Here we go the propoganda is already starting. TWU 555 has an election coming up in june on wheather to extend our current contract or not. Now when our current contract was ratified we were only above America West as far as wages go. After 9/11 is when all the legacy carriers started making their hard working employees take concessions while the executives still received their bonuses, then we became the top salried airline. I agree that our wages are on the high side but on the same token our executives are making sure we stay profitable, and we still are thank god. And just for the record we all understand AMR's influence on TWU but to say we are funneling information to AMR is utterly ridiculous. We all are brothers and sisters in the same union. You need to come up with something better if you are trying to create dissention amongst our ranks!!! :down:
Create dissent? I have no reason to create dissent between members At SWA. I admire your company. However if I can create dissent between the TWU membership and the crooks and decievers at the top of the TWU International by sharing what I've learned I will. Isnt whether or not the information is truthful more important than guessing on the motive?
Are you aware that Jim Little was in AA management?
He testified to it under oath in a court of law(actually it was under deposition for a lawsuit but his testimony falls under the same criteria as testifying in court in that if he lied he could face purjury charges).
If you wold like a copy send me your e-mail address and I will scan and forward it to you. It has gotten back to me that Little is running around denying that he was ever in management. But he is the one who admitted it, he was in "Budgets and costs" at American Airlines.
What better place could AMR have one of their own than as the President of the TWU?
His management past is not as important as the fact that he has kept it hidden and his keeping it hidden reveals a charecter flaw. If he had come out, back when he was preaching about his "union roots from Scotland", and admitted that just prior to becoming a Union officer he had spent several years in management, and saw it was not what he had wanted to be, that would have been a different story, but instead he hid it. Why did he hide it? Perhaps because its not really in his past? Perhaps he is still working in behalf of the stockholders of AMR by insuring that they get the best labor rates in the industry?
So whatever you share with Jim Little you are sharing with someone who came from AA management and remains on the AMR payroll. His second pension will come from AMR, not SWA, so which airline do you think Jim Little has more of a stake in?
He has a pension that is tied to AMR. A pension that continues to accrue at AMR as if he was still working as a dispatcher(thats in addition to the very generous TWU International pension).
More than 50% of the ATD is from AMR.
All the political support he needs from the ATD comes from AMR where he owns the contracts and has the ability to remove any opposition, which he has done in the past.The AMR system was designed to be fractured an weak with unelected International appointees at the helm. Attempts have been made to correct things but the International has been able to subdue them through payoffs and penalties, simply wearing their opponents down.By keeping the membership at AA divided between 21 Locals they keep them weak.
SWA may be a nice little supplimental dues for his ATD but if the choice comes between doing what is good for SWA and AMR where do you think his loyalties will lie?
How many International reps come from SWA and what positions of power do they hold? How many sit on the IAC? The IEC?
Who is more competant Gary Yingst or Thom McDaniels?
I've met both, McDaniels is by far more of a creative intelligent leader than Yingst but Yingst was moved into the top spot of the ATD. Why is that? Little came from one of the smallest Locals in the AMR system yet he became ATD Director. Yingst is from AA and McDaniels is from SWA. Yignst has no leadership abilities and will do whatever Little dictates, McDaniels on the other hand has a record of doing what is right for his members.
I might also remind you that the disaster we have seen at the legacy carriers was led by the TWU at AA where Jim Little cancelled the membership vote on an amended contract and granted AA deeper concessions than any other carrier, even those who obtained concessions through bankruptcy. The TWU contract that Little put in place without membership ratification put AA mechanics pay around 30% less than SWA mechanics pay. In fact after the TWU industry leading concessions at AA the bankrupt carriers had to go back to their workers a second or third time in order to try and get what the TWU gave AA outside of BK in one fell swoop. Jim Little in turn got himself an 8% increase in pay for signing away 25% of AA workers pay plus he retained the $3.1 million a year that AA pays the TWU. In fact Jim Little has seen his pay rise by over 70% since AA workers took their paycut.
If Thom McDaniels did that over at SWA you guys could remove him, at AA they can not remove Jim Little.
Ask McDaniels about how the International reacted to his Locals resolution to have recall of International officers put back into the TWU Constitution in 2001.
The fact is that the TWU/ATD is AMR. The ATD will remain in Dallas even if SWA moves their corporate HQ to Arizona because thats where AAs HQ is.
The TWU ATD keeps an iron fist on AMR workers, insuring that AMR gets the best labor rates in the industry, they could care less about what you do over at SWA or what happens to you. At AMR the International owns the contracts. They set you guys up completly different than those in the AMR system, sure you have a lot more autonomy than those in the AMR system but havent you ever wondered why that was? If the destruction of SWA would result in an expansion at AMR Jim Little and the ATD would only become more powerful as far as retaining their six figure salaries and positions within the TWU. Do you really think that Jim Little cares about you guys? Why would Little promote the unimaginitive, incompetant Gary Yingst into the top position in the ATD and not promote McDaniels who (despite the fact that he professes loyalty to the International)is a much more capable leader?
