Why do professional AMT's keep thinking that an election of local officers in the TWU makes a damn bit of difference? Kind of exposes our more ignorant side. You guys all know and complain about how undemocratic the TWU is, and then when they dangle a BS election in front of you, many of you coming running to feed on the BS once again. Stupid is as Stupid does. All of you make our efforts to rid ourselves of the TWU more difficult by giving their BS legitimacy by not only participating but even getting into a frenzy over total BS. There is not one ounce of real hope in this latest scam, so stop pretending as if there is something more.
We know what this is. But thanks to Tulsa this is what we have to work with. This is Jim Little eliminating at least 7 delegates from the Convention (in September) who would vote for "anybody but Jim". I think they were hoping that we all would do like ORD did and Don could stack the board of 591 with his few remaining followers.(Which they may do anyway-Don wrote into the Bylaws that if an officer is removed or leaves that the guy wo ran agaisnt him with the second highest number of votes automatically gets the position).
During the BK process Don was unable to sway any of the Line mechanic Presidents into his "lets be Christian and turn the other cheek and give to Ceasar what is Ceasars" (as he collects his perks from Ceasar on top of his $150K salary paid by us) camp this time. We know 591 is designed to make Don's job of ensuring that what AA wants, AA gets, easier, with Line Maint reduced to one vote in the Presidents council and Title II as much as 10 and OH with two in negotiations he figures he can get what he wants even if they dont remove Larry Pike on some trumped up charge. However if 591 was filled with his guys it would be even easier for him. They know they lost the line, so they dont care if the line bows out completely, in fact they wish we would, they still get to collect our dues either way. At least we make their job a little harder.
I doubt that any of our members said "Oh Gary, Jorge, JR and Bob are going to change the TWU so I ain't signing a card". They know what we face, they thank us for doing it. They send us there to make sure that their voice is heard, the International may ignore it but at least they know we speak up for them, occasionally the media even picks up on it and we let them know whats going on. Our members know that we have to fight our own union, and we never get to bring the battle to the company, the ATD stands in our way.
591 is made up primarily of Line Mechanics, they voted 75% against the concessions and historically have been more than willing to get rid of the TWU, running as much as 90% for an election in the card drives over the years.
Tulsa voted 75% in favor of the concessions, again, and historically has been opposed to any representational election. You would have us on the line completely remove ourselves from the process thats in place and let Tulsa stand completely unopposed until the members there, who earn $70 to $100k(with OT) in an area where they could live on $30K, change their minds? We live in an area where it costs at least $100k and earn $70K because Tulsa says "If the line gets a penny more than Tulsa this deal is DOA" (John Hewitt).
Tulsa overwhelimingly rejected a deal that gave the line guys a $2/hr increase in line pay in 2010, but overwhelimingly accepted pretty much the same rate that was offered to them in that deal after the $2/hr addition to line pay was removed. How should we look at that? In BK the company tried to throw an extra 50cents in there but only for the Line(I still would have been a NO) but Hewitt shot it down.
My members have been clear, they want a new union, but until they get what they want, that is until/if your peers change their minds, they want us to keep doing what we've been doing with this one.
The fact is we could all fall on our swords, but around 75% of your peers could care less, and the voice of our members would be completely silenced.
