If you're confused as to why there is so much interest in changing union's....read below: This man is the former MEC RSV Chair. Very Sad that this is what has become of our union. It's long but explains a lot 🙁
Pat Friend
International President
Association of Flight Attendants
1275 K Street, NW
5th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Dear Pat:
Though I am currently out enjoying life on voluntary furlough, I am moved to drop in on my UAL life for a moment. It is with great sadness that I feel compelled to share with you my journey from being a supporter of AFA only a year ago, to now supporting a movement for independent representation at UAL.
As you may know, I have been active in AFA since the moment I came off of my initial new hire probation. Though my work in that time has been almost exclusively with the Reserve Committee, and though others are more familiar with the inner workings of AFA than I, I was fortunate to have the opportunity over the years to learn at least something about how AFA works on the local, MEC, and international levels.
It goes without saying that within a diverse group made up of thousands of intelligent and creative people all over the globe, there will be disagreements as to the best way to conduct business and accomplish our common goals. I did not always agree with decisions made or positions taken at the various levels of AFA, but I recognized that you can’t make 100% of the people happy 100% of the time. Overall I felt that I was better off as a UAL F/A with AFA than without. Moreover, I spent much time and energy trying to represent AFA in as positive a light as possible to disaffected UAL F/As. I spoke out against the FAIR effort several years ago.
The Delta organizing campaign was the first clear indication to me that something was wrong. Though personally I initially supported the goal of organizing, the way the DL campaign was handled came to represent to me the disconnect between UAL AFA members and AFA leadership. I understand the BOD had made the decision to start the campaign. However, we continued to doggedly pursue the effort long after it became clear that DL F/As did not want us and after many UAL F/As were clearly and loudly voicing their displeasure with it. By the end, it seemed that AFA leadership was continuing the campaign for purely personal reasons, despite its obvious futility and opposition from a large segment of the membership. To me it was a warning sign.
Then 9/11 happened and as we all know, the world, and our priorities, changed. I felt very fortunate that here at UAL we have had the leadership of Xxxx Xxxxxxxxxxx, Xxxxx XxXxxxxx, and Xxxxxxx Xxxxxx in the aftermath of 9/11. I cannot think of a more capable leader who could have done a better job of guiding us through the storminess of the past couple of years than Greg. Of course the bankruptcy and concessions were (and are) not pleasant. But it was clear to me that we would have been much worse off were it not for the efforts of the MEC officers and Xxxxxx Xxxxxx, Xxxxxx Xxxxxx, and Xxxxx Xxxxxx negotiating on our behalf. I tried to express this to other UAL F/As who were less than happy with the events going on around us.
On the local level, as a Council 21 member, I supported Xxxxxxx Xxx's campaign and was glad he became my LECP. Though I didn’t always agree with how he presented his message, he was saying things that needed to be said in an articulate manner and was accurately voicing what I believe to be a majority of UAL F/As were, and are, feeling. Not only that, but he was doing it in an extremely hostile environment, facing personal attacks and just plain rudeness from not only the BOD and International Office, but even from his colleagues on the UAL MEC. All for speaking his mind and representing his members. Though I was disappointed, I was not really surprised at the reception he was getting. And I felt that with excellent leadership at both the MEC and LEC levels representing my interests, I could overlook the larger issue of the fatal structural flaws within AFA and the detriment it causes UAL F/As (which I won’t get into here).
But then came the CWA merger. Though I recognized the benefits of being part of a larger union, I was also worried about how this would be yet another step away from our union’s leadership listening to its members. It suffices to say that reasonable people could disagree on the pros and cons of the CWA merger. I am sure CWA is a fine organization. But what disgusted me was the way the International Office handled the situation. Mailings and other communications that can only be described as one-sided propaganda bombarded us regularly. The message was that you had to be a complete ignorant boob to be against the merger. It was presented that there was simply no other realistic option, despite the alternative suggestions coming from some members of the UAL MEC. When the UAL MEC officers had the nerve to represent the sentiment at UAL by publicly announcing they opposed the merge, I am sure the usual suspects made their lives sufficiently uncomfortable.
Then came the actual vote. It epitomized what is wrong with the structure of AFA to the detriment of UAL F/As despite our making up over 50% of the organization. Though the vast majority of UAL F/As who bothered to vote at all voted against the merger, that didn’t matter. The largest and greatest flight attendant union in the world, one that was started because of the blood, sweat, and tears of UAL F/As decades ago, was being made extinct overnight because F/As at OTHER airlines wanted it that way. And I won’t even bother to go into the issue of voting irregularities.
Like the Delta organizing campaign, the CWA merger came to represent yet another example of how the goals and interests of the BOD, International Office, and other AFA carriers are almost completely divergent from the interests of UAL F/As.
But now, the final straw. In short order I went from disgust about how the CWA merger was handled, to outright anger as you tried (apparently successfully) to silence my duly elected local representative, Xxxxxxx Xxx, because he had the audacity to represent my views too articulately. They say the pen is mightier than the sword and your overreaction to a NEWSLETTER, for goodness’ sake, proves it. I don’t mean to single you out since you were not the only one to have this overreaction. I have also been disappointed by how other BOD and UAL MEC members have reacted to The Plane Truth. A healthy organization needs dissent and competing points of view to remain vibrant and viable. Sometimes tough questions need to be asked and motives need to be examined. Efforts to silence people who don’t tow the party line show at least weakness and vulnerability, if not an actual attempt to hide something. But to take aggressive steps to remove MY LECP, who has very strong support and who has done nothing wrong except disagree with some of your positions, is simply over the line. You, and others, seem to miss the point that Michael did not somehow create or cause the discontent you are now seeing. He only verbalized it.
It is now clear to me that the AFA International Office, or CWA/AFA (whatever the current administrative status of the merge is), no longer represents the best interests of UAL F/As. I now believe the organization is too broken to bother trying to fix from within. As such, I am now supporting the efforts of the UFAU movement.
Congratulations, Pat. You may finally have motivated UAL F/As to get off their duffs and get involved. I am sure the UFAU leaders are appreciative of your work over the past few months– you have made their jobs that much easier.
Sincerely,
Xxxxx Xxxx
UAL Council 21
