I think the IAMs position should have been that the work was struck work and they will not do it. After the first termination they join the strikers.
If not they could have done other things that would have jammed up the operation, instead they helped the company bust the strike. They took pleasure in it and gloated about it, thats unforgivable, their animosity toward a rival labor organization led them to betray the working class because "An injury to one is an injury to all"..
We may be facing that AA.
There's a reason why the IAM has lost half its membership. They had a good reputation at one time but they blew it at EAL when they left Charlie Bryan and the EAL workers out in the cold. They backed off setting up secondary pickets despite the fact that the RLA doesnt prohibit it and its been done in the past and they had IAM represented Hudson General doing struck work at LGA. I'm not saying we did any better but we never sold ourselves as "The Fighting".
The airline Unions (collectively) undid all that Ron Carey did. You guys at USAIR led the latest wave in 2002 by opening up your agreements to give concessions prior to a BK filing. Now other industries are following the example set by the airline industry and pushing the working class out of the middle class, and they are doing this without any opposition other than a little grumbling from the Union leaders as they sit back and continue to collect their six figure salaries (they themselves are insulated from the setbacks but that doesnt stop them from using the word "we" when they talk about it). In the meantime these same leaders do everything in their power to prevent any actions that would stop the carnage.
I wish you the best of luck and I hope they vote union, this way, maybe it will help facilitate a miracle where Unions will run out of excuses and actually start to lead the working class back to the middle class. Personally if I was at DAL I would go for the IBT, because if labor is to ever become an effective force again it must consolidate and that consolidation is not likely to occur in the IAM which is in decline, besides what does the IAM have to offer as an example ? The USAIR disater of a contract thats at the bottom of the industry? The IBT represents UPS and Continental and UAL, they all are already ahead of USAIR and their contracts are currently in negotiations.
