seed,Jan 2 2005, 05:39 PM]Perhaps I should have explained my interest in our profession a bit farther tham I did. I am indeed in stores, I am also there due to furlough/bump and roll, I was an A&P earlier in my tenure with AA. Furloughs are "business as usual" with the members at MCIE, most here have at least been through 2 or 3.
Also, I see you people, though I wonder about Quill, have a lot of intelligence and drive, why not redirect that drive to further "our" employment with AA? The TWU and the AMFA will be here after the dust settles, it would be nice to have a company left to fight over.
What are you suggesting? Managing the company is managements job.
And Ken, did I miss read something in the two constitutions? Remember, my abilitites lie elsewhere, not in comprehending contract wordage. I thought that with AMFA, if charges are brought forward to remove an IO, then those charges are brought before a board for review to see if the charges and a trial are warranted. With TWU, no review, a trial is held. Seems to me that the AMFA reps could easily "protect their own" so to speak, maybe not. AMFA could state "NO TRIAL". Which way is better is up to the respective unions I would imagine. AMFA has the ability to change their process, as does the TWU.
With the TWU the "trials" are a farce, at least at the International level. If the International brings charges against anyone the accusor appoints the judges who are his subordinates. Once accused by the International a guilty verdict is guaranteed. However the opposite happens when a member makes the accusation against someone in the International, the International "reveiws the charge then simnply rejects it, the members have no further means of pursuing it except to file an appeal to the next convention where pretty much the same thing happens. With the TWU unelected officials can do as they please, at AMFA if the members feel that the panel was "protecting their own" the members could remove them too.With the TWU the members have no control.
Listen, I understand your disgruntleness towards the TWU. I am not in love with the idea of losing my years of seniority, did I blame the TWU? You bet I did! After months and then years of complaining, I finally decided that the TWU did what the TWU wanted, they represented the majority of their current membership, and denied the dovetail. Somewhat like the pilots are doing now, looking out for their own. I only cause myself heartburn if I dwell on that issue to long. The IAM sold us down the river by allowing our Successorship Clause to be stricken from our contract. TWA bent over backwards to be purchased, went into BK, and the IAM assisted by screwing the membership. I am more peeved at the IAM than the TWU, but this is not the time for this aregument or this battle.
No, now is the time to learn from the past and work towards a future. We can not change the TWU, so we must get rid of it. The problem is not just Little, Yingst and Gless, its the structure of the union and we can not change that because even if the entire AA division of the TWU was on board we are still a minority within the TWU.
What happened to us was not confined to AA, it happened to workers across the industry, so the solution must be approached that way.
The only way we are going to fix this is if we not only work together within AA but with other workers from other airlines as well. With the unions in place, that have simply become business unions over the years this will never happen. We must unite across the industry.
Despite what some may tell you labor in this industry is organized along craft lines. It always has been and its not likely to change. Such a strategy is good for the workers, if done correctly. It has worked well for the pilots.
While we have industrial unions even they conduct their negotiations along craft lines. Our M&E contract is different than our Stores or title III contract. During the 2000-1 contract cycle maintenance walked away with much bigger increases than other TWU members simply because AMFA had reset the bar over at NWA and the union felt they had to meet that number or lose the mechanics to AMFA. Stores and Title III had no such conditions out there to bring up their wages.
Without a place to go to for work, you have no platform from which to launch your goals.
Thats why we must fight for a real scope clause. Local 562 presented a scope clause at the 2000-1 negotiations but the International had its puppets reject it. Don Videtich, now an International rep, was the leading opponent.
I see our battle is with the CEO's and company, not ourselves.Â
Unfortunately it is with Little, Gless and company also. They are not "us". WE did not pick them nor can we remove them, they do not work for us any more than Arpey does. They even try to behave like CEOS, as we get concessions they get raises! Did you ever see how much these guys pay themselves?
There is roughly , I imagine, a couple of years of word battles between the TWU and the AMFA here. I do not see any positive coming from adding my own. I wish only to assist our employent time in continuing. AFW and TUL are not saved, the company already proved this. After we are gone from MCI, guess who's next!
As long as the TWU sees the opportunity to get dues they dont care.
The loss of overhaul can be made up once USAIR and UAL fail, because then the company can expand to fill the void, and that expansion will mean more TWU dues payers and less IAM and AMFA members.
The membership will be even more geographically spread out and the TWU will undoubtably form even more small locals that are financially dependant on company paid UB.
The TWUs little airline side business will be the biggest airline division in the labor movement, and it will be a company friendly union.
If the company said to the TWU that they were going to close all of overhaul but not oppose the representation of gate agents you guys would be gone tomorrow. For all we know they may have already made such a deal but they are trying to put it in place without causing too much disruption. For the TWU it would be a win-win, they would replace lost dues revenue from overhaul, which has large locals that they must cater to, with newly organized gate agents in many tiny, dependant locals. The 10 year recall once you all disperse to other locales and jobs would make it hard to get enough cards for an AMFA election for the next ten years.
You admit that the IAM sold you out, glad to see that you recognize that, However the IAM was a better union than the TWU, at least they fought the company, the TWU never really fights the company. Its only a matter of time before you realize that the TWU is a company union. There can really be no greater calamity for workers than a company union.
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