Amfa Vs. Twu

[Decision 2004]

The TWU stooges wish to attack AMFA for current debate positions.

In 1999, AMFA challenged the TWU International to a debate and here is the only response given.


These were the notices and how the TWU altered the notices and re-distributed them in Tulsa the Friday before the scheduled debate.

Tell us CIO, twuer, or any other stooge, why don't you hold your union to the same standard you wish to hold AMFA?

Tell us all how falsely placing "cancelled" on the fliers and running makes you the working man's hero? I call it COWARDICE BS!

 

[Decision 2004]

June 12, 1997
Mr. John Buckley
TWU-Local 501 President
153-33 Rockaway Blvd.
Jamaica, N.Y. 11434

Dear Brother Buckley,

After the August 15, 1995 collective bargaining agreement was ratified under suspicious circumstances the International leadership made numerous promises to alter the President's Council By-Laws governing contract ratification. A year and a half later, this promise has yet to be fulfilled. I have followed the tribulations of these promises and in the recent Local 501 membership meeting questioned the delay in modifying the language of the By-Laws. There's a larger issue here than just lost promises, and it's one of a union devoid of democratic values.

Many believe, myself included, that the President's Council By-Laws weren't causally misinterpreted during the 1995 ratification vote, but deliberately violated by the International. A short review of this contentious incident is in order. The TWU's own statistics reveal that the membership collectively voted against ratification; 9,878 nay versus 9,220 yea. Paragraph IV H of the President's Council By-Laws reads: "The cumulative votes of all participating contract groups will determine ratification." The operative words of this phrase are "cumulative" and "all." With this in mind let's once again examine the sentence. "The cumulative votes of all participating contract groups will determine ratification." Clearly the "cumulative votes" were in favor of rejecting the August 15, 1995 collective bargaining agreement. When Ed Koziatek notified American Airlines on September 29,1995 that the collective bargaining agreement was ratified he did so with no legal authority from the TWU Constitution or By-Laws. This is probably the most blatant example of our Union's dictatorial nature. Since the existing language of the President's Council By-Laws failed to prevent the manipulation of the ratification process, where is the virtue of altering the language? Modifying the By-Laws is about as useful as a band-aid on a severed limb. Therefore, we must introduce democratic reforms to our Union. Foremost of these, is to allow Locals to withhold ratification to contest disputes arising from the ratification process. Also, according to Richard Scattone, then Local 501 President, the International Union denied his request for a recount, irregardless of the narrow passage of the Mechanic's contract and a perceived large margin of error. It is essential to our sovereignty that any Local can call for a system recount. In future collective bargaining agreements there must not be any ambiguity about the ratification process.

The membership was outraged by the events surrounding the 1995 contract, as demonstrated by the ensuing revolution. Local Unions had entire administrations voted out of office in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami. You are a beneficiary of that revolution. Unfortunately, Locals are not autonomous. They are as subservient to the International as Eastern Europe was to the Soviet Union.
As I write this letter I sit in my living room fixated at a bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln's commitment to democracy was truly inspiring. We can take lessons from his words. "...no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent." Sonny Hall, John Kerrigan, Ed Koziatek, and John Orlando don't have my consent to govern with their failed policies that continue to take money out of my pocket. They are quite secure in their six digit salaries and "weighted average" pay increases. They share more in common with Robert Crandall, CEO of American Airlines, than they do with me. Our quest to reverse the totalitarian behavior of the TWU must be directed at the very foundation of the International Union. Our delegate system, which establishes a monarchy within our labor organization, must be disbanded. A true industrial democracy would have individual votes for the constituency. Of course our International officers would resist this because they would suffer the ultimate judgement of the membership. Democracy dictates that leaders be accountable to the popular sovereignty of the governed. Regrettably, our International representatives, with virtual impunity, have entered into agreements and made decisions contrary to the membership's aspirations. If we had officer recall rights, the International would be reluctant to betray our trust and more receptive to our needs. Our leadership, with their CEO compatible salaries, have forgotten what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck. Term limits are needed to re-establish the hierarchy's link to their blue-collar origins. We require greater control of the Union's finances. An intriguing proposal would be the reduction of our dues, by half, when a concessionary contract is negotiated, along with a pay freeze for the entire negotiating committee. With money being taken out of their pockets, and from the TWU treasury, maybe they won't be so inclined to negotiate a concessionary contract during an economic boom.

