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On 4/18/2003 10:02:25 AM Checking it Out wrote:
Bob,
Can you give us the details on the current proposal NW has offered the AMTs for concessions?
How many are currently on Layoff?
How many NW is going to Layoff?
Does their contract have a No-layoff Clause?
Limits farmouts and who receives the funds first if it is exceeded?
You make a statement and leave out key points.
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I have a question. Jim Little has criticized Carty's apparant avoidance of having to "Share the Pain". Exactly how is Jim Little sharing the pain?
There is one fact that you leave out. This is by far the most concessionary contract ever. The fact that your "experts" did not find the Executives Golden Parachutes and Bonuses leaves us wondering what else they missed? In a year or so when the company is making record profits and we are back to working second and third jobs the International will claim "Oh, those bastards they hid that from us, well we learned a lesson, we will not trust them again", this is the same thing that they said after the 95'Me Too" clause when they claim that the company hid details of the ongoing pilots negotiations that nullified the enforcability of the clause. But since the relationship between the company and the "union" has been so mutually benificial in the past nothing will change.
The fact is that most of the line mechanics have no confidence in the appointed head of the ATD Jim Little. As time goes by and the full effects of the deal that he brokered and he signed are felt resentment will continue to grow as it did against his predecessor Koziatek. (Dont bother with the semantics about the Presidents Council negotiating this, Little and the International dictated that they had to "meet the company's number" and stifled every attempt to get there by any other means than what we ended up with.) The fact is that the Presidents council is not a party to the contract. They do not negotiate the deal, 16 hours of negotiations did not result in this deal and that is the amount of time that was spent between the company and the Presidents council. They were locked in a room and told to "meet the number" by the International. They were not able to negotiate the number. Gary Yinst was seen handing slips of paper to Randy McDonald who then read from what appeared to be the same piece of paper "his suggestions" on how to meet the company/union number. The Presidents council is a farce and is merely there to give the impression that they are brokering the deal when in fact very little diologue takes place between the council and the company, this was true for both these so called "negotiations" and the 2001 agreement. Having the Presidents Council insures that the International, the party to the agreement, can deflect blame to the Presidents council. The members can then blame those officials and vote them out of office which diverts attention away from the appointed ATD Director who is the real culprit. This suits the ATD just fine as they then have a new supply of inexperienced Presidents to play the same game over again with. There is one fact that many people overlook. While many union agreements are between the company and specific Locals of a union, ours is between the International and the Union. As such the Presidents council has no real legal jurisdiction over the agreement. When you examine what really goes on at our "negotiations" what we have is a sideshow. The Presidents council meets, discusses and presents their proposition not directly to the company but to the International. In efffect the Presidents council "negotiates" with the International not the company. The Company occasionally shows up to allow the deception to continue. But the deal has been made between the International and the Company, the purpose of the Presidents is to make whatever minor adjustments are needed to insure passage. We must stop this 6 year deal from going into place. Little does not care because by the time the new contract is put in place he will be old enough to retire anyway. He will collect his double pension, one from the company, and one from your dues through the International while we are stuggling to get by.
Little has Got to go NOW!
I have to wonder if he does go will his retirement party be full of management like Koziateks? While Carty was at Koziateks I dont remember if Hall was. That would be strange that the head of AA is there but not the head of the TWU.
The excuse that the Union is using to justify what will likely be a 40% cut in pay by the time this agreement becomes nenewable is that they are trying to save jobs. Well if thats the case then why are they rolling back the date to 1998? If the goal was to protect jobs then they would have left the 2001 date in place. What the union has done is allow the company to lay off as it sees fit, in accordance with their business plan and deeply cut everyones pay, benifits and working conditions at the same time. This is inexcusable.
58 PM aapitbull wrote:
