Within a short period of time M&R workers at American Airlines will make a decision. This decision ranks about as critical as the day we made the decision to pursue a career in this industry.
The decision before us will be do we chose to stay with a union that encourages us to live in fear or do we join a union that is willing to fight in order to gain those things that unions have strived for since the very beginning-more wages, better benefits and better working conditions.
We know where the TWU stands. There will be no fight. The TWU has brokered concessions for twenty years and not once have they even attempted to lead a fight.
We know that the TWUs objective is more jobs at any price. But is such a strategy good for our long-term objectives?
Right now the TWU claims that they have protected jobs. They claimed that they have protected the pension.
The fact is they have done neither. When a union submits so easily it’s only a matter of time before the company comes back and takes whatever else they want.
Saving Jobs;
The union claim of “protecting jobs†is false. As a matter of fact the unions first counter-proposal to the company, which was rejected by the company stated;
Contractual Relief:
The TWU: Aircraft Maintenance, Title I proposes modifications to the Maintenance and Related Agreement, as it affects Title I Aircraft Maintenance.
1. Amend Article 42 Job Security, paragraph (a), to provide a release from system protection provision in order to realize saving either through layoffs as a result of productivity enhancements or negotiated outsourcing; both subject to further discussion.
2. In this time of need, the Union will agree to roll back Article 42 (a) language to a date that will only be sufficient to achieve the reduction in workforce necessary for the success of the Emergency Restructuring Agreement (totaling $263.2 million in savings). We remind the company that Article 42 Job security was originally agreed to in exchange for historical concessions as described in Article 47.
3. Amend Article 44 Moving Expenses to reduce $12,500 payment to $2,500 payment.
Starting Jan 1, 2003, any vacancy created through attrition (death, retirement, resignation, termination, etc) will be filled by recall of bargaining unit members furloughed due to this Emergency Restructuring Agreement who will be restored to their previous protected status as stated in the 2001 Mechanic and Related Agreement.
This was the proposal from the Presidents council. It was rejected. It’s obvious why. Because the company already had the lowest rates, was free to outsource, and could reduce headcount further through attrition. If the company had agreed to this they would not have been able to reach their objective of saving far, far beyond the $263.3 million posted.
The fact is that the company did not want to contract out any more than they already did because it would not be cost effective to do so. In many locations the company enjoys tax incentives and other grants that actually lower the stated cost. Under the current agreement they could already contract out as they pleased up to 49.99% of the work and they could continue to reduce headcount through attrition.
While the company made numerous threats; closing AFW, closing Tulsa, closing MCI, closing class II, that’s all they were, threats. Are we to believe that the company had all these operations going out of the goodness of their hearts or because they needed it to maintain the performance of their operation?
We know the answer to that because they said it themselves; they said that they couldn’t reach the savings goals through layoffs because then they could not run their operation.
So the TWU did not save anyone’s job. The company only kept what they wanted to keep. Proof of that are the thousands who were and are laid off. In the meantime we have had at least a thousand workers leave who have not been replaced. So the number of jobs eliminated is far higher than the reported number of layoffs.
Saved the Pension
Here is another false claim by the TWU. The TWU claims that they saved the pension. What they did was defer the issue. The company has sought to defer funding the pension until 2006. The same time that our “opener†kicks in. So the deal that will be offered is obvious. Get back vacation, holidays and a few dollars in exchange to a cash balance plan. (The reason why holidays and vacation will come back is because over the next few years’ absenteeism will increase to epidemic proportions, especially around the Holidays. By giving them back the company will be giving back something with a stated dollar value that would be offset by savings in sick time). In the meantime many older workers will be gone because as the plan is currently the longer they stay, the more they lose off their pension due to the massive 17.5% pay cut. The International will give all the warnings about how you don’t want to lose defined benefit but then say “We leave it to the membersâ€. Then afterwards they will tell irate members “Don’t blame us, the members voted for itâ€.
Another claim of the TWU is that going to a “stand alone†union is more risky. But the fact is that we have all stood alone as unions. The TWU did not help the IAM over at UAL or USAIR. As a matter of fact when I made a post demanding that these unions get together and threaten to strike if any contract was abrogated Jim Little demanded that I retract that statement and not make any further posts along that line of thought. He claimed that I was endangering the union.
Strength in Numbers
Strength in numbers is a valid concept. But, what kind of number are we talking about? Are we talking about absolute numbers or fractional numbers as in a percentage? The fact is that both can be important, it depends on the situation.
