BAGGAGE HANDLERS THREAD

[freedom]

Hey AA Baggage handlers (or whatever PR name you call yourselves ) .......

I'm a Baggage Handler from US Airways , we call ourselves "fleet service workers "

I noticed that you didn't seem to have your own thread , so I thought I would start one here ..........

Soon hopefully we will be united as one ...... I look forwards to working with all of you ....I want to say that so far I think your TWU has handled it's talks with US air correctly ... I agree with trading profit sharing for a higher hourly wage , I mean who wants to take a chance these days right ?

I think you will find that we here At US airways strongly support keeping jobs , and I for one am not willing to vote on any new joint contract that costs our people their jobs ...

I can't wait until we are the largest Airline in the world , then and only then will we have the Strength and Organization to ensure that our workers are compensated fair for all that they do .That compensation isn't limited only to hourly pay , but job protections , healthcare , sick leave policy ( we have a NIGHTMARE sick policy at US Airways ) , vacation and fair integration of workforces ..


Your Soon to be brother

FREEDOM

 

[AANOTOK]

Why should we have to give up anything to get anything. Haven't we given enough?
Profit sharing shouldn't even be negotiated.

By the way, it's Fleet Service Clerks at AA.

 

[freedom]

Why should we have to give up anything to get anything. Haven't we given enough?
Profit sharing shouldn't even be negotiated.

By the way, it's Fleet Service Clerks at AA.

At this time you should recognize that you ARE in BK ...... i'm not saying that the company is justified in all that it does , but BK workers are not "entitled" to anything ........ you have to accept the fact that there's going to be some give and take ....

After dealing with US airways for XYZ amount of years , I understand how this company and it's management function , and I call tell you that in order to get joint contract gains its going to be like pulling teeth .....All of you AA guys had better be ready to bring your A game because if you want to win , there's not going to be any sitting at home letting the "other" guys go to the picket line ..

P.S , "Fleet service clerks " LOL !! I like that last part ,makes it sound like we work in an office .

 

[AANOTOK]

OK, Good luck!

 

[La Li Lu Le Lo]

US Airways is divided into a bunch of UNIONS under the same worker classification right? I really don't see how AA employees (who hopefully are about to oust TWU) and Us Airways employees (you can't seem to consolidate into one UNION) are going to be "united as one" as you put it.

Also consider that American Airlines and TWU are "united as one". They won't let their bought and paid for UNION go so easily. Words like "You voted for it", "We'll get em next time", and my favorite "They can do that brother (usually after a severe contract violation) are not cheap after all. That is my opinion at least.

I have said it once I wills say it again.
"TWU is not a UNION. It is a collection of apologetic catch phrases of failure."

That is not meant to be rude or hostile just an analytical observation of the current situation.

 

[freedom]

US Airways is divided into a bunch of UNIONS under the same worker classification right? I really don't see how AA employees (who hopefully are about to oust TWU) and Us Airways employees (you can't seem to consolidate into one UNION) are going to be "united as one" as you put it.

Also consider that American Airlines and TWU are "united as one". They won't let their bought and paid for UNION go so easily. Words like "You voted for it", "We'll get em next time", and my favorite "They can do that brother (usually after a severe contract violation) are not cheap after all. That is my opinion at least.

I have said it once I wills say it again.
"TWU is not a UNION. It is a collection of apologetic catch phrases of failure."

That is not meant to be rude or hostile just an analytical observation of the current situation.

First of all , it is almost impossible to be rude or insulting to me LOL , if you ever check the other US Airways threads you will see that people are rude and insulting to me all the time , and i'm fine with that LOL ...

I enjoy an analytical perspective , and that is exactly what I need ... I need to understand your union from YOUR EYES ....

Right now i'm pushing hard for the ouster of the IAM , and that we adopt YOUR union as ours ...... which puts us at a cross roads .... lol we are literally running away from each others union ...

First let me start off by introducing the good side of the IAM to you and my history with them as I see it ...

