Well sir, if your IAM and you think your going to be treated better by voting out the association when you are by far the minority in numbers to the TWU, then by all means do what you feel you need to do. There is no reasoning with you.
The association whether you want to agree or not was the best thing that could have happened to a LUS mechanic. But go ahead and vote your seniority away. I’ll be the first to congratulate you when your successful.
i would have to agree with you initially. the association was the best thing for a lus mechanic absolutely, now 5 years into the take over no, not anymore. lus clearly has a seat at the table as an equal partner. any loss in benefits the retirement and or the medical is a forgone conclusion, as i have stated many times before it was the inaction as a partner that the iam created the wedge that allowed the company to exploit.
but separately the retirement plan is a dead issue anyone that would like to continue in is has to be nuts. a 9% match on a 401k plan with active management is a no brainier. with the money we make if you cannot contribute 5% you clearly live above your means and no amount of help will change that.
the medical? again you had a chance at it but i believe and in my opinion you blew the chance at keeping it by the lack of solidarity. i actually brought the point up to Gary Peterson at one time that someone should actually "professionally" compare the cost of the plans i.e. the monthly premium cost versus the actual out of pocket cost. the idea was blown off. i have heard the aa plan is actually better that it covers more while the lus plan is cheaper but covers less. once again a blown opportunity by the association or the twu to raise support among other work groups i.e. the pilots,flight attendants and gate agents if the lus plan is actually better or se. so which is better or more expensive i just dont have the information to make an informed decision. thats kind of why i pay union dues to see thru the clutter and provide the information needed to make an informed decision.
as far as seniority i dont see where they are voting anything away. occupational seniority is dove tailed so thats a non issue. as far as premium seniority the way the twu does it just using occupational dates makes it a little easier.
if you bid a premium job i.e. crew chief or inspector your seniority is your occupational date. so it doesnt matter when you bid seniority prevails.
on the iam side when you get hired you have an occupational date, if you bid a cc job six month's later you get a second date. if you bid an inspector job a year later you get a third seniority date. and you keep those dates forever.
so the strategy behind it is to get hired bid a job give it up wait until you have enough seniority to hold something good or an opportune time and get back in. to me it seems like a scam to hide in the weeds kind of like hidig behind a legal loophole like the creation of the association.
either way doesnt really matter to me as far as im concerned i can scam the system as well as anyone else.
no i dont see the downside to leaving the association. i can however see the upside to leaving the association for maintenance. as i have said many times before its clear that the association has failed to prove its value to the membership. they represent to many groups to possibly make it happen, to much of a different priority system for each group. they had the opportunity they missed it and continue to miss it to this day.
