TWU Annouces New Drive

[Bob Owens]

Well it looks like the TWU is at it again.

Remember before you fill out a card ask those AA workers what they get for their two hours (gross) pay per month that the TWU extracts from their paycheck.

If you guys want a union go for either the Teamsters or be the first with the AGW. If you join the TWU they will do nothing but take your money.

I first became a TWU member in 1980. I took a part time job at a ground service company. No benifits, minimum wage, $100 initiation fee and monthly dues. (Minimum wage was $2.65/hour at the time, so the initiation fee was equal to about 50 hours net pay. So in other words you had to work 50 hours for free.)Why should anyone who gets minimum wage with no benifits pay dues? Because the TWU needs the revenue to provide huge salaries and generous perks for the union bosses, who the members do not get to vote on.

Jim Little, unelected President of the TWU recently told a shop steward who complained about the lack of Democracy in the TWU that "Democracy is not the best system, you dont get the best leaders that way". Best from whose perspective? Unelected leaders like Jim Little? The day you vote for the TWU is the last time you will be given a choice on who controls your destiny. It would be the only time you have a real say.

In the TWU local leaders who oppose the Internationals objectives to increase dues flow at any other expense, such as wages and benifits for the members, are simply removed from office.

I should know, thats what happened to me. I was a twice elected officer in TWU Local 562. Both times elected by wide margins. After challenging the concessions that Jim Little imposed on the membership at AA in court, through mailings, newspaper ads (over 90% of our local members voted against concessions) and calling for the removal of Jim Little and all the other unelected leaders Jim Little had both the President and myself removed from office. During the "trial", if you could call it that, the International asked where my loyalties lay. I said that my loyalties lay with the members that elected me. That if there is a choice between the members that elected me and the International that they do not elect "I have to fight for the members side". Their response to this was, and I quote " These admissions constitute a repudiation of his oath of office, which requires allegience to the International,,".

So there you have it, according to the International the local officers that you can elect have to be loyal to the ones above them that you can not elect. They have to put aside your intrests for the Internationals intrests. In other words you have no real right to representation. The International decides what you get and you can not hold them accountable through a ballott.

Whats even worse than that is you have no say in the contract. At AA the company and the International changed the contract without any input from Local leaders and Jim Little signed it into place. When Local 562 challenged this because it conflicted with the TWU Constitution the TWU claimed that since all contracts under the RLA are only amendable that the TWU satisfied the Constitutional requirement that gave the members the right to vote on contracts in 1946, when the TWU came on the property! They claimed in court that they could do what ever they wanted with the contracts! Thats what you get with the TWU.

Over at AA the TWU claims that Local representatives approve everything before it gets enacted, however thats not the case. Once again the Locals took the International to court and in court said that the Locals have no say in the contract or the affairs of the union, that the International could do as it pleases. I believe that Joy Calloway initiated that lawsuit, the TWU later had her removed from office too.

Dont believe anything the TWU tells you.Especially from Jim Little, a known liar. Ask him about his phony degrees.

When you sign on to the TWU you sign away your rights. You are allowing a bunch of unelected pro-company liars and cheats to determine what you get based upon what is "best" for the International.

Look at the TWU Constitution, find me anything that grants the members true ownership of the union and I'll find you court cases or other articles in the Constitution where the TWU International repudiates the rights of members or Locals. look hard and read carefully, the Constitution of the TWU grants all the power to the International that the membership does not get to vote for and as has been pointed out, the local leaders have sworn an oath that the International claims puts the International ahead of the members and they are the only ones who could vote to oust those in charge of the TWU.

By all means you guys should seek to get a union but all unions are not equal, and the TWU/ATD is not a union, its an insurance policy for management to prevent a real union from coming on the property.A policy that you pay for to protect the company from your desire to earn a fair wage.

Go union, just not the Totally Worthless Union.

 

[Bob Owens]

I just want to add one more thing.

I would not be suprised if management decided to endorse the TWU, since after all they can be looked at as an assett. Perhaps the reason they dont is because there is one thing that the TWU does do. They protect those who are a burden on their coworkers.

A short while back Sonny Hall, President of the TWU retired. Sonny's farewell address and another atricle in the TWU express both cited that Sonny became interested in the union after he was, on Sonnys account, justifyably fired. Sonny claimed that his reprieve from being justifyably fired was what made him want to get involved in a union. Not fighting for fair wages and good benifits for good workers, but getting bad workers their job back.

Funny most detractors of unions cite this as a reason for being against unions. Its a hard arguement to fight. Its even harder when the President of a union braggs that he should have been fired but the union got him his job back, and that he believes thats what unionism is all about.