As you may have heard , it seems like US airways fleet is MANY unions , but the truth is we no longer are ... When America West Airlines and Original US airways merged you had TWU ( which I was a member of ) VS IAM ... long story short the higher ups at the TWU decided to simply give us to the IAM in lieu of an election ( you see when two companies merge , under the Rail road labor act , only one union can be in charge of all the workers in the same craft and class , so what happens is that a repsenational election is held to decide which union will be the surviving one , but there is something SCARY to this election , if 50% +1 of the work force do not bother to vote , BOTH unions are decertified and all the workers end up without a union ) ....

where was I ? oh right ...... So I and my fellow America west workers were suddenly thrust into the IAM ... My former company mostly had it's operations on the West side of the United States , so in the newly combined workers , my fraction was known as "westies" ....The other fraction at the time were the "easties" ( because US air had huge operations on the east coast ) ....

Now even within the "east" side of the operation there was a subfraction , they were known as "CLASS TWO cities " ... you see before AWA and US air merged , US airways had just gone through BK , and one of the results of that BK was that the larger hubs voted in the BK contract which split the ramp work group into TWO different categories , you had your CLASS one cities , which were basically the HUBS , CLT,PHL,PVD ect .. and you had your little field stations that became the class two cities .. If you were in class one , you made a higher top out , I think it was somewhere around 19 dollars an hour ? ( I don't know for sure since I wasn't part of that ) ... but what I do know is that the class two cities made about 14 dollars an hour , or somewhere near that ......

One of the main selling points in the companies push to divide the entire baggage handler work force was that they would let PHL keep their catering department .This garnered enough votes to approve the old BK contract ...To this day many in the former class two cities are still very bitter about all of this ...

ask me to tell you about the sixty day rule someday , i'll skip that for now .

So here you had really three baggage handler Fractions all thrown into the mix , and we were vying for control to see who would get to determine the terms of the joint contract with the company ..

Our internal battle was long , and to this day people actually hate me because of how hard I fought for my side ... I grant you that in my fight for my fraction to secure a new contract , it was agreed that field stations would be contracted out ..

but hear me out ..... I as a westie was VERY poorly paid , in fact we were so poorly paid that some of our workers were on food stamps , and the turn over rate at AWA was so horrific that you would literally lose 40 people a month during the summer time . I don't think I can describe the kind of poverty wages that we had ... they took an emotional toll on us ...... That's why when we merged with US AIR , it was like a blessing from heaven ... their wages were SOOOO MUCH HIGHER than ours ....we were so poor that we could see nothing but the increased wages ...

in the meantime Before we started to get rolling on a joint contract the east workers first had to come to grips with the fact that it was not going to be business as usual ... one of the first things that gave many of them a rude awakening was the CHANGE OF CONTROL issue that was brought up ...Contract talks sort of came to a stop when the East guys who out numbered us Started to believe that the CHANGE OF CONTROL ( COC ) could be litigated and that they would get HUGE backpay checks of 30K a worker ... well , many well paid , Fat and happy lawyers later , the courts or arbitratior I forget which , ruled that the COC did NOT apply ... and WOOSH dreams of getting 30K backpay checks vanished everywhere ...

Alright so let's move on to the first joint contract offer from the company ... I don't much remember the terms of the first contract offer , but I do remember that it was very similar to what we have today , so not much difference really ...

We fought and fought and fought amongst the fractions AND the company ...Here in PHX we protested daily , some workers even went so far as to stuff informational flyers in PAX baggage explaining how sad and desperate our workers situation was (that made the news ) on the east side protesting and picketing also continued ... and I should say that while all of this was going on , I don't think our workers were too motivated to really HURRY and get much of anything done ... by the book that was the unofficial rule ...

Well the first contract offer failed .. or rather it was voted down by the East ... they were not happy with it .... many of them having come out of BK and being a rather militant work group were set on retaking all that they had before ... and that first contract did NOT live up to their expectations ...

and so more fighting commenced , with our fractions becoming even more Bitter towards one another if you can imagine such a thing .. I mean there was real HATE there ... As a westie , in our view it was "the greedy East keep us working at poverty wages because they want all that they had and will never get back !" i'm sure the guys on the east thought of us as weaklings willing to give in to management at the first 20 silver thrown our way ...

