Now is the time to support a real Union. A union that is not afraid to fight for its membership.
Support AMFA's efforts against Northwest in any way you can-picketing or financially supporting a brother or sister in need. Perhaps even watching their children while they picket. AMFA is the only union that chose to fight for the profession rather than make up excuses why the Airlines should raid our contracts and extract wage and benefit concessions, with obvious inequity in order to offset the high price of fuel.
AMFA is not perfect. As the most democratic union available AMFA suffers from mistakes made at the hands of the majority, however, no one can question AMFA'S willingness to go toe to toe to fight for its membership.
AMFA's fight is our fight, the actions of AMFA will propagate throughout the industry much like the cowardly actions of the TWU have propagated throughout the industry.
When the Mechanics at NWA recieved large increases in pay and benefits the company union that represents us ended up having to bring back large increases in pay and benefits. And when our cowardly representation brought back enormous concessions in pay and benefits its actions made it inevitable that the other airlines would use the opportunity given them by the TWU to receive enormous inequitable givebacks from their employee groups.
You might say the TWU set the standard-a standard that we suffer from day after day with no end in sight. Notice there are no snap back provisions of any kind in our agreement.
I'm not starting this topic to argue AMFA v. TWU that is behind us now that our election has been stolen from us by several big money interests. I'm starting this topic in order to plead for my fellow workers to aid the Northwest mechanics and AMFA in their fight against a system that wishes to unfairly punish their employee groups through inequitable sacrifice. After the company goes bankrupt and is able to use the courts in order to strip away large amounts of pay and benefits from its workers how much of a sacrifice to you think the management will make?
Its a worn out phrase but I write it anyway-There is no I in team. In order to reap the rewards of teamwork an organization must act as a team. When a portion of the team is to suffer while the other portion is to not suffer than the correct course of action is to take measures to correct the course of events. AMFA has offered to share the sacrifice at NWA-clearly something must be done, but unlike the other company unions, AMFA has not willingly approved to sell its boss-the membership-down the river. At United, under the eyes of the Federal Bankruptcy Court AMFA was forced to negotiate conditions that the membership approved under the threat of terminating the airline and scuttling the deals of the other employee groups. A situation that AMFA did not take lightly. AMFA DID NOT sell this contract to the membership as the TWU did us. We were threaten with all kinds of vulgar lies about what would happen if we voted no. I voted no, my spineless brothers flinched under the weight of TWU generated untruths. How much concession did the AMFA membership at United feel obligated to take? Aproximately the industry standard set by the TWU.
Main point- Their battle is our battle so you better get off your kiester this time. If the brave mechanics at Northwest are successful in achieving a formula of a more equitable sacrifice between them and the company then the results will affect our careers positively. The other airlines will notice a breaking point, a guantlet, or even a line in the sand as far as how much expense they can pass on to the unionized employee groups and will begin to pass the increase in fuel prices to where they belong in the first place-to the flying public.
If the mechanics at Northwest are unsuccessful than look for more pain and suffering for the unionized labor groups at the airlines for years to come. Everytime there's a hiccup in fuel prices it will be us that feels the consequences, not only at home but at work. Every time a terrorist act causes a spike in fuel prices, our wallets, our benefits, our pensions, and our futures will be terrorized directly, even when the airlines carry record numbers of passengers and management is recieving their bonuses. Instead of raising ticket prices the weight of the fuel increases will be handed over to the employee groups. Why wouldn't they? What's to stop them?
At work I was asked what I believed the first benefit we would receive back from the company would be? I replied that if I was representing the company I would not return a single benefit. Why should I? Fuel is higher than ever and the aircraft are going to need a lot of attention with all the flying they've been doing. Why would I want to dramatically increase the cost of maintenance when I don't have too? In fact I'd look for more ways to trim the maintenance budget.
What would be the repercussions to not giving back any benefits? None
I can hear the union representatives now-"We'll our jobs are much more secure this way".
You get what you fight for! NW Mechanics deserve much.