Why should good workers dues be used to protect bad workers?

Unions should fight unjustified terminations but should the sole purpose of a union be to keep bad workers on the job? Dont these bad workers ruin the leverage that good workers have to get better pay and benifits? The TWU specializes in getting workers less pay and benifits and keeping poor workers on the job.Hardly what you want from a union, unless you are a bad worker.

It was all in the TWU Express. The TWU braging about keeping a bad worker on the job, and then having that same worker become the head of the TWU!!! If he was a bad worker for the company why would you think he would be any better for the union?
Thats what you get with the TWU.

The process of promoting bad workers is common with the TWU.

When Local Presidents who do a lousy job from the members perspective get voted out of office the International often promotes them. Both International Rep Bobby Gless and Joe Gordon were rejected by their memberships and promoted by the International.

So with the TWU your money will not be used to get better pay and benifits, they will be used to get bad workers their jobs back and fund the huge salaries and perks that those same poor workers get when they scam their way up the International ladder.

Thats what you get with the TWU.

 

[Bagbelt]

who's organising? The IAM is going to sew this one.

 

[Bob Owens]

who's organising? The IAM is going to sew this one.

Well even though it does nothing to fix what is wrong with the structure of labor in this industry I certainly hope that if its between the IAM and the TWU that they go IAM.

 

[johnnyfleet]

TWU has the industry leading ramp contract at Southwest, and the second best contract at American. Vote TWU!!

 

[Bob Owens]

TWU has the industry leading ramp contract at Southwest, and the second best contract at American. Vote TWU!!

Ask the guys at American how they feel about the TWU. They call it The Worst Union.


Everybody at SWA has the best deal in the industry, even the non-union workers.

The TWU Internatioanl is a bunch of crooks. Look at how Jim Little got caught lying about his degrees.

http://www.usaviation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=26568

Over at AA the TWU represented workers got the worst deal on the property, even worse than the non-union members of the company.

Here is some of what TWU members lost.

17.5% of their pay

1 week of vacation, including a week earned prior to the concesions.Employees with less than five years get one week of vacation a year.

sick time cut to 5 days a year, the first two used at half pay

no doubletime, ever.

holidays cut to five days, if you work the holiday you only net half pay for the hours worked.

The list goes on but you get the gist. The year that we took these paycuts, which amounted to around 25% with benifits the top International officers averaged over 8% pay increase.

The pilots at AA left their benifits in place and took a straight 25% paycut, and got 9% back the first year. In fact they got more back the first year than TWU members will the entire contract.

So if you guys are upset because you feel that you took the biggest cuts dont let that drive you into the TWU, because TWU represented workers took the biggest hits over at AA also.

 

[Kev3188]

...and the second best contract at American. Vote TWU!!

This was a wind-up, right?

Funny how 90% of the concessionary items now being forced upon NW ground ops employees came straight from your "second best" contract(s).

 

[Bob Owens]

This was a wind-up, right?

Funny how 90% of the concessionary items now being forced upon NW ground ops employees came straight from your "second best" contract(s).

Are you saying that 90% of the items that BK NWA is seeking are industry leading concessions that the TWU put in place at AA anywhere between 3 and 20 years ago?

Is this the first time that workers at NWA have been faced with trying to negotiate after TWU industry leading concessions at AA?

The fact is that the most recent TWU industry leading concessions at AA, given when the company had over $1billion in cash and was not even in BK like UAL and USAIR, surpassed, by a wide margin the concessions that the bankrupt carriers got till that date. The concessions at AA pushed everyone else to go for deeper concessions in order to compete.

In fact its fair to say that the guys at Continental would not have had to take any concessions if the TWU had not given away the store over at the much larger AA.

It would be tragic to see the union that caused your company to seek concessions at Continental get rewarded with an extra 7000 dues paying members.

 

[Kev3188]

Are you saying that 90% of the items that BK NWA is seeking are industry leading concessions that the TWU put in place at AA anywhere between 3 and 20 years ago?

Yes.

If you look at the T/A recently rejected by the ESSC group at NW, it has many of the same things mentioned in the AA concession package (including a lot of the ones you mentioned above), such as reduced sick pay, increased PT ratios, and decreased scope.

 

[Bob Owens]

Yes.

If you look at the T/A recently rejected by the ESSC group at NW, it has many of the same things mentioned in the AA concession package (including a lot of the ones you mentioned above), such as reduced sick pay, increased PT ratios, and decreased scope.

So in other words airlines are no longer looking at what SWA and JetBlue pay their workers as the low standard objective, instead they are looking at what American Airlines, the largest carrier in the world, now with over $4billion in the bank, much of it from their TWU represented workers, has obtained from their workers.

