Dear Brothers & Sisters,
We are proud to announce the official kickoff of the AMFA Organizing Drive in Tulsa. We have been organizing at the line stations since mid-January with great results, so much so that we are currently over 70% signed at the line with more cards coming in daily. Some people question why we are collecting cards again, especially after what happened last year with AMFA getting blocked at the door, thanks to the company filing the same day as the Teamsters, and the subsequent withdrawal of their filing midstream. The answer is simple, after the Teamsters withdrew; we filed a freedom of information act request with the NMB and obtained all the documents of the filing. The most important document obtained was the company's eligibility list, which revealed two very important things: First is that your AMFA organizing committee had enough cards had we not got blocked at the door, and two, over 60% of the names on the eligibility list had signed an AMFA card at one time or another. This information, combined with the delay in the merger caused by the DOJ lawsuit, will provide us an opportunity to remove the TWU in August if those previous signers will sign one more time.
While we have no desire to rehash the events of last year, we feel it is important to point out that after the Teamsters withdrew at AA, the NMB put in place a one year bar that prevents us from filing at AA until Aug, 2014. In addition, after the Teamsters lost the election at US Airways, there was a two year bar put in place for the US Airways AMT's. We point this out because although the Mechanics at US Airways are not eligible to file in August, and there is a possibility they could be included in our election if the NMB were to find we are a single carrier in August. We do not believe that we should be ruled a single carrier based on the fact that not enough time would have passed to obtain the required milestones to be deemed a single carrier. In order to protect ourselves and our brothers and sisters at US Airways, we have begun drives for AMFA at both Charlotte and Phoenix, along with some of the smaller stations where we coexist, and those organizing efforts are doing well.
Through our contacts around the system at both US Airways and AA, one thing has become abundantly clear; no one we have talked to from either group thinks the IAM/TWU Association is a good idea. With that thought, and based upon the fact that the IBT got enough cards for an election at US Airways, and both the IBT and AMFA got thousands of cards at AA, we believe now is the time to oust the TWU and bring both groups under one union. A New union with new leaders for our combined group, and of course we believe based on the events of the last year that union should be AMFA. While we understand the frustration that led members to sign IBT cards or both cards, we blame the Teamsters International for their failure to keep the promises they made to our members for what happened as a whole. We believe the members not only have a right to choose whatever union they like, but have an obligation to remove any union including AMFA that is not working to better the interest of all our members.
In closing we would like to say that by looking at our database, it appears that the majority of members on the property at both US Airways & AA have somewhere between 10 to 15 years left at the New AA, and we believe our immediate goal should be to maximize our earnings over that time period. We should do this by getting both groups into one union ASAP, and to that end we believe in light of the current law McCaskill/Bond we should dovetail our two groups based on time in classification to avoid any unnecessary delay. We also believe that we should seek wage parity at US Airways and AA, and work toward a joint contract that gets us back to the top of the industry and restores some of our job protection/scope language. The pilots at AA got over 14% matching 401k and the F/A's up to 9.9%, along with job security for incumbents, while we are at 5.5% with no job security. Our members deserve to be comparable in medical, sick time & vacation to those groups as well. We will be sharing more of our view of the future in the coming weeks
Your AMFA Organizing Committee
We are proud to announce the official kickoff of the AMFA Organizing Drive in Tulsa. We have been organizing at the line stations since mid-January with great results, so much so that we are currently over 70% signed at the line with more cards coming in daily. Some people question why we are collecting cards again, especially after what happened last year with AMFA getting blocked at the door, thanks to the company filing the same day as the Teamsters, and the subsequent withdrawal of their filing midstream. The answer is simple, after the Teamsters withdrew; we filed a freedom of information act request with the NMB and obtained all the documents of the filing. The most important document obtained was the company's eligibility list, which revealed two very important things: First is that your AMFA organizing committee had enough cards had we not got blocked at the door, and two, over 60% of the names on the eligibility list had signed an AMFA card at one time or another. This information, combined with the delay in the merger caused by the DOJ lawsuit, will provide us an opportunity to remove the TWU in August if those previous signers will sign one more time.
While we have no desire to rehash the events of last year, we feel it is important to point out that after the Teamsters withdrew at AA, the NMB put in place a one year bar that prevents us from filing at AA until Aug, 2014. In addition, after the Teamsters lost the election at US Airways, there was a two year bar put in place for the US Airways AMT's. We point this out because although the Mechanics at US Airways are not eligible to file in August, and there is a possibility they could be included in our election if the NMB were to find we are a single carrier in August. We do not believe that we should be ruled a single carrier based on the fact that not enough time would have passed to obtain the required milestones to be deemed a single carrier. In order to protect ourselves and our brothers and sisters at US Airways, we have begun drives for AMFA at both Charlotte and Phoenix, along with some of the smaller stations where we coexist, and those organizing efforts are doing well.
Through our contacts around the system at both US Airways and AA, one thing has become abundantly clear; no one we have talked to from either group thinks the IAM/TWU Association is a good idea. With that thought, and based upon the fact that the IBT got enough cards for an election at US Airways, and both the IBT and AMFA got thousands of cards at AA, we believe now is the time to oust the TWU and bring both groups under one union. A New union with new leaders for our combined group, and of course we believe based on the events of the last year that union should be AMFA. While we understand the frustration that led members to sign IBT cards or both cards, we blame the Teamsters International for their failure to keep the promises they made to our members for what happened as a whole. We believe the members not only have a right to choose whatever union they like, but have an obligation to remove any union including AMFA that is not working to better the interest of all our members.
In closing we would like to say that by looking at our database, it appears that the majority of members on the property at both US Airways & AA have somewhere between 10 to 15 years left at the New AA, and we believe our immediate goal should be to maximize our earnings over that time period. We should do this by getting both groups into one union ASAP, and to that end we believe in light of the current law McCaskill/Bond we should dovetail our two groups based on time in classification to avoid any unnecessary delay. We also believe that we should seek wage parity at US Airways and AA, and work toward a joint contract that gets us back to the top of the industry and restores some of our job protection/scope language. The pilots at AA got over 14% matching 401k and the F/A's up to 9.9%, along with job security for incumbents, while we are at 5.5% with no job security. Our members deserve to be comparable in medical, sick time & vacation to those groups as well. We will be sharing more of our view of the future in the coming weeks
Your AMFA Organizing Committee
