TWU or IAM in a Merger

[Kev3188]

So Union Politics is far more important that working men and women being shafted?

It never is among the rank and file. Unfortunately, there's a lot of "empire building" at the top of most unions, and, well, we've all seen who loses out in the end.

I agree Del didn't do us any favors. But in the same light when I was with NW under the IAM we as AMT's always got the smallest percent as a whole when it came to raises and we took the biggest hit when it came to concessions when compared to the other groups. Look I know the IAM does ok for other groups but they have no one to blame but themselves for the loss of mechanics at NW. AMT's at NW would have never thrown them out if they hadn't taken our group for granted. I will tell you what it was no easy task to remove them either even after they were voted out.

+1

See above. I think that by the time we (NW) hit the point of no return, the extreme factions on both sides didn't necessarily reflect what the majority of ESE's/CSA's/AMT's were thinking. That memo Informer referred to was the final nail for a lot of people.

It's also easy to remember IAM stickers in the urinals, but not so easy to remember/reflect on why it got to that point. I also agree that the IAM's efforts to keep the AMT's were too little, too late, and that had they been engaged from the get go, trying a last ditch effort like 143M (or whatever the separate district was to be designated as) wouldn't have ever needed to be an issue.

And again, ultimately, who won/lost? We were so busy fighting each other that Andy Roberts et al had it easy...

 

[Real tired]

Im glad you have no part time positions in A/C maintenance.
We have or had a provision in our contract for part time positions but was never officially utilized. The OSM or SRP pretty much gave a part time AMT a new meaning without calling it Part Time.

We always knew you people had two classes of Mechanics, but I never understood it. Here at US, a Mechanic is a Mechanic.........and so on.

It wasn't until the merger with America West that we got the two class Mechanic system. They (or we now) have what's called an Interior Mechanic. Only on the west side though.

As for Part time, we had lots of part time Utility, and we were only steps away from our first PT Mechanic, then 9-11 happened.

 

[lineguy43]

It never is among the rank and file. Unfortunately, there's a lot of "empire building" at the top of most unions, and, well, we've all seen who loses out in the end.



+1

See above. I think that by the time we (NW) hit the point of no return, the extreme factions on both sides didn't necessarily reflect what the majority of ESE's/CSA's/AMT's were thinking. That memo Informer referred to was the final nail for a lot of people.

It's also easy to remember IAM stickers in the urinals, but not so easy to remember/reflect on why it got to that point. I also agree that the IAM's efforts to keep the AMT's were too little, too late, and that had they been engaged from the get go, trying a last ditch effort like 143M (or whatever the separate district was to be designated as) wouldn't have ever needed to be an issue.

And again, ultimately, who won/lost? We were so busy fighting each other that Andy Roberts et al had it easy...

Absolutely Kev... One thing you have to say about NW and the management they were masters of divide and conquor. Hope you had a very merry christmas and best of luck to you in the new year!

 

[Kev3188]

Thanks! Hope yours was great as well!

 

[700UW]

We always knew you people had two classes of Mechanics, but I never understood it. Here at US, a Mechanic is a Mechanic.........and so on.

It wasn't until the merger with America West that we got the two class Mechanic system. They (or we now) have what's called an Interior Mechanic. Only on the west side though.

As for Part time, we had lots of part time Utility, and we were only steps away from our first PT Mechanic, then 9-11 happened.

There werent lots of part time utility, there was actually very little and there was a cap, and the minute a full time utility got laid off all the part timers had to go and thats what happened.