Cleaning up the TWU? The system and personnel are in place at the international level, and would be next to impossible to replace using the current system. "A little effort" you say - would be a gross understatement! Not to mention the amount of time it would take. BTW, most of AAs AMTs voted for the AMFA during the the last card drive. There is nothing wrong with lighting a fire under the TWU leaders with the fear of losing their cash cow. Left unchecked, with no fear of losing their jobs - the TWU leadership will no doubt sell us out again. The amount of effort it took to support the AMFA in the last card drive was more than offset by the thought of a chaange for the better. 😉
You are correct - the clean-up will have to take place at the International Convention. You're also correct in that the International has no fear of losing their jobs - that's the exact item that has to be changed. These people have gotten far too cozy with the company to suit me and many others.
I do have an issue with the leadership selling us out again at contract time - this go-'round will be rather interesting, to say the least,
if people are really as hacked as they say. If they aren't, no amount of prodding will fix anything. It remains to be seen; the ballots will tell all.
Personally, I'll not vote for any contract that isn't an improvement over the pre-concession contract, I believe the last date in effect was April 17th, 2003. Anthing less will get a no vote from me and hopefully many others. Little is a bad joke, saying he wants all to be settled and done by spring. All concessions will be returned first, then improvements will be discussed. The executives be damned.
Perhaps most AMTs did sign an AMFA card. As with Northwest and Southwest, things were quite good under a contract previously bargained for by the raided union (IAM/Northwest, IBT/Southwest). Things at Northwest got messy when amateurs tried to negotiate for themselves rather than take over someone else's contract. With no backing or cooperation from the other unions (whom they went out of their way to piss off at every opportunity), amfa had a "gun to their heads". Southwest is going to enter negotiations with amfa eventually and now that their fuel hedges are running low, it will be rather interesting to see what "power" amfa will bring to bear against the "hapless" company that farms out most of its work anyway.
All amfa ever had to sell was elitism and that backfired severely after the NWA mechs were escorted out by the company. No other union would honor their lines. It probably didn't help much that the company had prepped for the strike for 2 years; Del Femine was very well aware of that fact but took the lemmings over the cliff anyway, evidently trying to make a point by turning its NWA membership into martyrs and ended up accepting the terms that were initially found unacceptable when, supposedly, 2750 jobs could have been saved but did not allow its membership to vote on the offered contract.
At the time of the AA card drive, amfa was all that could replace an AFL-CIO affiliate with as the organization had a no-raid agreement amongst its membership, barring a decertification vote or a statement of no interest by the outgoing union. Because of this, I've always thought of supporting amfa as a guy wanting to get married and settling for the first female that would have him, regardless of any other factor. Not a smart thing to do.
Since then, the Teamsters have disaffliated with the AFL-CIO and provides another option, but perhaps not a very good one either.
I agree - the TWU sucks big green ones in its present incarnation, but to get my vote and the votes of many others unhappy/pissed/inflamed/(fill in your own descriptor) with the TWU dues machine will require some measure of credibility. Too many watched their mistakes of inexperience.
In short - I'd be happy to boot the TWU - bring me something better if you can.
