I ask---after 10 years at usair west why do you have no scope at all.
Scope is only as good as the unions desire to enforce it. Obviously for the thousands who lost their jobs despite your language Scope was not very effective.
T-bone, 700U admitted that the whole thing is screwed up. How will staying with the IAM, in afractured labor movement where those at the top with their six figure salaries and generous perks are quite content, move us as workers in a single transportation system towards the unity we need to restore our compensation?
The fact is that if you stay with the IAM nothing will ever get better.
Workers in a single industry will be split up between several business unions. Those unions are concerned about only one thing-dues flow. Most of these unions, like the TWU and IAM have developed Internationals that are immune from accountability to the membership. Locals have no power so attending meetings will change nothing.
The IBT has left the AFL-CIO. They are out of the old boys network where nobody steps on the other guys turf. Are the Teamster alter boys, no. Do they have their problems -yes. But our problems as airlines workers go way beyond corrupt individuals. Our problem is that we are not united, nor can we ever be if we are all in different unions.
The IBT exodus from the AFL-CIO gives the workers of this industry the opportunity to make a move to do what the leaders would not do-work towards unity by getting us all into one union. When management of any airline sits down at the table they can no longer say "Work with us and we will make your membership grow (at the expense of other unions)". The Teamsters wont care. You want workers, this is what you pay. Growth here at the expense of jobs at a competitor and pay rates across the entire industry will no longer appeal to the union.
I dont see how staying with the IAM, with the promise of more of the same, could appeal to anybody, except those on the IAM payroll.
What does staying with the IAM have to offer over the long haul? The IAM is a dying union. They have no plan, and the structure prevents anyone with a plan from entering the picture. Listen to 700U, he blames the membership, refuses to discuss whats wrong with the labor movement and how to fix it. Is this the best workers can hope for with their dues dollars?
