Kev3188
Veteran
**BINGO**
Bye bye Tulsa
- Thread starter brownmech
- Start date
So they not only took your job, they attempted to keep your tools, your ability to earn a living, as well. Then we get people who claim to be union defending their actions. You were right to refuse to leave not only your property but your means to earn a living as well.
KEV3188;
There were two Don Videtichs, the elected one and the appointed one. The elected one often challenged the International, the appointed one did everything that the elected Don accused the International of and more. Both had huge egos, in fact the elected one had all his letters bound into a book for future generations to admire, alongside Codex Liecester, Magna Carta and of course St Cuthbert Gospel. The Don V that was appointed did immense damage to the profession. Its no surprise that we have not seen him return to his box yet despite being removed a month ago. He obviously isn't in a rush to work under what he put in place.
There is no doubt that the structure is at least part to blame for the failures at AA. It was a structure designed to fail, from Sonny Halls selective splitting of M&R from the Fleet Locals to the fact that appointed representatives carried all the authority, Local Presidents are Presidents in name only, at best they have the authority of Chairmen with budgets.
If you read the TWU Constitution its clear that Locals in the AA system are not really Locals, the Dues are not sent to the Locals as they are with all other Locals, the Dues are sent to the International. The only time, per the Constitution that dues are sent to the International instead of the Locals is when the Local has become delinquent. This has been the practice at AA for as long as I remember.
In the late 1990's Sonny Hall allowed some mechanics to join Maint Locals but denied others. Just so happens that the Presidents Council was rebelling against the International and those Locals were the primary targets. Mechanics in smaller stations such as DCA where denied the ability to vote to Join the Maint Locals and Title II ended up all over the place. This lead to us having a huge negotiating committee where the line Maint Locals where greatly outnumbered by the combined forces of Fleet and Tulsa. (In the recent BK negotiations every AMT sans one, an elderly AMT from STL (who got to keep his position as president despite the fact that his class and craft was moved to Local 591) voted against bringing the concessions back, they were out voted by guys appointed by Fleet service to represent Title II, guys from Title II and a painter from Title I.
The International kept the structure so screwed up because it served their purposes. they retained all control over contract language and system board grievances. They appointed the Union representative on the panel and the grievance process became a means of retribution against locals who fell out of favor. The International would simply allow cases brought forth by unfavored Locals to fail, so it would look poorly on the elected representatives and hope that they were voted out by a frustrated membership. The International also formed Committees, once again staffed by appointees who would meet with the company and basically set policy, and the Presidents had no say in who sat on those committees. This was made very clear when during one of the Presidents Councils I sat in on we were told flat out by the International that the Committees are the Internationals committees and the Presidents Council has no say in it. When AA decided to terminate the Supplimental Medical, and pocket the $80 million in proceeds that had accumulated the International did nothing. When the Company decided to allow third party ramp workers onto the JFK ramp local 501, representing the Ramp workers, filed a lawsuit, the Internationals lawyer waited till they were in court to let them know that they had no jurisdiction to file anything in the name of the TWU, that the TWU International, owner of the contract was in agreement with the company. (501 was an 'out of favor" Fleet Local).
Just scratching the surface here of the horrors that have occurred here. On the bright side the majority of the new administration of the Union does not come from the Company Friendly ATD side. Already they have made changes that are pretty significant, they have terminated a lot of the pro-company lackeys, including Don Videtich, they have informed the company that the Presidents have authority over the contracts, they are to no longer call the International to address contractual issues, if its a Line Issue they call Petersn, if its a Tulsa Base Issue they call Danker, if its an AFW/DFW issue they call Pike, if its across the board all three sit in, they have turned control of the system board over to the locals, now Locals will pick the Union representative on the Panel, these are significant changes, one last major hurdle IMO is how to settle the structural problem with the representation of TitleII. This is essential, because it was the primary reason why talks dragged on for over three years in M&R without any real pressure for a release. It was a huge factor in why we ended up so far from the rest of the industry compared to our Union peers in every other department. Title II needs to be given three options, they can not stay as they are where they are split all over the place, they either all go with Maint Locals, they all go with Fleet Locals, or they go into their own Local. If they choose either of the later then they will need to move into their own book as well.
There were two Don Videtichs, the elected one and the appointed one. The elected one often challenged the International, the appointed one did everything that the elected Don accused the International of and more. Both had huge egos, in fact the elected one had all his letters bound into a book for future generations to admire, alongside Codex Liecester, Magna Carta and of course St Cuthbert Gospel. The Don V that was appointed did immense damage to the profession. Its no surprise that we have not seen him return to his box yet despite being removed a month ago. He obviously isn't in a rush to work under what he put in place.
There is no doubt that the structure is at least part to blame for the failures at AA. It was a structure designed to fail, from Sonny Halls selective splitting of M&R from the Fleet Locals to the fact that appointed representatives carried all the authority, Local Presidents are Presidents in name only, at best they have the authority of Chairmen with budgets.
If you read the TWU Constitution its clear that Locals in the AA system are not really Locals, the Dues are not sent to the Locals as they are with all other Locals, the Dues are sent to the International. The only time, per the Constitution that dues are sent to the International instead of the Locals is when the Local has become delinquent. This has been the practice at AA for as long as I remember.
