AFA Leader steps down

[SKY HIGH]

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/10940927/1/veteran-flight-attendant-leader-steps-down.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

Friend, 64, will step down at the end of this month as president of the Association of Flight Attendants, the largest flight attendants' union with about 50,000 members, 84% of them women.

 

[dexter]

WHOOOO HOOOOOO,,, Is she to be replace by V Hawthorne, M Flores or someone else in bed with This Company. INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW!!!! What a joke!! Chatter is that NW F/A's voted down the UNION cuz of CWA's credibility.

 

[Onestep2flt]

I would love to see her retirement benefits. I am pretty sure it is not what the people she represented will suffer with.

 

[puddlejumper]

You already know you can't please them all! Enjoy your retirement Pat.

 

[Bob Owens]

I would love to see her retirement benefits. I am pretty sure it is not what the people she represented will suffer with.

You can, all you need to do is contact the DOL and request IRS Form 5500. It highlights the pension plans for organizations.

I've done it and found that the Union I'm in provides our International employees a very generous plan, then those same people run around telling members that they should not expect the union to get for us what we provide to them!!!

I'm a Local President in the TWU (not a plan participant). IIRC our International gets a multiplier that is nearly double ours (2.5 vs 1.6777), based on their best year, not the average of four consecutive and has a 5% COLA . We dont get 5% raises, in fact we are making less today than we were in 2001!! So while a TWU member has seen his pay go down since 2001 a retired TWU international official has seen his pension increase 50%.

I dont know if she gets the same but our guys get their AA pension plus the TWU pension and continue to accrue them concurrently. Not only that but the company gives them A-4 positive space travel!! I was told that recently one of our International reps got on a Flight in Boston, sat in First class while the Station manager from Boston made his way back into coach!!! Makes me wonder why the company would give union officials higher pass travel than management? And this guy is the top manager at the station!!

All in all from what I've read she (Pat Friend) seemed to be a pretty good leader who did what she could as her members got swept away by the other unions that couldnt cave in quick enough. Many of these unions were unions that would represent any member in any industry that was willing to pay dues and really had no interst in the profession of the members in the Airline Industry. She probably earned what she's getting. I wish her well.

Now its up to people like you to get informed and involved and hold not only our leaders and employers accountable. My guess is that at no time did an employer ever say to a union leader "hey lets say we give the employees more". Ultimately the employer is the enemy at the table.

The Internet provides the tools all you have to provide is the drive.

 

[aleximas]

I would love to see her retirement benefits. I am pretty sure it is not what the people she represented will suffer with.