For over 50 years labor unions have negotiated contracts at US Airways and it's predecessors, Mohawk, Allegheny, Piedmont, and PSA.
Negotiations are high stress times of high emotion. Fear is rampant, emotions run high, and nerves are frayed, to say the least. Even good people lose their perspective when threatened with economic hardship and loss. Any unionized employee still left on the payroll at U has riden this rollercoaster more times than they would care to.
What disappoints me currently is the lack of intellectual honesty and courage shown by those that want to bend over and take whatever piece of garbage the company throws on the table.
The working conditions, wages, benefits, vacation, etc that you currently enjoy were not given to you by the benevolent company. They were negotiated for you by various teams of negotiators over the years, each time striving to advance, or hold on to what they had, depending upon economic conditions. Being on a negotiating team, or holding a position as a union rep, is no picnic. You get it from all sides, from those too lazy to get involved, from those that find fault with every thing, and there is a huge "bullseye" on your back.
At times, it took drawing a line in the sand, being willing to stand up and stare without blinking. At times it took withdrawing your services, and suffering the abuse, economic pain, and suffering that went with that.
The nonunion employees at U received many, though not all, of the gains won by the unionized employees. However, the nonunion groups also saw their wages and benefits cut and slashed without recourse, without negotiation.
How any halfway intelligent person could believe that the current regime at U has any honor, any decency, any integrity, or any sense of teamwork, is beyond me. Please name anything that has been done that conveys integrity, a spirit of team building, proactive planning, or good faith with labor.
Time after time after time, contractual procedures have been ignored, grievances piled up and were not resolved. There is no good faith effort on behalf of the company to make this sucker fly.
There is no leadership at the helm. There are only opportunists which seek to reap the benefits from slashing your pay and benefits, sending your wages back to the 1970's, and brutally taking from the many retirees, who have no voice.
We have all witnessed the members of management come on these very boards and attempt to manipulate and divide. They also have their lackeys that spout what they are told to push, who seek personal gain from being a message boy for the regime.
You in organized labor should know better by now.
There simply aren't any junior people left. All of you have years of seniority and experience. The most junior people in the company are in CCY and are the ones stealing your standard of living, and eroding your future, and decimating your retirement. And many of you are taking it meekly, as one step at a time, your career is destroyed. You should be mad as hell.
Quit crying about your negotiators. Quit attacking the other workgroups and denigrating the work of your coworkers. Quit trying to aid the company in circumventing the negotiating process. You are playing into the hands of master con men. Take a step back and look at what has transpired at U over the last ten years. They have shown no good faith.
When the company fails, and it will fail, it will not be the responsibility of any labor group. Labor has answered the call time and again, and seen its contribution squandered and wasted. You've been blatantly lied to time after time.
For the members of ALPA that have shown the courage to stand and fight for their members, for the valiant efforts of those that fight to hold on to maintaining some sense of justice on the job and dignity in the workplace, I salute you.
This too shall pass, and the memories and pain will fade. The legacy of this regime of bumblers will be firmly etched in aviation history and no amount of spin will change the truth.