Teamsters in action.....be careful what you wish for

[Chuck Schalk]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This was forwarded to me:


Subject: Aircraft Movement (Towing, Taxi)

The IBT's Airline Division leaders Clacy Griswold, Ed Gleason and Bob Fisher decided to trade away Aircraft Movement, (Towing and Taxi) to IAM Ramp Supertug crews.

Aircraft movement was traded away for two additional floating holidays and 100% sick pay,


benefits CAL mechanics currently enjoy.

Hundreds of IBT Mechanic jobs gone forever!

Yet another Concessionary contract!

Meanwhile, the Low-Tech (Blended Work) vendors still enjoy doing mechanic's work at LAXMM.

The IBT has done nothing to stop it!



(But wait they will force AA to open the contract!!!)
--

 

[Overspeed]

I agree. The IBT screwed the CAL guys during their 2005 concession talks. Read this email about how the IBT/CAL negotiations went down.


From: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 6:19 PM
Subject: Ratified Agreement
All,
It is with great regret that I must write this letter.
As your Chief Steward and member of the Negotiating Committee we put together a T/A with a
contingency clause that we would agree to concessions as long as all the other workgroups
agreed to theirs.
There was a waiver to that contingency clause proposed to us by the company
in the final days of negotiations. That waiver is in the LOA covering the contingency. The premise
was, the company did not want to see the whole deal be defeated should one of the two smaller
( Dispatchers, Flight Simulator) groups not ratify their agreements. It was our understanding that
we would not ratify if the bigger (Pilots, Flight Attendants) groups failed to ratify.
At the very least,
should one of those groups have not ratified (like the F/A's did not) it would have prompted some
discussion as to whether or not we would still want to exercise that waiver, and how we should
proceed.
When I awoke this morning and checked my email I saw "Company Bulletin #10". After reading it
and realizing that we had exercised that waiver, I was in disbelief. I did not have any e-mail's or
phone calls from the IBT to support what I had read in the bulletin. When I checked the IBT
website all I found was an announcement from yesterday afternoon that we had ratified our
agreement, and in that announcement I also saw that it stated the duration was until March 1,
2009. It's no coincidence that I did not show up at work today until 0845 today. There was no way
I could walk into there and expect you to believe me when I had to tell you "I did not know
anything about it" If I were you, it would only leave me wondering "what else is he lying to me
about".
As I sit here today (Thursday evening) writing this letter there is still nothing on the
IBT website to confirm the IBT has granted the waiver nor clarification on the duration. For all I
know he may have agreed to change that also. When we finally got a hold of Don today his
explanation was that he did it to protect the strike price for the stock options. Guy's I'm sure you
all understand the stock options are no great selling piece. The options that each of you will

receive are anywhere from a new hire getting around 56 to a toped out guy getting around 190. At

no time has anyone from our group here in CLE shown any great concern over even how many
shares they would be getting. I'm sure that's in part, that you all understand how worthless they
really are. I was also told that we (the negotiating committee) don't know what we negotiated in
relation to that waiver. That coming from a man that never sit in for one minute of any of our
negotiations.
As far as the duration thing goes, I bashed Don when the ballots went out with the
cover sheet that reflected the March 2009 date. His excuse then was that the sheet was provided
to him from Steve Greenwell and because of the last minute change by the pilots and our "me too
clause" ours changed and he did not have time to correct it, as they had already begun making
up the packages that were sent out. He said as long as we were telling everyone of the
December 2008 duration that would be alright. When I read the posting on the IBT website from
yesterday and it reflects a March 2009 duration I am lead to believe something has changed or
he really doesn't have a clue. Personally I tend to believe the latter. I wonder what his excuse will
be this time.
Having put forth so much time and effort into tiring to achieve what I feel is the fairest, least
painful, necessary thing that we as an organization and us as a company must do to survive
these turbulent times that our industry is facing, I am disheartened as to how it ended. Not that
granting the waiver was necessarily the wrong thing to do, but the way it went about and the lack
of communication from the Airline Director, that it was done. The negotiating committee and the business agents have been hammering on Don all day. The
phone number for the Don's office is (310) 645-9860. The phone number for the International is
(202) 624-6800, ask for Hoffa or Keegel.
On behalf of the entire Negotiating Committee and Business Agents, I would like to extend my
apologies for the way this all played out. Please take the time to call or write the International to
express your opinions as I assure you, I will.
The address for the International is:
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
Mike Meglich
P.S. I have a scheduled day off tomorrow (Friday), I'm done avoiding you.