The way we westies won the second contract , was no mean feat ... The east coast guys had the numbers , but WE had the determination ( up to a point )... So then the unthinkable happened ..... The West coast fraction and the class two fraction aligned together , and with both groups were able to vote in the second contract offer even in the face of East opposition ( and by that time some of their number had weakened or simply didn't bother to come out and vote thinking their numbers = automatic victory )

Working here in the PHX station , I want to give Special thanks to a man known as Ron Roth ... If it were not for Ron ,I and all of my brothers and sisters now working under the new combined contract would not have what we have today ... You must understand that for those of us from Former America West airlines , our "job" at the time was more of a gig that people did for flight benefits , SOOO many people had second jobs , that our airline job wasn't considered a REAL job ... We used to have HUGE problems getting our fellow workers to turn out ..there were 1000 rampers , and if we picketed or had a rally only maybe 30 people would turn out ...

Folks just didn't care because they all had other jobs ...We couldn't even get people to come down to the logde for union meetings or voting , EVEN THOUGH THE LODGE WAS RIGHT OUTSIDE OF THE AIRPORT !!!!!

Before the second vote took place , there was a real worry that even thou those of us were committed and committed hard , it wouldn't be enough in the face of such apathy ...

and that's when Ron Roth devised his secret plan that no one knew about until it was too late .. In all the years past that I am ware of , union voting or union activities had never taken place at the AIRPORT IT'SELF ...

He rented a conference room AT the airport and it was in an easy to find location for ALL the workers that everyone knew about ...The turn out was astronomical ,900 people here in the PHX station voted yes , I think it was 13 who voted NO ...

and so we won that 2nd joint contract , we took the Class two cities AND even the west coast cities that were laid out in that contract to be outsourced two years later ...

 

[freedom]

PART 2 ............

Ok , so now you know that we were once three Fractions fighting each other quite ferociously ... now we are ONE .....and I don't hate my brothers and sisters on the east coast ... if anything , I take comfort in the fact that I know they ARE formidable workers and WILL fight tooth and nail for what they believe in ...

On to the IAM and it's role ... Many on the East coast did not like the Bk leadership .. it seems whenever a union and it's workers go through BK , the union workers almost always turn on the Union leadership , blaming them for basically everything ... I should add that the old leadership is the group that saw us through to the second contract , and they are for the most part gone now , replaced by a new group of leadership called the new Direction ...

How do I feel about the IAM ? At first I loved them ... hey look at the huge raise I just got ! THANK YOU IAM !!!! ..... and then after we settled in , the IAM pension people came around and filled our heads with PROMISES IN A PENSION THAT WILL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR YOU ............ PROMISES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I admit , it always troubled me , even at the start when I heard how much more our union officials made compared to the topped out baggage handler ( 100K a year ) ... but hey , what did I care right ? they got me a new contract and I was willing to look the other way )........

As time went on , it seemed that union dues only went one direction ,UP ... and then ONE DAY , the bottom dropped out for me ..... When the IAM pension people came around and told us that the amount they had promised us ( written on paper ) that we would receive from the pension when we retried WAS TO BE CUT IN HALF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you can't understand the rage , the feeling of betral , the IAM pension was one of the main selling points of the IAM itself ... the two went hand in hand ... ( anytime you griped about the union , someone would always say "BUT THE PENSION ROCKS!!!!" ) ...

so overnight , the unbreakable promise was broken ...and with it my faith in the IAM ...That's when the scales fell from my eyes and I saw what our union had become ...At over 100K a year , our union officials were beholden to one thing and one thing only ... their pay ..... I don't think you can really find anyone who believes that AGC's who fly around the country ( union pays for hotel , air fare meals ect ) should make 100k ... and do you know what they used to feed us in defense of this ? "oh but we're away from our families , that's why we get paid so well "

i see the Union pension for what it is , a Ponzi scheme that relies on new workers to ensure that the assets don't drop and they can keep paying out at the promised levels ..... When the new workers don't come or the assets drop , they take the short fall out of the future retirees hide by reducing the amount you will get , AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP THIS .......

