I am feeling a sense of deja vu as far as dues are concerned. I fail to understand why you did not see that coming. A union is a business just like AMR, Xerox, Dell… or whom ever. Their goal is to make money. Since a union does not produce any goods or services, they rely on your dues. Why on earth would a corporation voluntarily reduce their income and as a result the union leaders wages when they can sell out their constituents? I cannot help but see the irony in the fact that you are getting rake over by both management and by your respective unions. The kicker is that you are paying the union extra to hose you. Given the fact that a vast majority of the countries labor goes to work each day with out the benefit of being controlled by a union, don’t you think we would be running for union control if we felt our work conditions were so horrible? Unions have a very bad reputation in the general public. You have a reputation of being thugs, protection for mediocrity, and corrupt. I was at a Ford dealer the other day with a friend who was looking for a car. A salesman and my self got to shooting the bull and he said told me that his dad (and entire family worked for GM). The son did not like GM (had nothing against them just really wanted a Mustang, liked them all his life). His dad would not let him park the car anywhere near his house. Told the son if he had 1 hour to pack his stuff up and move out when the father found out his son worked for Ford. That is the mentality that a vast majority of the US associated with unions. Fanatics who would place friendship and family below their union association. I could not even fathom the idea of kicking my son out of the house because he chose to work for Delta or United or South West or whom ever he chose to work for.
Thread after thread after thread is railing against the unions (all of them) or management. Seems to me that after close to 20 years of service at AA, I have not been screwed over nearly as much as you folks have been. We talk about it at work all the time and I don’t think there is a person on the floor who has indicated that they would want to be represented. You folks have a huge image problem. You come across as bullies. Look at the NWA threads and the “scab-mobile†and the “scab of the week†garbage. Do you think that does any good for your image? Do you think that kind of mentality would want to make anyone come to work in a union?