Dilligas,
You have missed the entire point of the pledge back of monies. The pledge back of monies is a very big part of the socializing process that we need to build trust. It was incorporated into the platform with the assumption that nobody would believe it. Given the present predicament of how the membership is a beaten dog, how can they?
The reason for the giveback is an academic one based on my education in the field of the process of socialization. Unions and union leaders are almost educationally bankrupt on culture and social construction.
When approaching the question of what I want to accomplish as President, I suppose the answer is much of the same one as any President, i.e., a leading industry contract. But, the path to gaining a leading industry contract is one that involves the buildup of leverage through items such as solidarity. Knowing the structure of this union tells me 100% that the present environment contained in the union's structure simply will not allow the sorta solidarity that is needed to attain our goals. Our union is essentially stuck in the enlightenment era, hasn't entered modernity, and won't even bother with post modernism. And its 'juice' is fading as the newer generations are simply not connected with the paternal structure.
Whether intended or not, the lack of adaptation into this brave new world has breeded a deep distrust and disconnect from our members. Anyone who understands the process of socialization will clearly see the symptons, which are glaringly obvious from an academic side. The witness to this is that one can shoot a cannon off in a Local hall and not hit a soul. The union deals with this by saying "Members are apathetic". IMO, and I may be wrong on this, I think the union wants that. With apathy, the establishment within the union wins. If the union leadership genuinely cares [again, I don't think it does but I could be wrong], then they should have approached the problem with case study and brought in social scientist who could unpack the question and help facilitate things. I'm not a full blown sociologist but my training does give me a very clear window to see what is going on.
At any rate, my assessment is that the membership is a 'beaten dog'. They don't trust any union person. And that isn't what I need as President. I need trust. You need trust. And the clearest way to trust is sacrifice. Sacrifice and trust are not part of this society therefore I wouldn't expect anyone to believe 'give backs'. When we do the givebacks, we aren't doing so because we are nice fellas or because we think the pay is too high, we are doing so to smash down the disbelief. In fact, the more disbelief now, the more belief afterwards. I'm not even going to bother trying to convince anyone that we are straight up going to sacrifice thousands of dollars, because I can't convince anyone of that since the present environment precludes that.
There is no other way...NONE to build trust other than sacrifice. Monetary sacrifice is one way. We will also be sacrificing our time and the scoreboard already shows that when I was already in a leadership position within the District. Of course, the added benefit from the sacrificed monies is that it will dump into education for our 'broke' locals. We have to edify our locals. Actually, our union gets a big fat HUGE F- for violating all the principles of socialization. And it's even worse with mergers. over at United, just because the airline has 'one name', the union operates like its one culture. It's academically insulting. Continental has different sacred things than United members. Yet, the union just pisses all over the sacreds and walks all over them stepping on them. And, it's a shame since we have a great opportunity to construct an internalizing sociological process that could further the IAM legitimation within the culture. But so far, I give the IAM 141 a big fat F, and there is no skill set, no education, no consciousness by any of our AGC's that they even know that they are violating many sacreds from other cultures. And, BTW, there is still a west and an east culture and anyone who doesn't recognize that isn't understanding that it takes YEARS to bring two cultures together.
Video: Platform "What's up with the Give Backs???"
Onward!