The issues raised in the preceding paragraphs are a necessity for the transformation of our Union from autocratic to democratic. I will motion, at the next membership meeting, that these reforms be pursued by the Local 501 delegation at the forthcoming TWU convention. John, we cannot let the rebellion started from the turmoil of the 1995 collective bargaining agreement to end prematurely. "Be not deceived. Revolutions do not go backwards." If the TWU continues to ignore our concerns and suppress our popular sovereignty, the Mechanics Group will have no other recourse but to seek representation elsewhere. The consequences for the ATD would be ominous. "It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination."

Fraternally yours,
Gary Santos

 

[Checking it Out]

Sure was nice to see these posted by Amfa when they realized their was insufficient interest!

I suspect we will be seeing them from amfa in the future!

 

[Decision 2004]

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Saturday August 19, 1995
Business Section B1

Members to picket own union

Transport Workers group upset over deal

By Dan Reed

FORT WORTH- Dissatisfied with the Transport Workers Union's tentative contract with American Airlines, airline mechanics and ground workers plan to protest the new deal by picketing Monday afternoon outside their own union's offices.
Union members organizing the unusual self-picketing said they expect more than 200 fellow members to participate in the demonstration outside the union's Hurst headquarters.

Organizers said they chose to target the union offices rather than American's Fort Worth headquarters or the airline's terminal at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport because they are most upset with the union's negotiators and leaders.
"We feel they've brought back a proposal to us that is totally inappropriate," said Robert Walvoord, an aircraft mechanic at American's maintenance base at Alliance Airport.

"And its not just mechanics out here at Alliance. There'll be mechanics and ramp workers and other TWU members who work at D/FW who will join us in the picketing Monday afternoon," he said.
Ed Koziatek, international vice president of the Transport Workers Union and head of the union's airlines division, defended the deal as one that successfully addresses the top four concerns registered by members in a pre-negotiations survey; job security, maintaining current pay, maintaining current benefits and assuring American's long-term survival.

But he added that some opposition to the deal was probably inevitable and noted that members have rejected tentative contracts in the past. If that happens this time, Koziatek said, union negotiators will simply return to the bargaining table.
"We believe it's a good contract that addresses the concerns of our membership," Koziatek said. "However, if they want to change their priorities, and such issues as job security are no longer important, they can vote their conscience."
Of the 26,881 American Airlines employees represented by the Transport Workers Union, 5,994 work in North Texas. The union, the largest of the organized groups at American, represents a range of workers including mechanics, bag handlers and other ramp workers, dispatchers, meteorologist, stock clerks, flight instructors, flight simulator technicians and a small group of security guards.

American and the union jointly announced the tentative contract Sunday, saying it includes permanent job and pay guarantees for all represented workers. In exchange, the basic wage scale for those workers wont rise for the first three years of the six-year deal. A 3.5 percent wage scale increase is scheduled for August 1998, with another 3.0 percent increase planned for February 2000.
Also, the deal calls for American to offer early retirement inducements to certain senior workers. The airline would then get increased ability to hire part-time workers to replace some of those who retire early.
However, the union and management have agreed to not discuss details publicly until after final contract language is negotiated and union leaders can explain it to the rank and file.

Walvoord conceded that the union members' anger over the tentative deal and the plan for Monday's protest are based only on incomplete information provided then thus far by the union and American's management.
"But from the information they've shown us so far, this contract is very inadequate." he said. "And whenever you read the fine print, it's usually worse than the big print you read at first."
Some union members are upset that their wage scale won't be increased for three years, Walvoord said. But one of the biggest concerns among mechanics, he said, is a provision allowing American to shift some work now done by certified mechanics to non certified workers on a new, lower pay scale.
"They're talking about 25 percent of the employees at any one station being eligible for this lower pay scale," he said.

 

[Checking it Out]

Has it been that long! When you cancelled back then, it was nice and peaceful for several years! From my perspective we will see this in the near future!

The TWU will prevail!

 

[Decision 2004]

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Saturday September 2, 1995
Business Section B2
Old union board opposes American pact

By Dan Reed

FORT WORTH- In a final act before their terms expired, board members of Transport Workers Union Local 567 at American Airlines' Alliance Airport maintenance base recommended this week that members vote against ratification of a tentative new contract with American.

