check thisAMFA - Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Union History
What is AMFA?
The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) is an independent labor union representing aircraft technicians and, in their words, airline support personnel. AMFA is not affiliated with the AFL-CIO or any other labor organization. It is based in Laconia, New Hampshire.
Background
AMFA was founded by O.V. Delle-Femine, who is the only President/National Director AMFA has ever had. Delle-Femine was born and raised in East Providence, Rhode Island. He obtained technical training as a mechanic while working in the Air Force. He became actively involved in union affairs after he left the Air Force and began working for American Airlines. Delle-Femine is well read and reportedly immersed himself in books on the history of the American labor movement. He eventually became disillusioned with the state of the mechanics' union at American and committed himself to creating a "better" labor union focusing on the "craft" aspect of the mechanics work group. Delle-Femine and a few of his friends formed AMFA in 1962 supposedly as an alternative to the traditional industrial unions that had dominated union organizing among the mechanics' craft or class up until that time. It formally became a union in 1963.
Delle-Femine and AMFA have been repeatedly frustrated over the years by the National Mediation Board's (NMB) craft or class unit determinations that consistently group so-called "unskilled" workers such as cleaners and fuelers with so-called "skilled" workers such as aircraft technicians. AMFA has consistently made clear that it strongly favors rules that would enable it to represent only these "skilled" workers. For the most part, AMFA's efforts have been unsuccessful. In fact, AMFA had very little success organizing any employees prior to 1994. The few companies where it had any success in organizing new employees (Ozark Airlines, Hughes Airwest, Southern Airways, Braniff, Trump Shuttle, Pacific Airlines, and Airlift International) are no longer in business (either through mergers or going out of business). However, the contracts AMFA negotiated during this period were always viewed as mid-scale, even moderate. For the most part, AMFA was not a significant player in the airline labor movement through the mid 90-s. Its membership had dropped to only 439 employees by the end of 1996. Its only active members worked at Atlantic Coast Airlines, a relatively small regional airline based in Washington, D.C. With membership levels at an all time low, AMFA's finances were in shambles. National Director Delle-Femine reportedly spent nights sleeping on benches at airports in light of AMFA's poor economic condition.
AMFA at Alaska Airlines
AMFA's breakthrough as a serious labor organization occurred in April, 1998 when it surprised the labor movement by successfully "raiding" (replacing) the International Association of Machinists (IAM) as the bargaining representative for aircraft technicians and related employees at Alaska Airlines. The vote was extremely close with AMFA garnering only 55% of the eligible votes. Most people who are familiar with what happened viewed AMFA's victory at Alaska as an offshoot of the bitter strike Alaska's aircraft technicians had gone through a few years earlier. Many of the technicians clearly blamed the IAM for taking them out on a strike during which the airline was able to continue to operate. Seeing that Alaska was successfully running the airline without them, a lot of the technicians crossed the picket line. Even after the strike ended, morale was very low among the technician workforce. AMFA capitalized on this situation and convinced a majority of the Alaskan employees that it was a better alternative to the IAM. The contract that AMFA subsequently negotiated at Alaska is still in place, and is yet another run of the mill, mid-level contract consistent with what AMFA had obtained in the past. With the addition of the 1,000 technicians and related employees at Alaska Airlines, AMFA's membership ranks grew to 2,176 employees by the end of 1998.
AMFA at Northwest Airlines
If AMFA's raid at Alaska Airlines in 1998 surprised the IAM, its successful raid of the IAM at Northwest Airlines in June 1999 stunned the entire AFL-CIO. There are numerous theories concerning how this happened. One theory is that the IAM got itself in trouble by agreeing to concessionary contracts when Northwest was in a dire economic situation in the mid-1980's. Other people believe AMFA won by successfully honing its now standard sales pitch about how it was a "different" union devoted to the "professional aircraft technician." The IAM places at least part of the blame for its demise on Northwest Airlines, which it claims favored the "weaker" union sister AMFA over the traditionally far more imposing and powerful IAM.
Whatever the explanation, the election between AMFA and the IAM at Northwest was bitterly fought. There were numerous legal challenges to AMFA's election victory. Although the NMB upheld AMFA's victory and certified it as the new collective bargaining representative for Northwest's technicians, it found AMFA had committed a number of questionable acts including an unusual form of collecting ballots (a clear violation of the NMB's rules for secret ballots) during the election period. The NMB reduced AMFA's grace period (the period after an election when a union cannot be raided by another union) from the normal two years to six months as a penalty for AMFA's misconduct during the Northwest election. Excerpts from the NMB's post election investigation (Case No. R-6621) reveal the following about AMFA's campaign conduct:
"Here, the facts are largely undisputed. In 1997 and again in 1998, at a discussion of the election at Northwest, the topic of collecting ballots was discussed by AMFA officials. The idea was rejected, not because it was improper, but because "t's impractical" and "not going to work." It was later brought up at several meetings of Northwest employees, but similarly the opinion was that the effort would not be successful because the Organization could not obtain "ballots from everyone." At the same time, AMFA and AMFA-MSP ran a campaign which repeatedly questioned the NMB's integrity and the NMB's ability to protect and properly count the ballots.
