Raptor said:
I don't believe the contract does belong to the TWU cause if it did if AMFA won an election we would be without a contract as the TWU would take their contract with them, the Railway Labor Act say's the contract belongs to the members hence if the members vote in another Union the contract goes with the members it does not stay with the previous Union, that Federal Judge was just a wacko, most lawyers are, ok there was a snake in the road and a lawyer in the road both were hit by cars the ony difference was the snake had skid marks in front of it the lawyer did not.
Moral of the story don't believe everything a snake or a lawyer tell you.
Well wackos or not the fact is that as long as we have the TWU as our representative then we allow them to have custody of our contract and they can modify it as they see fit without our consent as long as it does not contradict the Constitution.
The key here is that we have the right to vote out the TWU, so as far as the courts are concerned, as long as we dont vote them out then we accept those terms.
If we vote out the TWU then custody would go to whoever we vote in. The difference is in the Constitution and the structure. With AMFA we would have the right to vote out whoever controls our contract while with the TWU we do not. While this may sound minor its not. If you do not have the right to fire your representative then they can pursue their own interests at your expense and there is nothing you can do about it.
The TWU International owns your contract, read the cover, what does it say?
Agreement between American Airlines and Transport Workers Union Of America, AFL-CIO.
Do you see anything about the members?
Do you see anything about the Locals?
Well neither do the judges or the lawyers.
As far as the courts are concerned it could be an agreement between two corporations. In such an agreement would employees have the right to sue? No. Well you are basically considered an employee of the TWU contracted to work for AA as far as challenges concerning the contract.
This was proven over several court cases.
When several Presidents sued the International for splitting up their Locals and forming the maint locals the Judge said that the Presidents Council has no say in how the International runs the union.
When we sued the International the Judge said that its the Internationals contract and they dont even have to let the members vote on it.
When Local 501 sued, challenging the Kasher Decision the Judge said that Local 501 is not a party to the contract therefore they have no basis to sue.