So my two main gripes with the IAM are that 1. it's AGC's of which there are many , are overpaid ( and they know this ! they should have reduced their own pay by now ! but fat chance of that happening ) ...

and point 2 ... The IAM pension is not "guaranteed" , those of us under this contract have NO CHOICE , we are forced into the pension , we can't take the money that our company contributes on our behalf and invest it into a 401K , it MUST go into the IAM pension per the contract ....... the IAM should have by now offered us a way out ... (LET MY PEOPLE GO !!!!!!!!) but they can never go , because if we leave , the Ponzi pension will fall ..........

on the good side , i can say that the Union took my level 3 down to basically nothing .. and that kinda saved my job ... although it was kind of messed up the way the company held our past attendance against us after the merger under the NEW sick policy rules ..... ( the new sick policy is horrible ) ........

So those are my opinions on the IAM ...

 

[unionguy1]

I was with the IAM for 13 years with EAL. Honored the picket line and the Line was there one day longer than the scabs. IAM was a an outstanding Union back in the day I was with them I've been with the TWU 23 years this MAY. Started out as a fleet service clerk. If you have a choice stick with the IAM. If you go with the TWU, well, to quote Kris Kristoferson " Freedom is just another word for nothing else to lose ".

Kind Regards,
Harvey West

 

[freedom]

I was with the IAM for 13 years with EAL. Honored the picket line and the Line was there one day longer than the scabs. IAM was a an outstanding Union back in the day I was with them I've been with the TWU 23 years this MAY. Started out as a fleet service clerk. If you have a choice stick with the IAM. If you go with the TWU, well, to quote Kris Kristoferson " Freedom is just another word for nothing else to lose ".

Kind Regards,
Harvey West

yes but WHY is the IAM better than the TWU , please give me examples of what is wrong with the TWU ...( and i ask this ONLY for baggage handlers , not any other craft )

 

[unionguy1]

yes but WHY is the IAM better than the TWU , please give me examples of what is wrong with the TWU ...( and i ask this ONLY for baggage handlers , not any other craft )

Many topics on AA forums to get examples of what is wrong with the TWU. Pick one and start reading.

Kind Regards,
Harvey West

 

[freedom]

Many topics on AA forums to get examples of what is wrong with the TWU. Pick one and start reading.

Kind Regards,
Harvey West

most of the topics i have seen are not fleet service related ......( baggage handlers )

 

[ChockJockey]

freedom, tell them about why they need to keep the TWU and why the current US people should be railroaded into it without the vote or consent of the memberships.

 

[freedom]

freedom, tell them about why they need to keep the TWU and why the current US people should be railroaded into it without the vote or consent of the memberships.

Because a lengthy election will drain TIME ......precious time that our members could spend negotiating with the company , WHOM i want to mention to those of you who do not know , will NOT sit down at the table as long as there are two unions representing the baggage handlers ..

In our last merger, America West Airlines / US AIRWAYS ...... the company ( our management which will be YOUR management ) used that as a stall tactic , and they drained MONTHS out of us that way ..

 

[ChockJockey]

Because a lengthy election will drain TIME ......precious time that our members could spend negotiating with the company , WHOM i want to mention to those of you who do not know , will NOT sit down at the table as long as there are two unions representing the baggage handlers ..

In our last merger, America West Airlines / US AIRWAYS ...... the company ( our management which will be YOUR management ) used that as a stall tactic , and they drained MONTHS out of us that way ..

Gotcha, thanks.

 

[robbedagain]

freedom if you would read twu contract on the aa board or may be one of the aa memebers on here would kindly provide a link to one regardin several points... i totally agree that twu is not the union we need from what ive seen you all aa folks need to know freedom has no problem selling out his union bros and sisters just to save own freedom would rather give up everything for higher wages... as notok says why should they give up anything else.... as far as im concerned mgmt should give up most of everything including golden parachutes etc but then again freedom youll never understand bec you rather sell out just to get a buck or more then you cried wolf when us closed up more stations out on the west bec you voted to close them just for the freakin bucks next time read the contract agreement before you vote