Not worth responding to someone who did not read well and calls the law suit a "cry baby" lawsuit. You are the cry baby having to call someone else's belief in the need for justice as cry baby. The lawsuit had nothing to do with JW's contesting the results of the election.
John Ward did not contest the results of the election. He, and others of his ilk, blocked the opening of legitimate ballots that would have resulted in an outright win for THB. He seems to have a problem with balloting proceedures on several levels.
As to the lawsuit, it was sustained that nothing was legally done wrong. But, it sure doesn't mean that Ward did it right by any stretch.
I still believe that there was a whole lot of union busting behind that lawsuit. The best way to bust a union is to break them financially so they can't fight back. And....it's not just corporations or governments who try to bust a union. It is other unions as well. And they can be the worst!
APFA is an independent thorn in the side of organized labor. But, the main reason that APFA went independant was that organized labor back then wasn't paying attention to women. AA FAs were flat out told that we would never earn what someone earned who emptied ash trays on the plane. Men always had to be paid more. Buh Bye!
So, who really stood to gain from this lawsuit? Well, as always, the lawyers are first in line. It's not just the legal bills involved with the suit, but it is also the Law Firm who ends up being the general counsel for whatever union is left. There's a whole lot of money there.
Busting APFA would mean those millions in dues dollars would go to another union. And the first course of business would be to raise those union dues to equal the other unions!!
Next would be all the vulchers who aided and abetted in the busting of APFA. PR firms, more lawyers, other unions, certain FAs, etc.
I do believe there were some FAs involved who were the altruistic type. But, I also believe they were led down the garden path by those with another very sinister plan in place that had nothing to do with the betterment of AA FAs lives.
The Plaintiffs attorneys kept dragging this thing out with more and more useless depositions. Money.
What was really lost in this lawsuit was the well over $1 Million in hard earned APFA FA dues dollars needed to fight this lawsuit. Dollars that could and should have been spent on direct representation, negotiations, and more training for more new blood FAs who really do want to get involved in APFA.
And do I still hold Ward accountable? Yes. If he had had the backbone to stand up and tell the membership what was really going on and what had to be done in the first place, then the door would not have been opened for these duplicitous "saviours". You don't see APA and TWU having to deal with this on this level.
I only hope that APFA goes after those involved for all the lost monies that we FAs have paid for this ridiculous waste of resources. 5 years have been spent proving the already proven. Reputations have been trashed, false accusations made, and millions wasted. There should be consequences for those who falsely accused and cost us so much.