Local 567's retiring board members , whose terms expired Thursday, issued their recommendations after a general meeting Wednesday night that was dominated by members opposed to the contract. The tentative pact was announced Aug. 13.
But Ron Davis, who took over yesterday as Local 567's new president, said the previous board's recommendation was not a formal action and is not binding on the new board. He said the new board has taken no position regarding the upcoming ratification vote, scheduled for Sept. 20.
"The official position of our local's board," Davis said, "is that we are waiting for.....our membership to tell us which way to run with this."
"We're new at this job and, frankly, we'd like to represent the membership as best we can. We'll lead them wherever they want to go. But they've got to tell us.
American aircraft mechanics at Alliance who are opposed to the contract have said they don't like provisions that would allow American to contract more work out to other companies, and established a new pay rate for nonlicensed mechanics. Opponents also don't like the absence of annual cost-of-living increases in the contract.

But John Orlando, international vice president of the Transport Workers Union, said yesterday such concerns are off base.
He said the contract's scope clause, which determines what work American can contract out, has not changed in more than 40 years and won't change under the new deal. And American won't be able to hire nonlicensed repair workers on the new pay scale until all of 350 to 400 mechanics laid off by American have benn recalled, he said. nor can such nonlicensed repair workers hired if doing so would cause a licensed mechanic to be relocated unwillingly or bumped down in ob classification and pay.
"And in lieu of cost-of-living increases, we will get either three lump-sum bonus payments or a new profit-sharing program that pays more than the existing one, whichever pays us more," Orlando said.
Although Davis said sentiment at the local's Wednesday meeting was clearly against ratification, he said the turnout was too small to be an accurate barometer of how voting will go.

Davis said he suspects that most of the American mechanics he represents at Alliance will vote to ratify the new contract.

Orlando said yesterday that leaders of all the union's other locals have gone on the record in support of the tentative contract with American.
The Transport Workers Union represents 26,881 American employees. The 1,267 member Local 567 is dwarfed by Local 513, which represents nearly 4,800 employees at Dallas/fort Worth Aiport and American's Fort Worth headquarters.
The largest of the Transport Union locals that represent American employees is the 5,100 employee Tulsa, Okla. local 514.

 

[Checking it Out]

Dave old news! Members aren't interested in this! Amfa's track record is speaking louder now!

 

[Decision 2004]

Threats cancel union meeting
By D. R. STEWART World Staff Writer
4/15/99

Threats of violence spurred by a dispute between two unions vying for representation of 8,000 American Airlines mechanics prompted the cancellation of an informational meeting Saturday at Owasso High School, union and school officials said.

Owasso School officials said they were forced to cancel the meeting Wednesday after receiving several phone calls from members of the Transport Workers Union of America, Local 514, which represents American Airlines mechanics. Local 514 is based at 11929 E. Pine St.

The high school principal, Rick Dossett, said the informational meeting, which was called by Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, a 40-year-old crafts union based in Minneapolis, aroused "concern" in Owasso among American Airlines employees.

"We let anybody use our facility, and there are a bunch of people at American Airlines who are upset about the AMFA meeting," Dossett said. "I told them they were going to have a meeting, and I was going to make sure the lights were on and the water was running.

"A fella from the (Transport Workers) union hall called about his concern that there would be about 300 people from his organization there, and he was not too sure that they wouldn't be hot."

Dossett said he told the TWU member that any person causing a disturbance at the school would be arrested.

The threat of violence at the school caused Owasso school officials to require AMFA to post a $1 million bond in lieu of potential damages. The bond was posted by the union Tuesday, but Owasso Superintendent Dale Johnson notified AMFA officers Wednesday that he was canceling the meeting, said AMFA National Director O.V. Delle-Femine.

Johnson could not be reached for comment.

"It shows you how frightened they are of little AMFA," Delle-Femine said. "They know the (TWU) members don't want them. Our members have dem onstrated that. It's a dogmatic, centralized dictatorship. All industrial unions are that way. They use strong-arm tactics, like they did to intimidate the (Owasso) school authorities."

TWU President Dennis Burchette said his union is not opposing any union organization effort.