Lets say you are in a union with a million members. Sounds good right? Strong union right? Its members will be better paid than if they were in a small union right? Well maybe not. If you have a million members but the number of people doing that job is 10 million plus there is another 50 million with the skills required available to do that job then your million members really does not have that much power to set rates.
However lets say that you have a union with 1000 members. But they represent people with a unique and limited skill where those 1000 members represents over 90% of the available supply of people with that skill.
Which union would have more power at setting the rates for their members, the 1 million member union or the 1000 member union? Under those conditions, the 1000 member union would. Supply and demand. So the real important figure to look for as far as strength in numbers is percentage, what percentage of the supply does the union represent? Obviously the higher the percentage, the more powerful and effective the union should be. This is due to the fact that a unions true power lies in its ability to stop production. If replacements are easy to come by and available, then the union is weak. Regardless of its size.
One of the reasons why we must go to AMFA is that AMFA seeks to organize the whole craft. While the AFL-CIO unions are content to only go after the unorganized, leaving those who are organized fractured between many different unions with different agendas, AMFA is the only union that can offer us the opportunity for true Strength in Numbers by getting a majority of the percentage of mechanics in one organization. So even if the IAM, TWU and IBT were successful in organizing the unorganized, under the current structure-which all of these unions maintain is sound, despite twenty years of concessions, airline workers would still be in weak unions.
The TWU criticizes the lack of accomplishments of AMFA. Even though their accomplishments are considerably more notable than the TWU’s. But unless AMFA can gain the ability to represent the majority of the class and craft their potential will be severely limited. Strength in numbers. The higher the percentage of our class & craft in one union the stronger that union will be.
The concept is simple and proven. The more control you have over the supply of a product in demand the greater your ability to set the price.
One of the reasons that the TWU claims that we had to give away so much was to prevent outsourcing. How is the TWU addressing this problem? Their answer is cut wages, benefits and working conditions to compete. Unions should not encourage competition between workers, let the company do that. They brag about their vast resources but how are those resources being used to correct this problem? The answer is they are not. Nor will they ever be. A&P mechanics make up less than 10% of the TWU. We simply are not that important to them. If they could reduce us even more and get more members in the process they would, and have.
The correct response would be to organize those facilities that provide outsourcing services. However has their been an attempt? TWU supporters would claim “then why doesn’t AMFA do itâ€? The answer to that is, “they willâ€. Right now, AMFA admittedly has limited resources. However with the addition of AA, AMFA will increase their treasury by $9 million a year. At that time we would expect a major restructuring of AMFA that while it may not abandon the “grassroots organizing†it must start a more aggressive plan to get the majority of the profession, not just the airlines, but wherever A&P mechanics are employed, MROs, FBOs, Corporate etc, as members of AMFA. It should even start a program to introduce students at A&P schools to the organization. When AMFA gets the majority of aircraft mechanics into the organization then our ability to gain what we need, what we expected and what we deserve from this profession, will be undeniable.
So the choice before us is clear;
Stay with the TWU, an organization that for twenty years has told us we must give back, work for less and fear for our jobs. That has no plan to reverse this course. That defends this course of a continual decline as the best course because as our pay and benefits decline their membership goes up. That does not feel that there is a problem, but if there is then the problem is with the members and not the structure of the organization. That does not feel that getting our entire class and craft into one union is important. To stay with an organization that can only offer us more concessions, that tells us we are still overpaid and be thankful for what we got.
OR
Go with AMFA. An organization that seeks to unite our entire class and craft into one union across the entire industry. That believes that our profession is seriously under paid. That will fight for us. That considers our profession a profession. That respects and values what we do. That respects our opinions and wishes by adopting a democratic Constitution that allows the members to choose their leaders. That respects our wishes to observe negotiations. That promotes the profession. A union that believes that we can and will have a better future.
To me the choice is an easy one. AMFA. With AMFA we will have an organization that can be focused and effective. Unlike the TWU that represents anyone from government workers, AMTRACK, Vegas card dealers and so on. None of those workers could ever be expected to support our issues, and even if they did, how effective could their support be? The TWU represents .0003% of the population. They represent less than 3% of A&P mechanics. And they have no intention on focusing on representing more of any particular type of worker, just more of any type of worker. In fact they have deliberately eliminated A&P jobs by transferring A&P work to other members of the union. They have no more interest in our profession than the scores of other title groups they represent or used to represent like the building cleaners. Their only concern is the supply of dues, the source of which is unimportant.
The objectives of the TWU are incompatible with our objectives as skilled workers. We want to see our wages and benefits increase, while they are willing to trade off those things in exchange for more jobs, not necessarily more A&P jobs, but more dues paying jobs of any classification.
