Pardon my interruption to the groupthink lovefest, but notice how no one will discuss my aforementioned subject to the ugly reality of demanding so much to the point of being replaced?
Face it.... there are tens of thousands of low-skilled, low-educated people who would do our 4/8 jobs for about $12/hour, plus benefits. If your neighbor's kid demanded twice the going rate to mow your lawn, would you simply say, "I support the working boy, and will pay whatever the kid demands!" Of course, you wouldn't, and neither will Parker.
Reminder... it happened with Midwest Airlines, it happened at Alaska Airlines, Delta already uses in-house vendors for their ramp in most locations, and Northwest had the ability to find licensed and trained aircraft mechanics as permanent replacements for those on strike. Maybe Boss Canale is reading something you all can't bear yourselves to accept and you instead look for some United/Parker/Canale conspiracies to explain an ugly truth. Voting for March Hare and his enabling band of Mad Hatters on the Nihilist Directions Team will not change the facts of our industry, our changing economy, our lowly job requirements, or our company's ability to find replacements.
Will anyone address the possibility of being replaced by a vendor? Tim? O-man? Roadie? PJ? Dio? Redeye? Mike? Perserverance? Roabilly? Anyone? Better start thinking about it, because two years isn't that far off.
You all might loathe me, but consider me to be your long past due cognitive therapy session.
So Counsels Jester.
The fear of contracting out the ramp is a fair question but to answer it we must go to the scope. And in case of mergers, we must look at the future possibilities by reviewing the current models [union and non-union] in the airline industry.
USAIRWAYS can not contract out any station in the TWU agreement. I actually think there is one station that we have members and it doesn't even have any USAIRWAYS flights [is it Long Beach?]. Over on the East side, USAIRWAYS contracted out all stations except the 11 stations that are protected under class 1 status [PVD, BDL is up for reclassifying in April]. Also can't contract out catering in certain of these stations.
OTOH, the second class stations are really the equivalent of contracted out stations with 'cheap labor' rates, the only difference is that the IAM can continue to get dues off of them.
Basically, the only way USAIRWAYS can contract out more work is if the workers would have naively listened to the negotiations committee and passed the last enema. It would have 'doomed' 19 stations with the "Wizard of Canale hour glass". Without the new 'Canale sweetheart agreement' the only other way USAIRWAYS could contract out work is if there was a strike where it self imposed a contract. This isn't the case.
At any rate, your mentioning of Delta is interesting but misleading. Delta ramp currently works more stations than the IAM's class 1 stations. Delta ramp works the following 15 stations: LAX ATL SLC HNL CVG EWR LGA JFK BOS FLL TPA MCO SJU MSY DCA. And Delta currently has at or over 7,000 rampers that the IAM is attempting to organize. Like USAIRWAYS, Delta came out of Bankruptcy too, however, the Delta worker's job is worth more on paper than the current USAIRWAYS class 1 station employee. Just goes to show you how awful Canale has done in bankuptcy. I mean non-union workers came out better than what Canale did.
Throw in Continental ramp and I don't think it makes 'good sense' to suggest its the norm to contract out the ramp at major airlines, regardless if union or non-union. Continental rampers make close to $20hr but really make closer to $22hr when figuring in their incredible industry leading profit sharing plan.
That being said, if USAIRWAYS didn't have a contract to keep the ramp then I think it would be the one airline that is stupid enough to contract out the entire ramp in this service industry. I only remember one airline that did that [People's express] and the service was disasterous. For some reason, strictly my own opinion on the matter [I hope my opinion is wrong], it seems to me that USAIRWAYS thinks its unionized employees are all enemy a$$holes. I don't know why that is but this company is corrupted at the top and needs a visionary that knows how to treat human beings.
regards,
Tim Nelson, email
here
IAM Local Chairman, 1487, Chicago
