Union appeals name tally
By D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer
7/17/2004
American Airlines mechanics deserve a vote, mediators are told.
An insurgent mechanics union at American Airlines is appealing a National Mediation Board investigator's ruling last month that the union did not have enough support to call for a union representation election.
In a 90-page appeal filed with the board this week, George Diamantopoulos, an attorney for the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, alleges that board investigator Eileen Hennessey failed to investigate or challenge at least 2,000 former or current American employees who are ineligible to vote in a representation election.
"The investigator's rulings do not detail explicitly what evidence was considered among the voluminous submission of evidence in this dispute, especially by AMFA (easily 4,000-plus pages, excluding documentation submitted in the form of computer disks), other than to indicate the obvious prominence in the investigator's thinking
of AA's response to the challenges and objections posed," Diamantopoulos writes in AMFA's appeal.
"In the course of reviewing this appeal, AMFA asks this board to keep in its mind the cursory nature of the investigator's rulings and the virtually complete disregard of AMFA's significant substantive evidence by the investigator in formulating those rulings."
Hennessey determined that 18,661 American Airlines employees are classified as mechanics and are eligible to vote in a union representation election. AMFA needed signed authorization cards from 50 percent plus one -- or 9,331 -- mechanics to hold an election.
The incumbent Transport Workers Union has represented American mechanics since 1946.
AMFA officers said they submitted 9,274 signed cards to the National Mediation Board -- 57 cards short of the 50 percent plus one number, based on Hennessey's ruling.
But AMFA supporters say Hennessey's list is inflated. AMFA's eligibility list contains the names of 16,014 mechanics eligible to vote.
American's eligibility list contains 18,600 names, a company spokesman said. The TWU's list includes 18,400 names, a union official said.
"The injustice is to deny the mechanics and related employees at American an election before the board in this case by perpetrating the fraud of the absence of a showing of interest by means of an artificial inflation of the eligibility list by add ing demonstrably ineligible voters and by failing to remove demonstrably ineligible voters," Diamantopoulos says in his appeal.
"Both AA and the TWU have done their utmost to elevate the number of purported eligible voters to numbers that defy reason and board precedent. . . . Unfortunately, the board's investigator, who serves as the initial gatekeeper to prevent this kind of injustice and fraud, through many of the investigator's rulings, either intentionally or through extreme carelessness in not caring to review, or by ignoring AMFA's significant and substantial evidence . . . perpetuates the fabrication that the eligible number of voters in this dispute is as many as 18,661.
"AMFA appeals to this board to rectify and overrule the numerous and substantial errors within the investigator's rulings as set forth herein and thereby uphold not only the rights of the mechanics and related employees at American under the Railway Labor Act but also the reputation and integrity of the board."
American spokesman Sonja Whitemon said the company and the TWU have until Aug. 5 to respond to AMFA's appeal. She declined further comment.
Rick Mullings, spokesman for TWU Local 514, which represents more than 6,000 aircraft mechanics in Tulsa, said AMFA's mistake is believing that its definition of a mechanic is the same as the board's.
"There are people in all different title groups that could fall under the class and craft of mechanics," Mullings said. "The investigator and the board are only going by the National Mediation Board's definition of mechanic when it comes to a representation election."
Rick mullins must think even the deceased should be albe to vote.
By D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer
7/17/2004
American Airlines mechanics deserve a vote, mediators are told.
An insurgent mechanics union at American Airlines is appealing a National Mediation Board investigator's ruling last month that the union did not have enough support to call for a union representation election.
In a 90-page appeal filed with the board this week, George Diamantopoulos, an attorney for the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, alleges that board investigator Eileen Hennessey failed to investigate or challenge at least 2,000 former or current American employees who are ineligible to vote in a representation election.
"The investigator's rulings do not detail explicitly what evidence was considered among the voluminous submission of evidence in this dispute, especially by AMFA (easily 4,000-plus pages, excluding documentation submitted in the form of computer disks), other than to indicate the obvious prominence in the investigator's thinking
of AA's response to the challenges and objections posed," Diamantopoulos writes in AMFA's appeal.
"In the course of reviewing this appeal, AMFA asks this board to keep in its mind the cursory nature of the investigator's rulings and the virtually complete disregard of AMFA's significant substantive evidence by the investigator in formulating those rulings."
Hennessey determined that 18,661 American Airlines employees are classified as mechanics and are eligible to vote in a union representation election. AMFA needed signed authorization cards from 50 percent plus one -- or 9,331 -- mechanics to hold an election.
The incumbent Transport Workers Union has represented American mechanics since 1946.
AMFA officers said they submitted 9,274 signed cards to the National Mediation Board -- 57 cards short of the 50 percent plus one number, based on Hennessey's ruling.
But AMFA supporters say Hennessey's list is inflated. AMFA's eligibility list contains the names of 16,014 mechanics eligible to vote.
American's eligibility list contains 18,600 names, a company spokesman said. The TWU's list includes 18,400 names, a union official said.
"The injustice is to deny the mechanics and related employees at American an election before the board in this case by perpetrating the fraud of the absence of a showing of interest by means of an artificial inflation of the eligibility list by add ing demonstrably ineligible voters and by failing to remove demonstrably ineligible voters," Diamantopoulos says in his appeal.
"Both AA and the TWU have done their utmost to elevate the number of purported eligible voters to numbers that defy reason and board precedent. . . . Unfortunately, the board's investigator, who serves as the initial gatekeeper to prevent this kind of injustice and fraud, through many of the investigator's rulings, either intentionally or through extreme carelessness in not caring to review, or by ignoring AMFA's significant and substantial evidence . . . perpetuates the fabrication that the eligible number of voters in this dispute is as many as 18,661.
"AMFA appeals to this board to rectify and overrule the numerous and substantial errors within the investigator's rulings as set forth herein and thereby uphold not only the rights of the mechanics and related employees at American under the Railway Labor Act but also the reputation and integrity of the board."
American spokesman Sonja Whitemon said the company and the TWU have until Aug. 5 to respond to AMFA's appeal. She declined further comment.
Rick Mullings, spokesman for TWU Local 514, which represents more than 6,000 aircraft mechanics in Tulsa, said AMFA's mistake is believing that its definition of a mechanic is the same as the board's.
"There are people in all different title groups that could fall under the class and craft of mechanics," Mullings said. "The investigator and the board are only going by the National Mediation Board's definition of mechanic when it comes to a representation election."
Rick mullins must think even the deceased should be albe to vote.
LMAO Have a nice day!!!