"This is America," Burchette said. "We have a lot of members earning a good living at American Airlines . . . and they have another group wanting to come in with the potential to disrupt their livelihood. If someone was going to come in and disrupt your livelihood, wouldn't you be upset?"

Burchette said he has not made any statements to TWU members about the AMFA meeting. He said there is no way to keep its national membership of 30,000 members harmonious on any subject.

A mechanic at American Airlines who is a member of the TWU but did not wish to be identified said the Owasso meeting was the second in the past month that TWU members have attempted to scuttle. The previous meeting at the Brady Theater on March 27 was held but with low attendance after thousands of flyers were distributed notifying mechanics that the meeting was canceled, he said.

"We still had 200 people there who were interested in what AMFA had to say," the mechanic said. "There are a whole lot of aircraft mechanics who want AMFA to succeed. The TWU is not a very democratic union. A lot of union members feel they don't have much input into what's going on."

AMFA, which has been organizing in Tulsa for the past year, rescheduled the informational meeting for the Radisson Inn Airport, 2201 N. 77th East Ave., from noon to 2:30 p.m. and from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Delle-Femine said.

If 51 percent of TWU members sign cards certifying their interest in AMFA membership, an election will be called by the National Mediation Board to determine union representation.

 

[Decision 2004]

Dave old news! Members aren't interested in this! Amfa's track record is speaking louder now!

How in the hell do you know what the members are, or are not interested in? You dont even work around them anymore like we do.

Your Thought Police mentality is why we have enough cards for the election and the TWU is on the way out the door.

These documents clearly prove that this is NOT about the current concessions and Bankruptcy.

But, just as you lie about who posted the "cancelled" notices, you also like to lie about what this revolution is all about.

Liars will soon relegated back to their work areas for duty.

 

[Raptor]

Dave old news! Members aren't interested in this! Amfa's track record is speaking louder now!

Oh really I guess that is why the members said that they wanted to vote on a new Union hugh 😉

I'm thinking the Majority does not have a problem with AMFA track record. 😀

I know I don't I sure would like to have the pay and benefits they have at Northwest. 😀

Those lucky dogs.

 

[twuer]

This is just like you Dave. You get nervous and scared and you start pulling things out of your archives. Which by the way must be huge. Your life revolves around Delle and amfa doesn't it??? Kinda scary!! :unsure: :unsure: :unsure:

 

[Decision 2004]

This is just like you Dave. You get nervous and scared and you start pulling things out of your archives. Which by the way must be huge. Your life revolves around Delle and amfa doesn't it??? Kinda scary!! :unsure: :unsure: :unsure:

Nervous?
Scared?

You are the ones running around passing out buttons and fear letters.

All we are doing is attempting to secure an election.

You read some of the "archives", and this is the best response you can generate?

Your life revolves around bus fumes, concessions, and fear, that is what is really scary.

 

[scorpion]

This is just like you Dave. You get nervous and scared and you start pulling things out of your archives. Which by the way must be huge. Your life revolves around Delle and amfa doesn't it??? Kinda scary!! :unsure: :unsure: :unsure:

twuer why dont you pull something out of your archives to refute what Decision 2004 posts instead of proving him right all the time by just mouthing off and nothing more.
The past is something the twu hopes everyone will forget about.

WILL GETTEM NEXT TIME BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Checking it Out]

scorpion, Can you explain what is wrong?

All I see is some posts of events that have happened in the past! It seems to work well in Tulsa! Since 75% or better favor the TWU at this point and time!

The aggressive response by the members in putting out facts will continue to work! If all the locals would do this we would see a strong united front going into the next round of negotiations with AA!

A Thank You! needs to go out to all the members who have educated their fellow Brothers and Sisters about the pitfalls of Amfa! Keep up the great Job!

 

[Decision 2004]

Oh Yeah,

The past only matters when you are talking about Braniff and Bankruptcy.

PanAm - TWU Represented Mechanics - BANKRUPT
Eastern - TWU Represented Flight Attendants - BANKRUPT

Those do not matter.

Running from debate after debate doesn't matter, falsely cancelling a debate and threatening High School Principles? Those things do not matter.

20 Years of Industry Leading Concessions? Doesn't matter.

Claiming two different positions on ratification of changes or amendments to contracts? Doesn't matter.

And "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain".