John Ward Give It Up!

[galleyguy4u2]

It is about time that JW give up his dictatorship. The election was won fair and square by THB. This election should be ceritfied fair and square. JW is holding over your heads the TWA SIA. Trust me there is NO backroom deal with THB with the TWA f/a's...never has been and never will. These lawsuits are in the courts and there is nothing that JW or THB can do to change this.

If you want to place blame on the original outcome of this election, you need to blame the 11,000 f/a's that DID NOT VOTE AND TRASHED THEIR BALLOT.

A f/a named Jay Narey incorrectly stated on the 4m that ballots were faxed into APFA. NO....membership cards of dues current f/a's were faxed in NOT BALLOTS as were allowed in past APFA elections. JUan Johnson did not allow the faxed card to be accepted nor be counted. Voting fraud at it's best.

The APFA needs to get on with business. The APFA as we currently know it mired in mud. The APFA is the laughing stock of all Unions.

A new election will cost our UNION thousands more dollars of our hard earned money. It seems that APFA has a vote dysfunticion. They never can get it right the first time and all they keep blaming is the TWA f/a's....how ludicrious. 3,000 TWA furloughed f/a's VS 22,000 Natives. How pathetic!!!

 

[LiveInAHotel]

Take a look at John WAArds future home:

 

[FA Mikey]

Far more than he deserves

 

[ArtTang]

Hey LiveInaHotel:

That photo looks just like one of our old layover rooms in Caracas!

I rarely post anymore (lack of time), but I thought this is important enough to share with anyone who is interested. I would like to spread the information and appropriate points of contact for anyone who would like to follow through.

Regards,
Art Tang
MIA-D

To my colleagues:

I realize many of you are tired of the ongoing drama at union
headquarters. I think it is safe to say we all are! I know others
have already posted their position regarding the DOL's ruling and
the counting of the previously discarded ballots, but I thought I
would go ahead and post a letter I drafted and e-mailed to friends
throughout the system. Some of you may disagree with me and that is
fine. I think it is important we all follow our conscience and
participate in the rebuilding of our union.

I sent the following to all the hapless flight attendants in my
address book; please forgive any typos or grotesque errors as I just
returned from a long trip and I'm dead tired:

Dear Friends,

It is imperative we all contact the Department of Labor to express
our desire that the results of the ballot re-count be certified so
Tommie Hutto-Blake can take her seat as president. While repeatedly
stonewalling any hope for resolution by denying quorum to our
union's Executive Committee, John Ward has petitioned the D.O.L. to
mandate a whole new election so he can spend our union dollars in an
effort to hold onto his office. Now, if you feel a new election is
what we need, that is of course your prerogative. However, if you
feel as I do, please take action and let the D.O.L. know how we feel
about Ward's request. The e-mail addresses of the D.O.L. officers
involved in our union's ongoing saga are:

> > woodward.ann@d...
> > hall.debra@d...
> > perkins.kermit@d...


Also, it is very important to contact our base chairs to let them
know that we do not want a new election. We want the National
Balloting Committee to certify the NEW results. Some base chairs are
very loyal to Ward and they need to be reminded that they represent
us. The union phone number is 1-800-395-APFA. Just bar in '0' to get
the operator and ask to be connected to your chair's voicemail. You
ought to leave your name, employee number, and a brief message about
where you stand on this issue. Again, if you feel differently about
this matter than I do, that is fine. All I ask is you make your
wishes known.

Thanks again for your efforts to effect positive change in our union
so we can all move forward.

Regards,
Art Tang

Here is a copy of the letter I submitted to the D.O.L.



To Whom It May Concern,

I am a member in good standing of the Association of Professional
Flight Attendants. I have been a member of this
union for 19 years and have never witnessed such egregious
malfeasance on
behalf of its leaders. I urge the Department of Labor to disregard
current
president John Ward's request for a new election in light of the
election
upset that has transpired with the counting of the previously
discarded
ballots. With the new tally of valid ballots, it is clear that Tommie
Hutto-Blake is the duly elected president of the union at members'
will.
A new election will drain sorely needed funds from our union's
coffers and
only serve to fuel Mr. Ward's personal ambition while denying Ms.
Hutto-Blake her rightful seat.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Sincerely,

Arthur Tang
American Airlines Flight Attendant at Miami

 

[ArtTang]

I would like to make it clear that I incorrectly posted that John
Ward has petitioned the DOL for a new election. John wrote to me and
refuted this information. I apologize to him for disseminating any
inaccurate information.