And some at Continental actually want the TWU, the union that gave AA a 17.5% paycut to come over and do the same for them?

What are they nuts?

 

[The Dissident]

Lets look at what the twu has done for me:


17.5% paycut

loss of 1 week vacation

loss of 7 days of sick time per year

First 2 days of sick time at half pay

gave away 5 holidays

Decreased amount of vacation time accrued.

Lifted the job protection clause so the company would not be penalized for reloacating me. Loss of 12,000.

Cant win a greivance to save thier life even when they have the contract to back them up.

Run and dont look back lest ye turn into a pillar of salt.

 

[The Dissident]

I gues that little tidbit of info effectively killed this topic

 

[CALFLYBOY]

I find it quite strange that shortly after the IAM announces their CAL FA contract has been ratified, the IAM announces they are starting their 3rd card drive for the ramp agents. Was there some sort of backroom deal between the CAL and IAM if the IAM got CAL's concessions shoved down the FA's throats, then CAL would not oppose an IAM card drive and representation election for the ramp agents???

I dunno, the IAM's organizing drives for CAL ramp failed miserably, twice in the last 10 years, why all of sudden do they think it would be successful now? After all, TWU's drive last year went down in failure too.

I would hope that the CAL ramp agents will consider unionizing at some point, but I hope they think twice about the IAM as they did in the past, as they did with TWU last year.

 

[Bob Owens]

I find it quite strange that shortly after the IAM announces their CAL FA contract has been ratified, the IAM announces they are starting their 3rd card drive for the ramp agents. Was there some sort of backroom deal between the CAL and IAM if the IAM got CAL's concessions shoved down the FA's throats, then CAL would not oppose an IAM card drive and representation election for the ramp agents???

I dunno, the IAM's organizing drives for CAL ramp failed miserably, twice in the last 10 years, why all of sudden do they think it would be successful now? After all, TWU's drive last year went down in failure too.

I would hope that the CAL ramp agents will consider unionizing at some point, but I hope they think twice about the IAM as they did in the past, as they did with TWU last year.

THey should either solicit the IBT or the AGW. To go TWU would be worse than staying non-union and the IAM is not what it used to be.

 

[ICEMAN]

Name: Mechanic
Email:
Employer: XUAL
Station:
Date: Saturday April 01, 2006
Time: 1131 PM


Comments
Notes from the net: Wake Up, Press: Who is O.V. Delle-Femine? I'm really perplexed, though not entirely surprised, at the press coverage of the Northwest strike--on many levels. The main one that I find fascinating is the failure to probe deeply into the motivations and background of O.V. Delle-Femine. Today, for example, we get The New York Times story of the labor leader going out to meet the troops--a number of who are grumbling about the strike. I mean, who is this guy? He set up the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association for the sole purpose of raiding other unions. The press has not asked him, as far as I can tell: To explain his relationship with a management firm, McCormick Advisory Group, headquartered in Laconia, NH, and with a law firm, Seham Seham Meltz & Peterson, based in Westchester County, NY, which has a long history of representing management in the airline industry. to explain how The McCormick Group also founded the Professional Flight Attendants Association (PPFA), which successfully raided an AFL-CIO union at Northwest Airlines. To disclose what the Seham law firm gets from AMFA and whether he knows that the Seham firm has long represented airline managements in opposing workers and their unions. According to a source inside the labor movement, Martin Seham and/or Lee Seham have represented Varig Brazilian Airlines on a continuing basis; the Sperry Gyroscope Company against the Engineers Association; Pan American Airways against the Seafarers International Union of North America; Vantage Steamship Corporation against the National Maritime Union of America; Maritime Overseas Corporation against the Masters, Mates and Pilots and the International Longshoreman’s Association; and Jackson Engineering Company against the Marine and Shipbuilders Workers. And The Seham firm also has represented El Al Israeli Airlines, Air Lingus, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, TWA. Mt. Vernon Tanker Company, Seatrain Lines, Inc., Delta Steamship Lines, Zapata Bulk Transportation, Inc., Wabash Transport, the Maritime Association, Airfreight Express Limited, A. Millner Company and the Owners Committee on Electric Rates. None of this inquiry suggests that I still don't worry about the workers who are getting royally screwed. It's clear Northwest management feels pretty cocky--it hasn't asked for the Bush Administration to intervene in the strike and is already talking about permanently replacing the workers. But, maybe the AMFA workers, in addition to calling for solidarity, should throw Delle-Femine over the side. After all, for what seems like an agenda based on raking in money for his backers, he lead the workers into a disastrous strike.