What is the ATSB?
The Air Transportation Stabilization Board is presented to airline workers as a means for the airlines they work for to gain economic support to enable them to recover from the double whammy that the airlines were hit with, weak demand compounded by the effects of Sept 11. However the real intent of the board can be seen by looking at who really has control over the board. Two members are Cabinent members of the most hostile anti-labor administration we have ever seen. The Presidents family history includes ancestors who were part of the NAM and close freinds with Frank Lorenzo. The Chair of the board is under the control of the Federal Reserve Board or in other words Alan Greenspan. Now the Federal Reserve is not your typical government agency, this extremely powerful organization is one of the greatest threats our Democracy faces. Past Presidents have realized this, Reagan and Clinton even tested the waters at limiting this un-elected unaccountable bodys influence but backed off. Senate Democrats proposed in 1993 to end the participation in the Federal Reserve Board money supply decisions by the Federal Reserve Bank presidents, who were “accountable not to the people or their elected representatives, but to their boards of directors, which are dominated by commercial banksâ€. Kevin Phillips in his book Wealth and Democracy says of Greenspan, its Chairman-who also has control of the Chair of the ATSB;His choice to protect accumulated wealth through slow growth, which requires minimizing wage increases, has been a formula for favoring holders of financial assets and accepting a concomitant steady increase in economic inequality and polarization.In laymens terms 'Screw the workers, reward the investors'.
That is what this is all about. Bringing down wages to reward and insure that investors see an ROI. All risk is transferred to the worker and all the benifit goes to the investor. All the rush, all the huff, all the threats are meant to get you to walk into this like sheep into the slaughterhouse. Your not supposed to think and ask questions, you are to just do as your told-for your own good. Hurry, hurry, hurry there is no time!Why are the ATSB's terms so punitive to the workers? Why are such long term concessions required? Why? Because the intent of this board goes one big step beyond Kevin Phillips observation. Greenspan wants to ;enhance accumulated wealth through wage regression, a fomula for favoring sharehoders at the expense of working families. So far, only the mechanics have paused from walking into this trap. They courageously have said No despite being pressured by their coworkers, the company, their union and the press. While few if any may have said anything about the ATSB as their reason for voting no most must have had a sense that something was not right about the whole deal. Their caution is is well founded because as soon as they step in the trap will be sprung, and with it the rest of the airline labor movement.
In a way its like life immitating art. If you have ever seen the movie 'Wall Street' you see where the Pilots and the Flight Attendants eagerly suck up Gordon Geckos slick sales pitch while the mechanics are very wary. Their wariness proved to be well founded.
Good luck to my brothers and sisters at UAL on Thurs. Hopefully you will not let Greenspan, Bush and all their millionare cronies, that feel we all just exist to make them richer, win by walking into their trap.
The Air Transportation Stabilization Board is presented to airline workers as a means for the airlines they work for to gain economic support to enable them to recover from the double whammy that the airlines were hit with, weak demand compounded by the effects of Sept 11. However the real intent of the board can be seen by looking at who really has control over the board. Two members are Cabinent members of the most hostile anti-labor administration we have ever seen. The Presidents family history includes ancestors who were part of the NAM and close freinds with Frank Lorenzo. The Chair of the board is under the control of the Federal Reserve Board or in other words Alan Greenspan. Now the Federal Reserve is not your typical government agency, this extremely powerful organization is one of the greatest threats our Democracy faces. Past Presidents have realized this, Reagan and Clinton even tested the waters at limiting this un-elected unaccountable bodys influence but backed off. Senate Democrats proposed in 1993 to end the participation in the Federal Reserve Board money supply decisions by the Federal Reserve Bank presidents, who were “accountable not to the people or their elected representatives, but to their boards of directors, which are dominated by commercial banksâ€. Kevin Phillips in his book Wealth and Democracy says of Greenspan, its Chairman-who also has control of the Chair of the ATSB;His choice to protect accumulated wealth through slow growth, which requires minimizing wage increases, has been a formula for favoring holders of financial assets and accepting a concomitant steady increase in economic inequality and polarization.In laymens terms 'Screw the workers, reward the investors'.
That is what this is all about. Bringing down wages to reward and insure that investors see an ROI. All risk is transferred to the worker and all the benifit goes to the investor. All the rush, all the huff, all the threats are meant to get you to walk into this like sheep into the slaughterhouse. Your not supposed to think and ask questions, you are to just do as your told-for your own good. Hurry, hurry, hurry there is no time!Why are the ATSB's terms so punitive to the workers? Why are such long term concessions required? Why? Because the intent of this board goes one big step beyond Kevin Phillips observation. Greenspan wants to ;enhance accumulated wealth through wage regression, a fomula for favoring sharehoders at the expense of working families. So far, only the mechanics have paused from walking into this trap. They courageously have said No despite being pressured by their coworkers, the company, their union and the press. While few if any may have said anything about the ATSB as their reason for voting no most must have had a sense that something was not right about the whole deal. Their caution is is well founded because as soon as they step in the trap will be sprung, and with it the rest of the airline labor movement.
In a way its like life immitating art. If you have ever seen the movie 'Wall Street' you see where the Pilots and the Flight Attendants eagerly suck up Gordon Geckos slick sales pitch while the mechanics are very wary. Their wariness proved to be well founded.
Good luck to my brothers and sisters at UAL on Thurs. Hopefully you will not let Greenspan, Bush and all their millionare cronies, that feel we all just exist to make them richer, win by walking into their trap.
11PM 12/3/2002: Post # 291: (Bob Owens thread - UAL board) 
41 AM ual06 wrote: 
