Its pretty simply go to the web site sing up when you get 50+1 with a comfortable majority you file and have a vote. This is benign done behind the watched for a reason. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.
Listen, I'm not looking to start an argument with you, you've been a wealth of information, but I disagree.
The CWA organizer for AA hasn't done a thing lately, and agents in DFW, ORD, JFK and MIA all have said the same thing; CWA doesn't come here and do any type of organizing or attempting to sign anyone up and they, better than anyone else, know who each and every eligible member is.
Their election nominations ended last Saturday. What do you want to bet no one signed up for any of the chairs? According to agents I spoke with, the CWA didn't send out any type of notification of elections until two weeks before the deadline, giving little time for anyone to look into anything. People DO work for a living, they can't spend every waking moment doing the work that someone at CWA is being paid to do. I understand that, and I agree.
However, I also agree that the CWA AA organizer has about 12,000 eligible people to manage, and that can't be an easy task, nor is it easy to contact each and every one of them. But, in a MIA interview I had
just three days ago, I was told that several MIA people offered to help with membership sign up. All they wanted was the information they needed to do it. They were told to stop. They were told that the CWA organizer wants to meet with every agent one on one to sign them up. If even a fragment of that is true, it will never get done. Never. Their biggest complaint was about their Miami rep, but we won't get into that, it wouldn't be fair but needless to say, they weren't happy with that person.
I'm betting you don't believe for a moment that a rep would do/say such a thing as stop, and I must admit, I don't either. But, I was shown the email.
This is why I started this thread. I wanted information that, as I go through the interview process with agents, I could tell them that this is what others/USAirways members have to say about CWA and I was hoping it would be good and favorable information. That hasn't been the case so far other than a few saying agents will be better off with CWA than without and with that, I agree.
American Airlines agents NEED a union, be it CWA, teamsters, whoever. I also believe that a collective bargained AA group will only strengthen the Union that also represents USAirways people. I came here looking for that.
I don't post here as a habit. The majority of my posting goes on in the AA forum where I regularly shred airline management every chance I get. However, I don't believe there are more than a handful of agents that participate in the AA forum.
I've interviewed many managers for AA and it runs easily 7 to 1 in favor of the agents unionizing. They believe it will be much better in the long run to have everything spelled out. As it is now, its nothing more than a crap shoot day to day as to who does what and make no mistake, the agents at AA are crapped on heavily on a daily basis. I understand that to be so at USAirways as well but not as bad as it could be if it weren't for union representation. I spoke to USAirways flight managers as well and they all pretty much agree, it has been better since the agents union came in, but some voice concern that things began to break down when HP came into the picture. I am not as up on that issue so I can't speak about it but I do assume it has been no easy task integrating the two groups.
When I write my next piece, it isn't going to be pretty for AA. By the same token, I currently refer to CWA with terms such as lazy, clueless, undriven and lost. However, I also refer to them as necessary, as well as viable with the right guidance from members. The CWA AA organizing is lacking guidance at the moment and is in dire need of some new blood. Someone with a pissy attitude who doesn't shy away every time AA says the word "lawyer" or they are afraid to go for it because AA "might sue". In my opinion, that is what it will come down to, a big showdown in the federal courts.
That is where cajones will be measured. Who will have the bigger of the two, CWA or AA? And whose can withstand the most kicking.
John - I can't thank you enough for your posts. As I mentioned above, I'm not looking to argue with you, and your input has been very good. Just like there are union issues at US that AA people aren't aware of, there are union organizing issues at AA that US people aren't aware of. It makes my head spin!. All in all, if I didn't have any better of a gut intuition, I'd swear you are sitting in an office in Euless Texas!
😉
