul, and value their jobs. This is a "wake-up call" to airline managements that we will stand up for our profession and that there are consequences if they persist on attacking our contracts and using the bankruptcy courts in order to circumvent "good faith" bargaining. United management is now asking for millions more in concessions from their f/as and work groups, threatening 1113c abrogation as well. And Hawaiian Airlines who is still in bankruptcy but reporting profits are asking their labor groups for more concessions.
AFA International will be sending out information to your homes regarding electronic balloting to all flight attendants whose airlines are in bankruptcy, and it is vitally important that you vote "FOR" a strike action if our contracts are abrogated. This action calls for 100% commitment. We are still at the table and will continue to negotiate until we achieve a tentative agreement OR until a bankruptcy judge tells us to stop. As your newly elected MEC President , Perry Hayes and the negotiating committee have asked for me to sit as an observer in these negotiation talks.
The negotiating committee will meet with the company next week in Corporate. There is also a conference call scheduled for the MEC on Sunday.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
In solidarity,
Teddy
Local 40
November 19, 2004
Dear Members of Local 40,
The AFA Board of Directors met at the down town Pittsburgh Hilton the past three days for their Annual Board meeting. During the President's report the first day, Pat Friend gave a compelling and passionate speech calling on the union's Board Delegates to authorize a nationwide strike AGAINST the concerted effort by airline management to wipe out union contracts and deprive employees of their livelihood. The entire Board was on their feet with huge applause and a profound revived energy of collective strength and empowerment... "THAT WE MUST NOW RISE TO THE OCCASION".
If you recall, I wrote out to you last month with this regard that if our contract is abrogated, we COULD have the right to "self help". Contrary to management's statements, this would be a "legal action" if abrogation occurs. The AFA Board Delegates voted on a resolution that unanimously passed that if just one AFA contract is thrown out, it would give a "green light" to all other carriers to CHAOS. There are currently 7 AFA represented carriers in bankruptcy....USAirways, PSA, Piedmont, Allegheny, United Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and ATA, with many carriers in concession negotiations. or on the brink of bankruptcy to get their "free pass". This is a monumental historical "call to action" by the entire AFA union and the sentiment of AFA flight attendants across all airlines is... "enough is enough". We stand steadfast in solidarity to preserve the integrity of our profession. An injury to one, is an injury to all.
On the second day of the meeting, AFA staged a "rally" with over one hundred supporters, including members of CWA, IAM and IAM Ramp, Hilton hotel union members, and the Allegheny County Labor Council, along with the Press.
USAirways management has motioned the courts on November 12 to abrogate (1113c motion) our contracts along with terminating our pensions and retirement medical. (Hearing on this motion is scheduled for December 2 in Alexandria, VA Court House). This is on top of the already 21% pay cuts which the true, full impact will show up on the November 30th pay check. The employees of USAirways have already given a total of OVER $1.5 billion including the latest round from the pilots, with the rest of labor at the table. We have suffered 20,000 jobs on the street along with the deepest cuts experienced by any airline carrier. The labor force is being "dismantled", and the company is once again using the bankruptcy court to obliterate our contracts. We can not continue to have this constant burden of supporting failed business plans by a management team that has not looked for ways, other than lowering labor costs, to run a more efficient airline. We have been forced to subsidize a business model that time and time again does not work. And the entire "transformation plan" is based on lower labor costs only. This management has not lead by example, and has not nearly sacrificed, nor have experienced the financial hardships that the rank and file have experienced. If you remember during concession #1 that MidAtlantic was to be the answer and a response to the "low cost carrier insurgence", and they needed major labor relief to fund and jump start MAA. We gave it...but that was not enough. We went into the winter with more concessions and liquidation threats. Here again, we sit with yet another bankruptcy and now the company is demanding more capitulation with threats of abrogation and termination of our pensions. The wages in this profession continue to drop and there is a fast "race to the bottom" in labor costs. When does this kind of management strategy end? We can no longer sit on our hands and do nothing but capitulate and acquiesce to these types of barbaric, draconian tactics that destroy our ability to support ourselves and our families.
This "call to action" by the AFA Board Delegates was not a mission to shut down our companies, but rather for the airlines to operate with employees who can afford to work at this profession and have a reason to dedicate themselves, give their heart and soul, and value their jobs. This is a "wake-up call" to airline managements that we will stand up for our profession and that there are consequences if they persist on attacking our contracts and using the bankruptcy courts in order to circumvent "good faith" bargaining. United management is now asking for millions more in concessions from their f/as and work groups, threatening 1113c abrogation as well. And Hawaiian Airlines who is still in bankruptcy but reporting profits are asking their labor groups for more concessions.
AFA International will be sending out information to your homes regarding electronic balloting to all flight attendants whose airlines are in bankruptcy, and it is vitally important that you vote "FOR" a strike action if our contracts are abrogated. This action calls for 100% commitment. We are still at the table and will continue to negotiate until we achieve a tentative agreement OR until a bankruptcy judge tells us to stop. As your newly elected MEC President , Perry Hayes and the negotiating committee have asked for me to sit as an observer in these negotiation talks.
The negotiating committee will meet with the company next week in Corporate. There is also a conference call scheduled for the MEC on Sunday.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
In solidarity,
Teddy
Local 40