 

[TWU informer]

I agree. The IBT screwed the CAL guys during their 2005 concession talks. Read this email about how the IBT/CAL negotiations went down.


From: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 6:19 PM
Subject: Ratified Agreement
All,
It is with great regret that I must write this letter.
As your Chief Steward and member of the Negotiating Committee we put together a T/A with a
contingency clause that we would agree to concessions as long as all the other workgroups
agreed to theirs.
There was a waiver to that contingency clause proposed to us by the company
in the final days of negotiations. That waiver is in the LOA covering the contingency. The premise
was, the company did not want to see the whole deal be defeated should one of the two smaller
( Dispatchers, Flight Simulator) groups not ratify their agreements. It was our understanding that
we would not ratify if the bigger (Pilots, Flight Attendants) groups failed to ratify.
At the very least,
should one of those groups have not ratified (like the F/A's did not) it would have prompted some
discussion as to whether or not we would still want to exercise that waiver, and how we should
proceed.
When I awoke this morning and checked my email I saw "Company Bulletin #10". After reading it
and realizing that we had exercised that waiver, I was in disbelief. I did not have any e-mail's or
phone calls from the IBT to support what I had read in the bulletin. When I checked the IBT
website all I found was an announcement from yesterday afternoon that we had ratified our
agreement, and in that announcement I also saw that it stated the duration was until March 1,
2009. It's no coincidence that I did not show up at work today until 0845 today. There was no way
I could walk into there and expect you to believe me when I had to tell you "I did not know
anything about it" If I were you, it would only leave me wondering "what else is he lying to me
about".
As I sit here today (Thursday evening) writing this letter there is still nothing on the
IBT website to confirm the IBT has granted the waiver nor clarification on the duration. For all I
know he may have agreed to change that also. When we finally got a hold of Don today his
explanation was that he did it to protect the strike price for the stock options. Guy's I'm sure you
all understand the stock options are no great selling piece. The options that each of you will

receive are anywhere from a new hire getting around 56 to a toped out guy getting around 190. At

no time has anyone from our group here in CLE shown any great concern over even how many
shares they would be getting. I'm sure that's in part, that you all understand how worthless they
really are. I was also told that we (the negotiating committee) don't know what we negotiated in
relation to that waiver. That coming from a man that never sit in for one minute of any of our
negotiations.
As far as the duration thing goes, I bashed Don when the ballots went out with the
cover sheet that reflected the March 2009 date. His excuse then was that the sheet was provided
to him from Steve Greenwell and because of the last minute change by the pilots and our "me too
clause" ours changed and he did not have time to correct it, as they had already begun making
up the packages that were sent out. He said as long as we were telling everyone of the
December 2008 duration that would be alright. When I read the posting on the IBT website from
yesterday and it reflects a March 2009 duration I am lead to believe something has changed or
he really doesn't have a clue. Personally I tend to believe the latter. I wonder what his excuse will
be this time.
Having put forth so much time and effort into tiring to achieve what I feel is the fairest, least
painful, necessary thing that we as an organization and us as a company must do to survive
these turbulent times that our industry is facing, I am disheartened as to how it ended. Not that
granting the waiver was necessarily the wrong thing to do, but the way it went about and the lack
of communication from the Airline Director, that it was done. The negotiating committee and the business agents have been hammering on Don all day. The
phone number for the Don's office is (310) 645-9860. The phone number for the International is
(202) 624-6800, ask for Hoffa or Keegel.
On behalf of the entire Negotiating Committee and Business Agents, I would like to extend my
apologies for the way this all played out. Please take the time to call or write the International to
express your opinions as I assure you, I will.
The address for the International is:
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
Mike Meglich
P.S. I have a scheduled day off tomorrow (Friday), I'm done avoiding you.

Then why did James C Little call the IBT into Tulsa?

 

[Overspeed]

Then why did James C Little call the IBT into Tulsa?

I have no answer for that. I don't know if that's true.

 

[TWU informer]

I have no answer for that. I don't know if that's true.

He admitted so at a Local 514 Membership Meeting. Pissed that they are stabbing his dumbass in the back.