In the late 1990's Sonny Hall allowed some mechanics to join Maint Locals but denied others. Just so happens that the Presidents Council was rebelling against the International and those Locals were the primary targets. Mechanics in smaller stations such as DCA where denied the ability to vote to Join the Maint Locals and Title II ended up all over the place. This lead to us having a huge negotiating committee where the line Maint Locals where greatly outnumbered by the combined forces of Fleet and Tulsa. (In the recent BK negotiations every AMT sans one, an elderly AMT from STL (who got to keep his position as president despite the fact that his class and craft was moved to Local 591) voted against bringing the concessions back, they were out voted by guys appointed by Fleet service to represent Title II, guys from Title II and a painter from Title I.
The International kept the structure so screwed up because it served their purposes. they retained all control over contract language and system board grievances. They appointed the Union representative on the panel and the grievance process became a means of retribution against locals who fell out of favor. The International would simply allow cases brought forth by unfavored Locals to fail, so it would look poorly on the elected representatives and hope that they were voted out by a frustrated membership. The International also formed Committees, once again staffed by appointees who would meet with the company and basically set policy, and the Presidents had no say in who sat on those committees. This was made very clear when during one of the Presidents Councils I sat in on we were told flat out by the International that the Committees are the Internationals committees and the Presidents Council has no say in it. When AA decided to terminate the Supplimental Medical, and pocket the $80 million in proceeds that had accumulated the International did nothing. When the Company decided to allow third party ramp workers onto the JFK ramp local 501, representing the Ramp workers, filed a lawsuit, the Internationals lawyer waited till they were in court to let them know that they had no jurisdiction to file anything in the name of the TWU, that the TWU International, owner of the contract was in agreement with the company. (501 was an 'out of favor" Fleet Local).
Just scratching the surface here of the horrors that have occurred here. On the bright side the majority of the new administration of the Union does not come from the Company Friendly ATD side. Already they have made changes that are pretty significant, they have terminated a lot of the pro-company lackeys, including Don Videtich, they have informed the company that the Presidents have authority over the contracts, they are to no longer call the International to address contractual issues, if its a Line Issue they call Petersn, if its a Tulsa Base Issue they call Danker, if its an AFW/DFW issue they call Pike, if its across the board all three sit in, they have turned control of the system board over to the locals, now Locals will pick the Union representative on the Panel, these are significant changes, one last major hurdle IMO is how to settle the structural problem with the representation of TitleII. This is essential, because it was the primary reason why talks dragged on for over three years in M&R without any real pressure for a release. It was a huge factor in why we ended up so far from the rest of the industry compared to our Union peers in every other department. Title II needs to be given three options, they can not stay as they are where they are split all over the place, they either all go with Maint Locals, they all go with Fleet Locals, or they go into their own Local. If they choose either of the later then they will need to move into their own book as well.
MetalMover
Veteran
- Sep 16, 2013
- 3,543
- 2,410
The bottom line is that ALL airline workers paid a price with the onset of deregulation. It really never stopped.Kev3188 said:
Actually wages improved under the first few years of Deregulation, it was when CAL used BK and the airlines unions were excluded from sect 1167 of C-11 , when Reagan fired PATCO and the labor movement failed to respond to either that things started going downhill. Citing Deregulation as the main reason for our downfall is a conditioning tool to make us believe that it was inevitable, it wasn't.
Our downfall is not the result of changes to the law, it was the result of labors failure to respond to those changes.
Our downfall is not the result of changes to the law, it was the result of labors failure to respond to those changes.
iluvaa said:
Thanks for info, but you're on xmas holiday!!!! This is a 24 hour operation, please tell me there are no planes sitting in the hangers not making money !!!!
Only TULE gets a xmas holiday (which I'm glad you get to spend time with your family's), but wanting GEO pay is considered anti unionism, (which I'm disappointed that isn't negotiated in the contract, because Tulsa has a low cost of living)
I'll give the TUL motto
"If you don't like it, move to TUL"
Enough complaining, hope everyone had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, or Festivus
Flying low
Veteran
- Jul 19, 2011
- 629
- 232
Don't you mean the ones who didn't save for vacation are the ones working.....iluvaa said:
I really wonder how much $ is saved during this week.
AA Tulsa Mechanic
Senior
- Jul 18, 2008
- 307
- 95
the planned layoffs have been put on hold, that was an AA layoff..... it is up to Usair if there is one but I'm hearing no layoffs.bigjets said:
MetalMover
Veteran
- Sep 16, 2013
- 3,543
- 2,410
I would say that with respects to layoffs, if there were to occur now rather than later, it would be a result of what out current contract allows and certain fleet retirements.AA Tulsa Mechanic said:
This was another gem put in the contract by the TWU in the 90s. A shut down of the maint. base for Christmas. So AA decides when we are to take a week of our vacation. If you think for one second that this is a benefit then you're wrong. We either take a week of vacation or we are forced to take it without pay. This is a lockout and nothing else.bigjets said:
Thanks for info, but you're on xmas holiday!!!! This is a 24 hour operation, please tell me there are no planes sitting in the hangers not making money !!!!
Only TULE gets a xmas holiday (which I'm glad you get to spend time with your family's), but wanting GEO pay is considered anti unionism, (which I'm disappointed that isn't negotiated in the contract, because Tulsa has a low cost of living)
I'll give the TUL motto
"If you don't like it, move to TUL"
Enough complaining, hope everyone had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, or Festivus
