"What mess?" Do you need to ask?
As employee groups at one airline after another sit and wait for their turn to get fleeced (another "F" word seems more appropriate but it would probably get edited out) by the corporate/government alliance, our unions, especially those of us in AFL-CIO unions, seem powerless and resigned to allow their members to go down without a fight.
For years we heard of the benefits of affiliation and how the power of the AFL-CIO helped its members. Sadly, that "power" was contingent upon having the unreliable Democrats in power. Now that they are not in control of the Congress, the Senate or the White House and the Republican regime is going after unions like the Nazis went after Jews what is the new strategy? "Lets get the Democrats back in power in 2004". By then it will be too late. The reliance upon working "within the system" cannot work when those in control of the system intend to exterminate you. Recently Labor Secretary Elaine Chaos addressed the leaders of the labor movement with a litany of insults and accusations. And she is supposed to be our advocate in the White House! The Bush administration has been the most aggressive anti labor administration we have ever seen. His party has complete control of the government. As a result we have seen government interference in labor relations on a scale like we have never seen before. The President intervened on behalf of the company in the Longshoremen’s dispute, several airline disputes, signed off on a measure allowing corporations to do away with defined pension plans, put in place a rule change that allows the TSA to pull an airman’s license without due process, liberalized the regulations allowing foreign aircraft repair facilities to work on American aircraft, the list goes on. So what is the strategy from the AFL-CIO? There is no viable strategy. They will concentrate on trying to help put the unreliable Democrats back in power.
If the members of the AFL-CIO were really "Labor Organizations" and not just “bureaucratic corporations†with more in common with the companies they negotiate with than the people they represent then we would see a plan. We would see a growing movement for a General Strike. We would see our leaders telling us to prepare to ‘SHUT THE WHOLE THING DOWNâ€. If the industry is so “vital†that the government can claim eminent domain (without compensation) over our labor and refuse to allow us to strike, as in the United/ mechanics dispute then how can they allow them to liquidate? Is it just to allow a judge to force pay cuts on workers while allowing the fuel companies to raise their prices and the government to raise taxes? Isn’t there a conflict of interests here? Is it just to allow incompetent executives like Uniteds Tilton to come in with empty promises and walk out a short time later with full pockets- to the tune of millions of dollars? Is it just that our property, our labor, is for the benefit of the traveling public and not our own families? A true labor organization would not resort to cost/ benefit analysis to determine their course of action. They would do the right thing. As it is now, the leaders of the labor movement, most of whom make a very good living, will not do anything that would endanger their comfortable financial existence. They would not want to risk losing the prime real estate or other financial holdings of the corporation, eh, I mean organization by doing anything that would put them in violation of the laws that restrict our freedom and ability to defend ourselves.
Those of us who belong to Unions that are affiliated have been told time and time again of the benefits of affiliation. Well where are they? What benefit has the workers of United and USAIR seen from their “brothers†at AA or NWA? Has even being in the same union helped any of these workers as in the case of the IAM and ALPA at both United and USAIR? The sad truth of the matter is that our leaders, from Sweeney on down will not call for any forceful action because when the dust settles their standard of living will be unaffected.
Since it is a given that our leaders will not lead where does that leave us? Well for United mechanics, they at least have a choice. They have the option of going into an organization that does not have huge holdings in real estate or a treasury to put ahead of its members interests. They can vote to go with an organization that may have no political clout, but that still has the best interests of the class of workers that it represents. They can go with AMFA, and they should.
As the old men make speeches of protest and “lobby†upon deaf ears we will continue to get picked off one at a time. As I said before, when the dust settles, the old men will be unaffected, they will walk out of this without a scratch. We will have gotten our buts kicked without even fighting back. They will tell us that our demise was due solely to the fact that hostile forces are in control of our government and not because we just surrendered without fighting back. They have abandoned the base upon which true unionism is based- collective action culminating when necessary in denying our opponents our labor-strike. Collective action without the strike is merely a parlor game, times such as these require real engagement.
I recently attended the TWU COPE convention. While there were many speeches highlighting our struggles and the injustices perpetrated upon the workers of this nation one word was conspicuously absent- STRIKE. Not once during the three days did I hear any leader say the word. When we said the word to them, their reaction was as if we just committed blasphemy. They recoiled as if I was saying I wanted to initiate a Nuclear War.
The sad truth of the matter is that our leaders know that we are not fit to engage the alliance on any great scale. They know that they have done nothing to train and strengthen our ability to hold it together and take on the corporate/government alliance and have built thier entire strategy upon lobbying within the system, a process that doesnt require them to get thier hands dirty or engage the membership. They cite the fact that only 13% of the workforce is Unionized as the cause of our weakness but that is not the problem. In fact strategically we are in an excellent position to take on the alliance, that is, if we had our act together. We (Unionized workers) can impact the economy on a far greater scale than our numbers indicate. We can virtually shut down just about every air carrier, we can close all the ports, stop most trucking, all the railroads, and most mass transit. A general strike in just aviation would severely cripple the economy A general strike of all the members of the TTD would stop our economy cold. The impact would dwarf anything that we have seen before since it has never happened in this country before. Historically the only comparable event would be the Pullman strike, which was a wildcat strike that spread- the leaders did not plan or call for it. There is no doubt that the alliance would retaliate and the cozy cordial relationship that labor leaders have enjoyed with business/government leaders would be permanently altered. Forget about playing golf together.
As workers we must realize that our leaders will not risk their cozy existence to protect us. The majority of those heading unions in the TTD that represent airline workers never worked in the industry. We must push them into doing it. We should contact our leaders, make motions to pass resolutions, build networks across fraternal boundaries, inform our representatives in the government and discuss and prepare to collectively engage in our right to withhold our labor. If the USAIR pilots go on strike, we should all join them, does anyone really think that our pensions wont be next? If the Senate passes any of the provisions of S-1327, we should shut it down. If USAIR liquidates, we should shut it down. We should be, and let it be known, that we are a powder keg in search of a spark.