NYer said:
If you want to know look it up yourself.
What difference does it make how many mechanics UPS or WN has?
Isn't it true that prior to BK AA had more Flight Attendants, Pilots and Fleet Service clerks than WN or UPS, or any of the other legacy carriers and AA paid very close to or more than what they pay? And now Our Flight Attendants make more and AA easily has more Flight Attendants than any other carrier but we don't see people saying that because AA has more the APFA should agree to bottom of the industry contracts do we?
UPS and WN have never been in the business of overhauling their aircraft, that’s the way it was when we made more than WN and that’s the way it was when we made around the same as UPS. How many mechanics AA has doesn’t lessen the value or liability that each and every mechanic at AA contributes to the operation. Your spin is to treat us as the TWU’s commodity. According to spinmasters like you we should agree to discount our Labor so the Union can have more people paying dues. That’s not what Union are for. The farmer doesn’t exist for the benefit of the Pigs that become the pork bellies he sells so if he discounts for volume that’s ok , Pork bellies are a commodity, but Unions are supposed to exist for the members that pay dues and the goal is to maximize pay rates and benefits. Most Unions adhere and promote the concept of “Our labor is not a commodity” not “Your labor is now the Unions commodity to sell”. Even our laws still recognize that , Section 6 of the Clayton Act said “[SIZE=13pt]That the labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce,". [/SIZE]The ILO considers it to be one of the most important concepts of the organization. So enough with feigning that you are simply asking a question that you already know the answer to, nobody cares nor should they, those Unions have done a fairly good job for their members, none of them have been laid off and their pay is considerably higher than their peers.
UPS and WN are and have always been primarily Line Maintenance. That hasn’t changed, what has changed is that mechanics pay rates at several carriers, especially at AA have plummeted, and on top of that many mechanics have been laid off and the company eliminated roughly 50% of the jobs since 2001, and that decline was orchestrated by not only the carriers but Unions at those carriers.
Under the “more employees means lower wages” logic it’s OK that Walmart doesn’t provide benefits and pays low wages because they employ more people than any other retailer, thus, going by the argument we have seen in the past they should get a discount on labor because they employ more people, the problem with that line of thinking is giving a discount on labor is not what people pay Union dues for. Its the same argument against raising the minimum wage, that if they pay more they will hire less. Another right wing lie because its demand for labor that drives employment, the reason for lower wages is singular-Higher Profits. Pretty sad when people who claim to be Union adopt and promote all the arguments of Union Busters.
The Union didn’t get me this job, I applied and was hired based upon my own qualifications and experience, had I not been hired by AA I would have been hired somewhere else. AA was simply the first to call. There is no shortage of jobs for people with mechanical skills and abilities, we join a Union to maximize our pay and benefits, not to discount our labor so the company will hire more people and the Union gets more dues. Once again we know what your response will be, the same response Union Busters give when their employees seek a Union, "if you don't like it leave", unfortunately for Union Busters we have other alternatives, we can Unionize, then the struggle is to get a real collective bargaining agent that isn't in the company's pocket and prevent management sympathizers like you from assuming positions of Union Leadership and spinning Union Busting propaganda to justify sell out deals. Just because this Collective Bargaining Agent was in place before I got here doesn't change the fact that fiduciarily they still work for our collective benefits, not theirs.
The fact is that what we do as mechanics at American Airlines is the same exact thing that mechanics at UPS and WN are doing. Same skills, same license requirements and same liability. They are of exactly the same value, the difference is that our Union has not been able to capture that because many of the leaders forget that they aren’t pig farmers, our labor is not their commodity to sell, they are supposed to be Union leaders furthering the interests of the members.
