The IAM reps are back from PHX and the message is clear , the company doesn't respect us ! The offer to us is a 10 % raise over 5 years.The class 2 cities and the America West would come up to the class 1 pay.But if you are in a class 1 station you get a 34 cent per hour raise.
The kicker is that the rest of the contract was ignored , 5 paid holidays , the horrible sick policy and nothing on the vacation.
The holiday season is going to be ugly.One thought to PArker , show us some respect and give us a decent contract.A top offed Southwest agent makes $7.00 per hour more than us and they make money.
This management team is greedier than anyone that we have seen 1
Now that is more specific. The system has heard of the $19 that was offered but what I don't believe the system knew was that it would be staggered over 5 years. Thanks for flushing that out for us.
$19.08 hr, 5 years from now is showing little to no respect to the hard working men and women of your airline and is only representative of a fledging bankrupt airline...which US AIRWAYS is not. The hard workers of this airline, gave everything they had and that single action was the primary reason why this airline is still in the air. Hopefully, your management will be wise enough to treat these human beings in a fair and equitable way. IMO, your company can't possibly think for one minute that its wage offer [as you represented it] is remotely acceptable and I assume this is just a real low ball initial position unless greed has continued to close off the ears & eyes of management. I did hear reports that are contrary to what you said about your company's position on vacation and holidays/sick time though.
As aside, I don't see any reason to threaten an 'ugly' season as you did in your post. Although I agree respect might not be currently shown towards the workers, I don't think it necessarily follows that respect should be withheld from workers to management.
I think professionalism, doing your job as best you can, and showing management respect is a high stance and worthy of respect coming back at you. Showing others respect should stand unconditionally and independent from their actions towards you.
Don't be resentful, be positive and think on good things and take the high road.
If you try collectively, then it is my opinion that such a position would contain incredible and uncommon power. What power is there in public statements about 'things are going to get ugly'? Those type of comments are common, destructive and not worthy of any respect as far as I'm concerned. Who's going to give a bunch of punks a fair deal?
I don't think any good can come out of this ugliness you speak of.
In the meantime, the IAM's job will be to build solidarity, not by saying 'screw this worker' or 'screw that city' but by being powerful enough to include all members. Afterall, solidarity is wanted by all in a union. To this date, the IAM has had difficulty getting its leaders to understand their responsibility to this end.
What I would initially like to hear from the IAM is a statement to its members to encourage its members to keep doing the great job they have been doing. If things get ugly around the holidays, it should never be because of the workers. But if workers are publically saying 'things are going to get ugly' then they only have themselves to blame when management points the finger and blames any future ugliness on workers, when in fact it may be equipment problems or resource management's problem.
In conclusion, I will say that I do think the environment is right for the IAM to enhance solidarity and that 'currently' much more solidarity exist than in previous times.
regards,