We deserve little.
Support AMFA's efforts against Northwest in any way you can-picketing or financially supporting a brother or sister in need. Perhaps even watching their children while they picket. AMFA is the only union that chose to fight for the profession rather than make up excuses why the Airlines should raid our contracts and extract wage and benefit concessions, with obvious inequity in order to offset the high price of fuel.
AMFA is not perfect. As the most democratic union available AMFA suffers from mistakes made at the hands of the majority, however, no one can question AMFA'S willingness to go toe to toe to fight for its membership.
AMFA's fight is our fight, the actions of AMFA will propagate throughout the industry much like the cowardly actions of the TWU have propagated throughout the industry.
When the Mechanics at NWA recieved large increases in pay and benefits the company union that represents us ended up having to bring back large increases in pay and benefits. And when our cowardly representation brought back enormous concessions in pay and benefits its actions made it inevitable that the other airlines would use the opportunity given them by the TWU to receive enormous inequitable givebacks from their employee groups.
You might say the TWU set the standard-a standard that we suffer from day after day with no end in sight. Notice there are no snap back provisions of any kind in our agreement.
I'm not starting this topic to argue AMFA v. TWU that is behind us now that our election has been stolen from us by several big money interests. I'm starting this topic in order to plead for my fellow workers to aid the Northwest mechanics and AMFA in their fight against a system that wishes to unfairly punish their employee groups through inequitable sacrifice. After the company goes bankrupt and is able to use the courts in order to strip away large amounts of pay and benefits from its workers how much of a sacrifice to you think the management will make?
Its a worn out phrase but I write it anyway-There is no I in team. In order to reap the rewards of teamwork an organization must act as a team. When a portion of the team is to suffer while the other portion is to not suffer than the correct course of action is to take measures to correct the course of events. AMFA has offered to share the sacrifice at NWA-clearly something must be done, but unlike the other company unions, AMFA has not willingly approved to sell its boss-the membership-down the river. At United, under the eyes of the Federal Bankruptcy Court AMFA was forced to negotiate conditions that the membership approved under the threat of terminating the airline and scuttling the deals of the other employee groups. A situation that AMFA did not take lightly. AMFA DID NOT sell this contract to the membership as the TWU did us. We were threaten with all kinds of vulgar lies about what would happen if we voted no. I voted no, my spineless brothers flinched under the weight of TWU generated untruths. How much concession did the AMFA membership at United feel obligated to take? Aproximately the industry standard set by the TWU.
Main point- Their battle is our battle so you better get off your kiester this time. If the brave mechanics at Northwest are successful in achieving a formula of a more equitable sacrifice between them and the company then the results will affect our careers positively. The other airlines will notice a breaking point, a guantlet, or even a line in the sand as far as how much expense they can pass on to the unionized employee groups and will begin to pass the increase in fuel prices to where they belong in the first place-to the flying public.
If the mechanics at Northwest are unsuccessful than look for more pain and suffering for the unionized labor groups at the airlines for years to come. Everytime there's a hiccup in fuel prices it will be us that feels the consequences, not only at home but at work. Every time a terrorist act causes a spike in fuel prices, our wallets, our benefits, our pensions, and our futures will be terrorized directly, even when the airlines carry record numbers of passengers and management is recieving their bonuses. Instead of raising ticket prices the weight of the fuel increases will be handed over to the employee groups. Why wouldn't they? What's to stop them?
At work I was asked what I believed the first benefit we would receive back from the company would be? I replied that if I was representing the company I would not return a single benefit. Why should I? Fuel is higher than ever and the aircraft are going to need a lot of attention with all the flying they've been doing. Why would I want to dramatically increase the cost of maintenance when I don't have too? In fact I'd look for more ways to trim the maintenance budget.
What would be the repercussions to not giving back any benefits? None
I can hear the union representatives now-"We'll our jobs are much more secure this way".
You get what you fight for! NW Mechanics deserve much.
We deserve little.
h34r: 
