1AA said:
So does this filing approve the request or will they have to vote their choice of union representation?
Why can't the TWU and IAM do the same?
They can,, but apparently only if both agree. I can fully understand the IAM agreeing to this, since their group is much smaller, if they couldnt get enough cards from AA workers to get to the 50% plus 1 they would lose members and dues, their track record at USAIR isnt very convincing, the question is why did Little agree?
I believe this was Littles last gift to AA management and final betrayal of the membership. A structural division of the membership betweeen two equally weak unions that would ensure that management gets whatever they want for many years to come.
If there was no agreement then the only possible chance the IAM would have as far as being the "winning" union would be to take a much more agressive position in negotiations and hope that by getting a deal at US that was far superior to what the TWU had in place that TWU members would fill out cards. But what happened? The IAM signed the deal, then sat on the sidelines for months, giving US labor peace when they certainly did not deserve it. Their table position, what they are asking for, isnt even industry leading, its below what UAL and DAL get, weak, very weak. So now we would have the biggest airline in the country where mechanics are the worst paid in the industry, by far, being split between two unions with a track record of substandard contracts, in a structure that will no doubt continue to deliver substandard contracts for the NEW AA.
Without the Alliance the IAM would have had no choice but to take a very agressive position in negotiations, they certainly would have nothing to lose by doing so, who benefits from the IAMs timidity in negotiations? The company. Who benefits from a weak Union structure? The company. Who benefits from a structurally divided membership ? The company. Who loses? WE DO.
Its doubtful that the Joint agreement will be better than the best parts of both contracts which would still be a substandard contract for mechanics, and even if we got that how many years beyond 2018 would the company be demanding? Built in excuses as we sit well into the next decade at the bottom of the industry. I can hear it already "Be patient, this will be our first section six negotiations since the merger", where have we heard that before? US went into BK 11 years ago in 2002 and we hear the IAM saying that to their workers going into 2014.
Today I came across a copy of the 2001 agreement. In 2003 our base pay was $30.61, in 2015 it will be $30.62. We still had shift premiums and Longevity back then so without even factoring in all the other lost benefits or inflation our pay in 2015 will still be much less than it was in 2003, how many more years will we be looking up from the bottom if we allow this Alliance, where the Negotiators will be appointed, to negotiate the next contract? Are you prepared to hear the excuse that USAIR workers, who have been out of BK for over 8 years have been hearing, blaming the merger and the deal they cut that locked them out of normal negootiations even longer? The last thing we need is to walk into these negotiations represented by two different unions. We must walk in as one.
The pilots and flight attendants who were never at the bottom of the industry have correctly decided that they will not enter such flawed structures, nor will they battle for the membership, for the sake of the members one bowed out. Clearly their organizations put the members ahead of dues. We must make it clear that these two unions must come up with a better plan, or the members will. The whole point of forming a Union is to take the power of many and make it into one, not two. Certainly not two where all the power is taken away from the members. This alliance they have created will give us less accountability than we had with Jim Littles TWU. Its a managements dream come true. We have made some important advances since the Convention, and Local 591 is becoming more than the sum of the five line Locals, this Alliance would undo that. The base Locals would remain pretty much intact, but the Line would be split and shuffled between the IAM and TWU with all authority, not just negotiations ,once again being with the International and its appointees instead of elected Presidents.
This is something that Jim Little and his appointees put together. We must teell them its unacceptable and they need to come up with something else, we should not agree to this Allaince BS.