In the context of this campaign, Northwest employees placed messages on "The Mechanic" web site, directly asking employees to make a copy of their ballot with identification attached and send it to AMFA or to AMFA-MSP. Although AMFA National Director Delle-Femine, AMFA-MSP President MacFarlane, and other AMFA officials read the postings on the web site, they took no action to disclaim or deter this conduct.
AMFA and AMFA-MSP had an affirmative obligation to deter or halt any conduct which violates the secrecy of the ballot. The Board finds that AMFA's conduct was systematic because they knew about the messages on the web site and took absolutely no action to stop it. Even when they received copies of ballots, they took no action to stop the activity. While they did not directly solicit the copies, they allowed the wide-spread solicitation to occur in AMFA-MSP's name. AMFA and AMFA-MSP were secure in the knowledge that it had a ready arsenal of copied (and identified) ballots at their disposal.
Those who avail themselves of the Board's processes, must utilize the Board's processes. If AMFA was truly concerned about ballot integrity, they could have filed a motion requesting special procedures, and taken other action with the agency they campaigned against. Instead, they chose to violate the integrity of the ballot by permitting, and indeed encouraging, the copying of ballots with identification attached.
Based upon the foregoing, the Board finds that the laboratory conditions in the election involving Northwest Airlines' Mechanics and Related Employees were not tainted. However, the Board finds that AMFA's failure to discourage, and efforts to tacitly encourage the ballot duplications, raises serious concerns about the confidentiality of the voting process, and, therefore, calls for responsive action. Accordingly, the Board will shorten its normal bar period as set forth in Section 1206.4(a) of the Board's Rules. The bar period in this case will expire six months after the date of this decision."
Despite AMFA's promises that it would "quickly" finish the negotiations that had been ongoing between Northwest and the IAM, it took almost two years for AMFA to reach a final agreement with the company. AMFA's Northwest contract is clearly its major accomplishment. Despite the intervening economic upheaval in the airline industry after September 11, 2001, AMFA has continued to tout its contract at Northwest in all of its organizational drives at other airlines since that date.
National Officers
As noted, O.V. Delle-Femine founded AMFA and is the only National Director/President AMFA has ever had. However, AMFA's day to day operations are not run by Delle-Femine, but by Kevin McCormick, AMFA's National Administrator. McCormick is not even an employee of AMFA, is not a mechanic, or even a former airline employee. McCormick, whose background is real estate, is the head of the McCormick Advisory Group. AMFA is the only union in existence that subcontracts its administrative function to an outside organization. The McCormick Group is paid $500,000 a year for serving in this capacity. AMFA's national headquarters are in Laconia, New Hampshire, where McCormick is based. AMFA's constitution was recently revised primarily to reflect the reality of McCormick's status with AMFA. The former AMFA constitution didn't even acknowledge the existence of this highly influential individual.
None of AMFA's National Officers, perhaps apart from Kevin McCormick, are paid astronomical incomes by AMFA. Delle-Femine can earn up to 200% of the average pay of all AMFA represented technicians throughout the country. Lower level AMFA officials have their pay similarly pegged at lower percentages to the average pay of all AMFA represented technicians under the AMFA constitution.
AMFA Representation in the Airline Industry
Since its inception, AMFA has only represented mechanics and related employees at a total of 12 airlines-Ozark Airlines (1966), Pacific Airlines (1967), Airlift International (1967), Hughes Airwest (1970), Southern Airways (1978), Braniff (1989), Trump Shuttle (1990), Atlantic Coast Airlines (1994), Mesaba Airlines (1996), Alaska Airlines (1998), Northwest Airlines (1999), and American Trans Air (2002). Out of these 12 airlines, 7 no longer exist. Overall, aside from its representation at Northwest Airlines, AMFA's history as a labor union is unremarkable. Even in the past ten years, AMFA has had little success in its representation efforts, having lost 10 out of 16 attempts (See AMFA's Ten Year History Here). AMFA has active organizing drives at a number of airlines, including Delta, Federal Express, and American, but has yet to file with the NMB for representation at any of them.
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