 

[scorpion 2]

I have no answer for that. I don't know if that's true.

If it isnt true then why did the twu card drive guy come into our shop and say that 514 was going to ask jim little to resign? He claimed that little admitted at a union meeting a few months back that the teamsters were asked to come in to weaken the AMFA drive. He said that it was littles fault that the teamsters were here and for that they were going to ask him to resign. Just ask around it wont take you long to get some answers if thats what you really want.

 

[Bob Owens]

If so Tulsa is about to learn that they arent such a big deal outside of the AATD and even there their status is waning, they are only 60 guys bigger than 591 now and smaller than the SWA Locals. Within a year they will likely be smaller than 591. Doubtful that Tulsa has the clout to make Little resign. Little would more than likely blame the people he put in control of the ATD for the TWUs troubles at AA and send Gless and Videtich back to work under the conditions they told us we should accept. Would love to hear Gless say that making what UAL and DL make is unreasonable and he too needs to lower his expectations so AA can buy new airplanes and earn $3billion a year in profits as his property tax bill eats up half his yearly TWU negotiated wages. Now that would be justice!!!

 

[Overspeed]

If it isnt true then why did the twu card drive guy come into our shop and say that 514 was going to ask jim little to resign? He claimed that little admitted at a union meeting a few months back that the teamsters were asked to come in to weaken the AMFA drive. He said that it was littles fault that the teamsters were here and for that they were going to ask him to resign. Just ask around it wont take you long to get some answers if thats what you really want.

I asked around like you said. I was told what Little said was that he asked the IBT for help and they ended up screwing him over by starting an IBT organizing drive.

 

[Bob Owens]

I asked around like you said. I was told what Little said was that he asked the IBT for help and they ended up screwing him over by starting an IBT organizing drive.

If he asked for "help" what exactly did he mean by that?

If the IBT screwed him over does that mean that Gordon Clark is back on the floor instead of being paid by AA to help the IBT organize MROs?

 

[AMFAinMIAMI]

In a recent visit to Tulsa Teamster Leader J Hoffa conducted a meeting with 80 of his organizers from around the system.

I have a question for all the guys in Tulsa?

Were all of you invited to meet with the IBT boss or was it a closed meeting just for his select few? If NOT Then I ask WHY?

If he really wants you to support his movement to bring Teamster Power to AA then why didn't he open it to all of YOU? What does he have to hide? What questions is he really scared you will ask him? Does he really want you to ask about what the IBT can do to Keep Tulsa open when AA decides it's closing time?

If He has the money and power as he claims he should of rallied all the Teamster card signers there in Tulsa, don't you think? Photo op to take pictures and hold up signs from cities around the system. (just Organizers)

Did he make a big deal of his visit, did he tell all of you he was coming?

Tulsa has asked the AMFA guys tough questions about what happened and what the goal is. What promises did J. Hoffa tell his supporters to come to your Floor and relay to you?

Members of AMFA have visited with you from time to time and will be there again throughout this campaign to bring the end of the TWU and it's concessions to AA.

The IBT has said they are the Union which has the support from all the Tulsa Mechanics, they have told you about how much money they have, all the power
being with a big union has. What power have they used in congress? Lobbyist listen when they speak. So why have they not made drastic changes to the way the NMB does things or what have they done to make changes to the RLA? I would guess very little to none, and the reason I say that is they are truck drivers by trade. They don't understand Your Class and craft.

Why didn't HOFFA invite you to lunch like the AMFA guy's have for weeks now?

Time to sign with a union in which 100% of it's members understand your class and craft and will fight for YOU.

They claim to have 1.4 mil members, just how many are in the aviation biz?

Do you really believe that they will use the Truckers/butchers/bakers/candle makers/warehousemen to fight for us here at AA? Do you think that they can actually shut down AA's operation or even disrupt it without the Feds and the court system backing AA? Come on. AA is very powerful we all have seen this during our BK process.

Just what has the TWU done, with it's support of the AFL-CIO? Large Union with money, and labor connections, where has that got us in the last few contract?

It's Time for a change, Time to take a chance on our future and the mechanics who will follow.

5 weeks to go Stop by the AMFA lunch outside of your base help remove the TWU...

Sign an AMFA Card..

AMFA at AA in 2013​