Boomer said:
OneFlyer,
The bottom line is that AA knows the TWU. I was there when Carty presented Koziatek with several thousands of new dues payers.
To think that anyone at the TWU/TWU ATD would take a stand and reject another round of paycuts is ludicrous: just look at each and every airline at which the TWU extorts dues; each of them were the first to fold.
Airline Management gets a known commodity in allowing the TWU on the field; the TWU gets to force dues payment as a condition of employment; the government keeps us all in the RLA and not allowed to strike.
Everybody gets paid except the employee.
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The TWU/ATD has a long history of concessions.
Several of my coworkers are Ex-Pan Am. As Pan Am was going down the tubes they kept telling their workers to take pay cuts to "save jobs". What they ended up with was less senioity an less years towards a pension at AA. The TWU got an extra couple of years of dues. Mike Bakala and Kerrigan are both Ex-Pan Am and they have made concessions for dues the policy of the TWU/ATD.
At the Pan Am Local 504 union meeting for the third round of concessions a near riot broke out when Bakala, who is a lrage man, reportedly made a move towards a member who was criticizing the lousy job the TWU was doing. I was told that the man knocked Bakala and the whole table and all the other TWU officers right onto their a$$es. Then several others jumped into the melee, stabbing them with the flagpole, with old glory still attached, smashing the water jug and assorted kicks and punches until some of the other members finally brole it up. They felt that they didnt want it to go too far and end up in fatalities. That was the end of the meeting. The Local 504 union hall also burnt down, never did hear what the cause was.
The Leaders of Local 504 were however rewarded for suckering all the Pan Am guys into keeping the dues flowing for as long as possible, they remain in office to this day and are assured permanent status by the very structure that the TWU International put in place at that local.
Even though 504 is part of the ATD they have few, if any airline workers, in fact many dont even work near an airport or have anything to do with the airline industry. Its membership is spread from New York to Hawaii. By being so spread out, and in different industries the structure makes it nearly impossible to put together an opposition slate. Members have no way of even knowing where other members are located, never mind campaigning.
The strategy of having a membership that is very diverse as well as geographically dispersed is a proven method of consolidating power and thwarting democracy. Local 504 is basically a minaiture version of the TWU International and several other industrial unions.
Round two of TWU pre-BK concessions ? BANK ON IT!!!!!
