Overspeed said:
Just sarcasm. Bob wanted a strike so here is his chance to lead the charge.
Voting for new representation is part of a process. So what now? The new regime at 514, 567, and 591 will have to explain the virtues of staying with the TWU to all if us. In the aggregate, the TWU has done better than all other unions in the industry.
I wanted a strike? No thats what Don Videtich and Mark Richard said to scare the Tulsa and Title II guys into voting YES. I wanted us to continue with the process that has been in place for over 80 years, which is if the company fails to move you go to mediation, if they still fail to move you request a release, then it can be a strike, or other forms of self help, or we could end up in a PEB or with the stakes much higher for everyone in the room a deal could be struck. Under the Videtich strategy there was zero pressure on the company to move off their ZERO cost table position. Was I willing to strike in order to get a fair deal-YES, and anyone who isn't doesn't belong in a Union.
We rejected a TA in 2010 after three years of talks and over two years of a pay freeze and still the International refused to demand a release. That is unprecedented. Following the rejection Don and his team decided to punish the Locals whose leaders pushed for rejection of the concessionary TA and release. Every member that voted NO was aware that NO meant the possibility of a strike, they made that choice but Little and Videtich chose to ignore that and still not go for the release. No Union that I know of has ever been refused a release after the members rejected a TA that was struck in mediation. So three months after the TA was rejected they pared down the Committee so the YES Locals could save money and had the NO locals continue in negotiations. At the time they said "you own it", till we voted to request a release, then all of a sudden we didnt own it and the whole committee had to vote on it, thats when the FSC Presidents would normally show up, but this was July and many of them were on Vacation, so the vote passed again, again the International refused to ask for a release, made us vote again the following month, after Little invited the Union Buster former head of Aircon in to tell us why we should not request to be released, by then Little and Don were able to get enough YES votes in the room.
No airline with as much market share as AA has ever been allowed to Strike. While several were allowed to strike back in 1966 the country was not as reliant on air travel back then as it is now. Odds are we, like the Pilots in 1997, when we held a much smaller share of the market, would have ended up in a PEB.
The company had not moved in three years of negotiations, it was obvious they were not going to move as long as Don and Jim Little refused to push for release. The company was perfectly content to talk forever with the mechanics, after all we already had the worst contract in the industry, the longer they kept us talking the more money they saved. Little/Videtich, Richard's response was none of the other Unions were pushing for a release, my response was none of the other unions are at the bottom of the industry, if they got released a PEB probably would not be that good for them, they probably would have ended up with a deal that was concessionary. Even after exiting BK those groups still remain at or near the top of the industry while we sunk to new depths, making as much as 40% lower than our peers who we were equal to just 12 years ago. No other workgroup on the property has seen their standing decline as much as line Mechanics have.
So yes I was pushing for a release because thats the only way to move the process forward, it would raise the stakes for everyone involved, vs talking forever as inflation eats away at whats left of our earnings while the company, Videtich (who continued to get raises) and Little laugh all the way to the bank. Yes there is a chance we could have had to go on strike, but this isn't 2005 and there aren't thousands of qualified mechanics out there anymore who are waiting to scab for what AA is offering, in fact AA has a hard enough time filling the openings they have. They will need 50 more guys in JFK soon, and thats not counting those who left. AA has built their business model on OT, I already know guys who are younger than me who have decided that they will not work more than one OT per week, and other who wont work any, because they have other jobs. The fact is we were in a good position to make gains and Videtich was successful at making sure we didn't go forward in the process. If the PEB had recommend a contract that brought us up to the rates enjoyed by our peers but at the price of allowing as much outsourcing we could have rejected the PEB (at that time OH still had the numbers to do so, that wont be the case next time) at which point we could still strike, then it would have been up to both parties to come to a deal or likely have the PEB recommendations imposed, in the end they got their outsourcing, more than they could even exploit and we are all at substandard wages, benefits and working conditions, AFW was closed and Tulsa continues to shrink as fast as AA can find people to do the work or as the MD-80s are replaced by new aircraft.
Is it your position that the guys at US should just roll over and we should not support them? Are you saying that they should go three years without a pay increase or as long as it takes for their members to submit to another concessionary deal and claim they are doing it to save jobs like you? If going for a release with a possibility of striking ok for them why was it wrong for us? The fact is they have better Holiday pay, better Vacation, Better sick time, better joib protection and better work rules than we do, yet they are asking for a release, if you were at US no doubt you would be saying that they too should just accept whatever shitty deal the company is offering as they sit on $10 billion in cash, the execs just cashed in $60million in shares and are poised to earn $3 billion a year in profits (with No profit sharing either).
The fact is that Jim Little and Don Videtich and their minions did more damage to this profession than Frank Lorenzo.
