I was informed yesterday that TWU International Rep Bobby Gless told some workers at AA that the TWU was going to try and gain representation of Jet Blue employees.
If you guys decide to go union I would say that you are making the right choice. However the TWU is most definately the wrong choice.
The TWU is not a real union, all they care about is getting more dues payers.
The TWU has represented workers at Triangle for over 20 years yet in all that time they have done nothing to improve their lives or working conditions.
As the TWU has grown in the airline industry wages and benifits for airline workers have declined, however wages and benifits for TWU International officers has skyrocketed to over $209,000/year!
TWU International officers have also granted themselves very generous pension packages where once they retire they get a 5% compounded annual increase.
Lets compare what a TWU represented worker at AA will see from 2003 to 2008 to what a retired TWU International officer will see.
Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 TOTAL
AA/TWU member -17.5% +1.5% +1.5% +1.5% +1.5% +1.5% -10%
Retired TWU Int Off +5% +5% +5% +5% +5% +5% +30%
So as you can see as the TWU puts in contracts that over a 5 year period leaves members making 10% less than what they were making they even give their retired officers a 30% increase. Active officers recieve even greater increases! You can see some of what these guys pay themselves by going to the DOL page and reviwing the LM-2 forms for the TWU. http://erds.dol-esa.gov/query/org]http://erds.dol-esa.gov/query/orgReport.do With declining dues revenue due to falling wages the TWU must seek out new sources of funds to pay themselves their generous pay packages plus fund the ever increasing pension that only they get. Pension information is not yet available online but can be obtained free of charge from the DOL by requesting the 5500 form.
The real risk that you guys face is that when you do not have a union the TWU only needs to collect cards from a third of the workforce to apply for representation. The TWU could become your union without a vote by collecting cards from only one third of your workforce! In order to get rid of them or replace them with a real union however you would need to collect cards from 50% +1.
Lets say that things are not going that well at Jet Blue. It would not be the first time that some charismatic businessmen led his employess down the same path, Peoples Express, Avis, United etc are other examples where "employees owners" were taken to the cleaners. Now workers start talk about unionizing. The company is aware of this, now if the company could pick the union obviously they would not pick a strong militant union, instead he would pick a lapdog union where they can do as they please but blame it on the union, that union is the TWU. If Neeleman saw that the TWU collected cards from 30% of his workers his best move would be to just recognize them without a vote instead of fighting it and taking the chance that a real union might step in its place. Once in its very hard to replace a company friendly union.
Given the choice between No Union and the TWU, as someone who very much believes in unionism, I would say that you are better off to have no union so you alaways have the option of getting one that will do the job instead of just collecting dues to fund generous pay and benifits for union officers.
For management having the TWU in place is like having an insurance policy against having to deal with a real union, and the best part is that the employees pay for it!!
If you feel that a union is needed you have other options.
AGW-
The AGW is a start up organization that seeks to unite all airport ground workers into a single union. The concept is similar to that of the Longshoremen and it's proven to be an effective structure, Longshoremen earn good wages, however the AGW would be different in a few respects, all positive.
The AGW would be democratic and the AGW would be nationwide.
To me this is the most promising long term strategy, unite all the workers in the industry under one union so wage rates will no longer be the means to a competative edge .
the-agw.org
Teamsters-
The Teamsters is another choice and while they have performed better than their AFL-CIO counterparts-TWU and IAM you still have the very real problem of having a union that has no interest in addressing the problems that airlines workers face. The Teamsters is another organization where its leaders have distanced themselves from their members.
see teamsters for a democratic union(TDU). http://www.tdu.org/
Or, Form your own union, but once again that does nothing to stop the trend of using wages as a means to gain a competative edge.
If you guys decide to go union I would say that you are making the right choice. However the TWU is most definately the wrong choice.
The TWU is not a real union, all they care about is getting more dues payers.
The TWU has represented workers at Triangle for over 20 years yet in all that time they have done nothing to improve their lives or working conditions.
As the TWU has grown in the airline industry wages and benifits for airline workers have declined, however wages and benifits for TWU International officers has skyrocketed to over $209,000/year!
TWU International officers have also granted themselves very generous pension packages where once they retire they get a 5% compounded annual increase.
Lets compare what a TWU represented worker at AA will see from 2003 to 2008 to what a retired TWU International officer will see.
Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 TOTAL
AA/TWU member -17.5% +1.5% +1.5% +1.5% +1.5% +1.5% -10%
Retired TWU Int Off +5% +5% +5% +5% +5% +5% +30%
So as you can see as the TWU puts in contracts that over a 5 year period leaves members making 10% less than what they were making they even give their retired officers a 30% increase. Active officers recieve even greater increases! You can see some of what these guys pay themselves by going to the DOL page and reviwing the LM-2 forms for the TWU. http://erds.dol-esa.gov/query/org]http://erds.dol-esa.gov/query/orgReport.do With declining dues revenue due to falling wages the TWU must seek out new sources of funds to pay themselves their generous pay packages plus fund the ever increasing pension that only they get. Pension information is not yet available online but can be obtained free of charge from the DOL by requesting the 5500 form.
The real risk that you guys face is that when you do not have a union the TWU only needs to collect cards from a third of the workforce to apply for representation. The TWU could become your union without a vote by collecting cards from only one third of your workforce! In order to get rid of them or replace them with a real union however you would need to collect cards from 50% +1.
Lets say that things are not going that well at Jet Blue. It would not be the first time that some charismatic businessmen led his employess down the same path, Peoples Express, Avis, United etc are other examples where "employees owners" were taken to the cleaners. Now workers start talk about unionizing. The company is aware of this, now if the company could pick the union obviously they would not pick a strong militant union, instead he would pick a lapdog union where they can do as they please but blame it on the union, that union is the TWU. If Neeleman saw that the TWU collected cards from 30% of his workers his best move would be to just recognize them without a vote instead of fighting it and taking the chance that a real union might step in its place. Once in its very hard to replace a company friendly union.
Given the choice between No Union and the TWU, as someone who very much believes in unionism, I would say that you are better off to have no union so you alaways have the option of getting one that will do the job instead of just collecting dues to fund generous pay and benifits for union officers.
For management having the TWU in place is like having an insurance policy against having to deal with a real union, and the best part is that the employees pay for it!!
If you feel that a union is needed you have other options.
AGW-
The AGW is a start up organization that seeks to unite all airport ground workers into a single union. The concept is similar to that of the Longshoremen and it's proven to be an effective structure, Longshoremen earn good wages, however the AGW would be different in a few respects, all positive.
The AGW would be democratic and the AGW would be nationwide.
To me this is the most promising long term strategy, unite all the workers in the industry under one union so wage rates will no longer be the means to a competative edge .
the-agw.org
Teamsters-
The Teamsters is another choice and while they have performed better than their AFL-CIO counterparts-TWU and IAM you still have the very real problem of having a union that has no interest in addressing the problems that airlines workers face. The Teamsters is another organization where its leaders have distanced themselves from their members.
see teamsters for a democratic union(TDU). http://www.tdu.org/
Or, Form your own union, but once again that does nothing to stop the trend of using wages as a means to gain a competative edge.
