I will keep on topic.
Probably a little early to ask for any updates, however, are there at least, a favorable movement in all stations in wanting AMFA representation? Also is it the same favorable movement by all stations in the removement of the teamster representation?? Just trying to get the overall feeling of the membership as a whole. E is correct, if not all stations are on the same page, it would be much harder or longer to prevail with the number of cards needed to obtain an election vote.
Any info would be greatly appreciated Erick, good luck to all involved in the efforts for an AMFA representation sir.
Our drive started the first week of October, AMFA is not at all involved and has been pretty clear in the fact that they don't become involved until certain thresh holds are completed. I've been with SubCo for 22 years now and got to watch all of the goofy ploys the Teamsters do with regards to intimidation, attempting to gain favor with management to eliminate dissenters, avoiding the membership one serious topics but offering trinkets as consolation prizes, avoiding our contract negotiations to favor the larger group of individuals during the SubUA drive, zero transparency, attempts at including TeamCare/WCTPT which we voted down by over 90% the first time around and were then offered a weak contract afterwards due to their disinterests from being turned down, and most recently the reintroduction of TeamCare as a possible alternative ( which always includes their pension fund ), and with me personally the apprenticeship program was introduced in a back door manner using arbitration for Airbus check lines in Brazil while the Teamsters were promising us we would get a vote on conditions.
Those who work for UAL understand that the Teamsters were essentially absent, they were not seen or heard from and Doxey was the only source of information with the Teamsters quickly firing off a scripted email immediately after. A pile of legitimate grievances were wiped clean off the table in exchange for a single grievance that affected a minority of people wanting to retire to TPA.
I am not involved with AMFA, although I have signed cards during two previous drives for them, I also signed one for ALTA for those of your that remember that effort, and you could have gone to any fast food service and picked a kid standing behind the counter and I would've rather signed an Authorization Card to claim them as my representative rather than remain a IBT dues honeypot.
This guy WeAAsel likes to spend alot of time yapping on here about AMFA's attorneys and pulling up expense reports for them, the DOL is a big website with lots of information. Maybe someone can explain to this guy that there's a wealth of filings to sort through if you're curious and a current IBT member, how does your money get spent ? Where does it go ? How much real estate investment and contributions to multiple businesses owned by previous criminals is being funneled from our dues ? I found a lot of pretty serious and honestly disgusting associations with a few hours of searching.
For my local in Miami ( 3 hours away and controlled by the UPS ) there's no way to vote one of ours in although we've now grown from around 300 to nearly 800 strong in MCO. The ByLaws which they do not provide you with state that every member should learn to be a union member and be taught the importance of their ByLaws, not a single new hire has received a copy. It took me 6 years to receive a "non legitimate copy" because I wasn't willing to sign for it after paying 20 years worth of dues. We have to attend 50% of local meetings to be valid for position within the local and for us in MCO a 3 hour drive just isn't going to happen. We're outnumbered by box throwers and drivers who were put into a contract they voted down by 51% and had their union force it through by agreement which is why Hoffa implemented the 2/3 rule for ratification of contracts. But because we're part of the airline division it apparently doesn't apply to us.
I will be honest, I do NOT want to be involved, I have no position in the union and have no interest in becoming a 'union guy', what I do want is my votre to count. I want to be presented with options and vote on it, sinking or swimming by our groups interest. I do not want a union that postures to help us but is more interested in spending a year or two exploring and negotiating how to involve itself into my/our health insurance which is considered to be grandfathered and does not have to abide by rules set forth by the Affordable Care Act. And I could care less about having to rely on pensions offered by an organization that had to be repeatedly bailed out by the government ( Central States / New York ) most recently by way of recovery acts post COVID. The western conference plan is currently showing to have 3.5 drawers for every 1 contributor, that show is also on its way to be a disaster to be played on nightly news in a few years. The point is, certain people on here throw that ponzi scheme reference around in defense of industrial unions, but the entire organization as far as the IBT is concerned is a pyramid scheme from our 2.5x hourly rates all they way to the international's bank and whatever politicians are leeching off them at the moment.
As far as the drive goes, I personally spoke with Fisher, Graziano, Moore, weks before the arbitration had gone through a 2 hour or so sit down here in MCO with a room full of guys who none of which want to even be offered TeamCare or any service other than negotiating an improved contract funded by the company. Some of those questions included will we be surveyed prior to wasting any time exploring TeamCare or any inclusions into our contract that the membership may not want and the answer was essentially a no. Bob Fisher said it's their fiduciary duty to assess any and all options including TeamCare. The second main issue was the Apprentice Program which is being sold by the IBT as a great thing ( for them ) to being new talent in and help the company expand. Typical of any conversation with IBT/TWU/IAM puppets is the fact that they all blame AMFA for the preexisting wording in our contract regarding the apprentice program, when in reality this wording was included much before even the IAM was involved at Legacy UAL, we have proof. Humorously though the IBT shrugged it off to us during the merger of CoAir and UAL as "old language that will never get used" and now it's the greatest thing since sliced bread because "we can all get our kids and buddies in", but the way it's structured it gives an apprentice a 2 year craft seniority jump after being introduced into a C-scale pay progression during their training to get a free A&P, so like many of us feel, your A&P licenses at UAL is technically only worth $5. We've also had a serious amount of hiring done post COVID retirements which was one of those "don't let any tragedy go to waste" moments, the company wanted to get rid of the heavy high timers but they forced out alot of experience. Now we have very few experienced techs coming in and management complains that "things are moving too slow". So the Teamsters is allowing the company to undercut those with experience and wages by giving away control to the Apprentice Program during a arbitation that had ZERO to do with an arbitration program. The apprentice program was introduced into arbitration that started back in June of this year, the phrasing in the arbitrators ruling specifies both the union and company agree to wanting it, all the while the IBT was promising us here in MCO that we were going to be able to vote on conditions such as craft implementation, pay, training of apprentices, overtime, and other issues stemming from this while they KNEW it was already being decided on by an arbitrator. They flat out LIED and so f*ck them and this union. That's where I'm at. I'm sick of it and they've been here 20 years on property and I want them OUT. The IBT has a knack for bending over and giving away leverage for contracts months before even beginning to negotiate as they did with the LOA given to the company during the 2015-2016 shared metal giving SubCo and SubUA techs access to each others aircraft while they were attempting to merge, they plain out sell us out every time.
We're more organized, using better technology this time, and have a growing online community that was originally intended on helping the IBT create an online format to communicate system wide and create a better union, but it is controlled by us the technicians and now we use it to distribute information on our drive. We have plans coming together and they will soon become known. IAH and EWR are the two stations we obviously need the most because of sheer headcount and many may not even be aware of our drive's scope, but they will very soon.
If you are a currently employee at UAL you're encouraged to join our discord server:
https://discord.gg/jNHDYhGZxN
I'll try to keep better tabs on this forum to respond.