- Thread Starter
- Thread starter
- #31
I agree, and the window to do that again has closed. It was obvious that NWA had only one objective-Bust AMFA at any cost. It took NWA 18 months to round up just over 1000 scabs at a time where pretty much every carrier except WN had laid off thousands of mechanics. They cut their operations by 20% and limped along till Delta took over. There was a glut of A&Ps out there and NWA still had a hard time, now it takes AA at least 5 months to get just 30 mechanics when they needed 60. If they cant get 60 what makes people think they could get the thousands they would need to continue to operate? NWA was a battle, a Pearl Harbor, or an Alamo for our profession, yes that battle was lost but the conditions that lead to that loss aren't the same today as they were then. Whats really sad is that the defeat of AMFA at NWA was supported by other labor organizations who failed to follow what they preach. Their hatred for AMFA didn't just set back Aircraft Mechanics, it set back the labor movement as a whole. It showed how Unions were willing to turn on each other and even help management screw other workers. Management saw how weak we had become and it emboldened them to take even more. Then they wonder why after spending millions, after putting all their efforts into changing laws to make it easier to organize their drives fail one after another. It wasn't just management that saw how weak unions had become, workers saw it as well, if not for the Union security clause how many people at US or AA would continue to voluntarily pay dues to earn less than their non-union peers? Yes AMFA lost the battle at NWA, but the IAM, TWU, IBT, ALPA and AFA failed the rest of us by not doing anything to stop it.
Very well said.