Sincerely,
Art Tang
MIA-D

 

[jimntx]

I would like to make it clear that I incorrectly posted that John
Ward has petitioned the DOL for a new election. John wrote to me and
refuted this information. I apologize to him for disseminating any
inaccurate information.

Sincerely,
Art Tang
MIA-D

[post="168740"][/post]​

Maybe not, but I understand that quite a few of his minions, such as Jay Narey, have. The postulants of the Order of the Perpetually Trip Removed are quaking in their boots over the prospect of having to actually work on airplanes that have passengers on them.

 

[swagalleyhag]

Dear APFA FA's,

What a shame your Union is having to go through this. I'm a FA with Southwest (TWU 556) who walked a couple of info picket lines with you guys back in 2001. We IDOLIZED you guys back then. You were strong, united, and got one he11 of a contract.

I thought I'd share with you another presidential scandal that we had over here at TWU 556. About the time you guys were about to go into your cooling off period before achieving the TA you finally ratified in 2001, we at TWU 556 were in the midst of a Presidential scandal over here as well. Our Pres. was trying to run her own show, ignore the will of the rest of our Executive Board (EB) and Members, making secret back door deals with Management... it was ugly. Our EB finally suspended her, removed her from office, and the then 1st VP Thom McDaniel took over the presidency.

His remaining term as "replacement" president was riddled with controversy, lawsuits, etc. It was ugly. But Thom handled it like a professional, and began rebuilding our Union and our unity. Thom ran for election as President in 2003, won by a landslide, and successfully lead our negotiations delivering us a Contract that most of the industry envies now. We even got rid of our CEO Jim Parker! I'm still amazed at that.

The only reason I'm telling you about this is just to let you know that you can get through this, no matter how this DOL thing goes.

I saw that somebody had posted that this unfortunate voting scandal is an embarassment for your Union. I think somebody may have used the word "laughing stock". But this will pass. I don't know much about John or Tommie, so I can't comment on how I hope things go for you guys with regards to the DOL. I'm just writing to encourage you guys to not give up. I hope you can somehow find a way to come together through this and grow as a Union.

I know our Union pales in comparison size-wise to you guys... we only have about 7400 FA's over here (luckily we're closed shop, so all FA's are members)... but we felt that were an embarassment there for a while. But now many other Unions are now envious of us. Things can turn around quickly, and people have short memories.

One thing that your Union should really consider is electronic voting. The Southwest Pilots, and several AFA locals are using this method, and it completely takes away the "human" factor. The list of eligible voters is determined prior to the beginning of the balloting process, and can't be changed. In looking at some recently published statistics from our Local, in our Contract ratification vote in 1997 we had 16 ballots discarded as "illegible" for our 1st TA, and 17 discarded as "illegible" for our 2nd TA vote. This is in contract to our most recent ratification held just 2 weeks ago, where ZERO ballots were thrown out for any reason. All votes counted - one Member, one vote. The only ones who didn't count were the stupid 700 or so who were too lazy to pick up the phone or turn on the computer and punch the numbers. The company that our Local used is called CCComplete. They are approved by the DOL to do any type of Union election. I think their website is www.ballotpoint.com.

Sorry for the long posting, but I do want you guys to know that we over at TWU 556 support you guys during these tough times for your Airline and for your Union. Keep your chin up, and I wish you the best.

Best of luck,
swagalleyhag

 

[jimntx]

Thanks, SWAGAlleyHag (BTW, I LOVE your handle). I know that we will get through this and the DOL will see to it that the law is followed willingly or no. I noted that you were surprised at the 700 of your f/as who didn't bother to vote. How about these numbers, out of 25,000 eligible voters in the Presidential election, 12,000 didn't bother to vote. In a recent vote on Constitutional amendments only about 7500 total f/as bothered to vote.

Ya got nuttin on us. When it comes to apathy, youse guys at SWA is amachoors.