Aircraft maint issues
- Thread starter conehead777
- Start date
Again, that was easy.
BINGO!!!
WeAAsles
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I guess what really sucks for the SWA guys is that even after five years nobody has leapfrogged over them. Must really suck being stuck at the top.
The fact is SWAPA and TWU at SWA have been without a new contract for an extended period of time as well because they are all still at the top.
Why does the TWU do so much better at SWA? Multiple reasons, including a more reasonable management but the TWU at SWA is aligned and structured along Classification lines, not Locale. They don't have Flight attendants in Fleet Locals or vice versa. All Fleet is in one local all flight attendants are in another and the International pretty much leaves them alone.
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Good to see the Solidarity. A few years back the SWAPA joined in a petition blasting AMFA and excluding them from a partnership. I spoke to one of the SWAPA officials and asked why they endorsed the attack and is it wrong for Mechanics to want what Pilots have? He said the TWU pushed the issue, the SWAPA wanted support from the AFL-CIO on some political issues and the TWU was their door into that, and unless they attacked AMFA that door would be closed. Oddly many of the SWA TWU Flight attendants were very militantly ANTI-Amfa. I asked one why do they need separate locals between Flight Attendants and Fleet and if Fleet sits in their negotiations. She said they had different issues and there was no way they would have Fleet participating in their Negotiations. I told her that in Maintenance that has not been the case and its what drove the AMFA movement. She didn't get it. Glad to see that the TWU Flight Attendants at SWA are finally starting to get it, Working People may have their differences but no matter what Union it is we need to support each other.
WeAAsles
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They're not at the top in wages any longer Bob. You really need to start doing your research more into other people's contracts. They're down by a few dollars per hour now compared to you.
Oh and who negotiated their last contract? (And yes who got the last wage extension) and how are SWA finances? Have they ever needed (or asked) for concessions or went through Bankruptcy? And how many Mechanics do they have at SWA per Aircaft again BTW?
And I'm not going back into the we should have voted no for everything conversation. Just not interested in that never ending debate any longer.
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Agree or disagree we must support our Presidents when they ask us to send a message to the company. All three Local Presidents are in agreement, whether you want different Representation or not we need to support then when they ask us to send a message to the company. You cant say ":I'll act like a Union member when we get "X" Union, you have to do it now, because as much as it sounds like a cliche YOU are the Union, the Union is the bond between you and your coworkers to ensure you secure what you need in a contract that covers us all. the TWU is simply the structure in which we are housed. They are hired to represent our Union. Peterson, Reeves and Danker were chosen by us to represent our interests, I'm not saying blind faith, but small gestures like this are important to let the company know that although we may have our differences the company and their greed is our real opposition.
So I guess the American Airlines Mechanics Union negotiated our last contract using your rationale?
You have to add in the 9% 401k, The Holidays, The Vacation, the sick time, retiree medical, double time etc. They are still way ahead of us with their contract that became amendable 5 (4) years ago.
Yes I agree lets not go into the phony Bankruptcy where they went in with $5 billion in cash and came out with $7 billion
WeAAsles
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Activate and mobilize to change the laws that let them get away with it then. The Lobbyists and their puppet Politicians are our real enemies Bob. The Company just used the tools the Politicians gave them to use. (Certainly not saying I like or agree with them)
Arguing with me doesn't change any of our mutual dilemmas.
My guess is the twu does not want a repeat performance of what happened in 1977 with the AA flight attendants.
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That's it, we should not be arguing is we both have the same dilemmas.
We have our Lobbyists too, I contacted him as well, they are no friend of ours either. I showed him everything, instead he claimed that they would be bringing forth legislation within days that would address our issues but admitted during discussion that the main objective was to protect the pensions of government workers in BK. That of course would include Mass Transit. What he spoke of had ZERO to do with our issues, the Pilots were waiting to hear back from me and were ready to give it another shot. Our issues would not be addressed and he even never followed up with what they were proposing, that was around 3 years ago. I agree Puppet Politicians are our enemy, Puppets like Wall Streets Hillary Clinton. Trump is a Moron and a liar but at least he will stab us in the front, and say he didn't do it, Hillary would have stabbed us in the back and smiled at us. When your own Union wont support what should be an easy bill because most experts agree that the current rulings as they stand are so egregious, (The TWUs law firm even wrote about it) it really becomes hard to say you have any friends. You say activate and mobilize, isnt that why 30% of my dues go to the International? How is that 30% being used to help Airline workers? Sure we can get our issues put on the agenda, which I did, but then they just shelve it.
Yes. All true.
Bob, it is so much nicer now that all the unions on SWA property have come together and support each other big time. TWU has finally tossed to the side the hardship they had with AMFA and started focusing on the members as employees instead of as AMFA. Pilots have invited AMFA into their local union offices to get us as close as possible with the Pilots. The next step (if we will need to take it) will be to join up 100% with our Pilots union as our representation for our members. It has already been discussed and accepted by both SWAPA and the mechanics, the only thing on hold is the switch getting thrown if need be. And yes all the leadership within AMFA (including the top) is fully aware of all this. It just killed the company that the Pilots and mechanics have become so close in recent years as well as all the unions on property (hence the hard nego's with all the groups) and it would just exhaust the co. if we were to join our Pilots union as our representation for our members. Let me make one thing clear, there is no one screaming to replace AMFA as our union. This was discussed many many months and years ago when we first saw the hard core stance by the company which is why we joined our Pilots at the shareholders meetings and they as well as our F/A's, Ramp, stores and other groups joined us on our picket lines and vise versa. Great solidarity at SWA for the past 3-5 years and it all continues to this day forward. I hope and pray we never have to get rid of AMFA, but I am not married to them for life like other groups are with their representation at other airlines do to certain strings and pensions, if need be AMFA can be changed just as quickly and easily as it was when we fired the teamsters. Then it will more than likely be SWA mechanics covered under the Pilots union and representation. Sorry for kinda rambling on ya, but you have been gone for a while...
For many years I've heard Pilots at AA say they could not understand why we were not more closely aligned with them and why we didn't have our own Unions like them. In the early days the Pilots had asked the mechanics to go with them but the military culture that was prevalent, since so many were in fact from the military where pilots were officers, pushed mechanics in a different direction.
