OK so you have focused upon some remarks made by a few AMFA supporters. Are your hands clean? Have you made offensive remarks or accusations without getting the facts? You most certainly have. And as you hide behind an alias and make such remarks about me I have always replied, when too much truth came out you abandon the discussion.
Talk about thought process how about how Sonny Hall and Jim Little tell people things that they want to hear. I've heard numerous contradictory statements from these guys. Some of them I have in writing, signed by them. The biggest one is how Sonny says that we are a Democratic union, with a Democratic Constitution, then the TWU testifies in court that, according to the Constitution they do not have have to let the members vote on their contract and that those members who did not recieve ballotts were not denied anything they were entitled to.
Being able to vote is one of the things that qualifies a Democracy.
In the AA TWU/ATD members do not get to vote on who controls the contract nor do they have a right to vote on what those people choose to bring back. THe negotiating committee is a farce because that committee never actually negotiates face to face with the company. Instead they "negotiate" between themselves and the International. When they come to a concencus they give the result to Jim Little who leaves the room and comes back with the company's reply. Those who favored the result do not get to present their logic and arguements directly to the company. So in reality they can sit there for years coming up with whatever they want but unless Jim Little, the man who does the actual communicating with the company, is in favor of it, it is not going anywhere.
There are so many barriers to Democracy in this union that it is demeaning to the whole concept of Democracy to call what we have a Democracy.
Look at you guys, more than likely you are TWU officers who make wild allegations from behind an alias. While none of us are without sin,your chosen role models are hardly moral examples to follow. Is that why you choose to remain anonymous, or are you hedging your bets so that when AMFA gets in you can deny what you say now?
We could go back and forth and the conclusion from any outside or neutral observer would be that we are all subject to human falibilities. While you focus on the individual the real debate should be upon the ideology of the institutions we are supporting. This is not going to be an election of an individual but rather an election where mechanics choose their future path. Do we stay with the TWU and continue to sacrifice wages and benifits in order to help American grow and create more jobs? Do we confine our perspective to American Airlines, putting their earnings and financial well being ahead of our own? Do we buy into the "trickle down theory" and follow the Walmart concept and work for less so we can work more? Or do we choose to get a union that looks at a broader perspective of a career and not just one single employer? Should we stay with a union that considers us overpaid since we make more than double that of the average member or do we join a union that want to focus on and promote the craft that we learned independant of and paid for prior to even coming to AA? What should our union promote? The company or our profession?
There is one simple fact that the TWU supporters have chosen to avoid. That fact is exposed on the AA mechanics pay vs CPI thread. That fact is that the decline that we just saw, as dramatic as it was, was not an anomaly. It was in effect a reverse snap back. A snap back to the company. Before 9-11 we had to get what AMFA got over at NWA because without it the TWU would have been out. The demand for mechanics was insatiable at the time so the company and the TWU had no choice but to match AMFA at NWA.
The sagging economy gave the company and the TWU the opportunity to get things back on the path they have taken since 1983. They put in place a long term contract that locks us in and claim that they have saved jobs, however our rate of A&P mechanics, being paid as such, is still one of the lowest in the industry. As far as A&P jobs lost, never to return, we have led the industry for twenty years. We pioneered the erosion of A&P jobs by transferring work to other departments and by creating a subclass of permenently low paid unliscenced mechanics called SRPs.
If you look at the graph its clearly shown that we were simply put right back on the track that the TWU has had us on for the last twenty years. The constant but slow decline that we have been on since 1983 has allowed the company and the International TWU to reap huge rewards off our continued slow decline.
As our wages sank, their profits and per capita swelled.
I have no doubt that our paycuts and lost benifits helped to create more jobs at AA, however they were created here at the cost of better pay and benifits elsewhere. Before you were hired at AA would it have really mattered which company hired you? Over time other carriers were forced to try and get the "Industry Leading Concessions" that the TWU gave AA on a consistant basis.
Most other Unions were not able to get their members to give away what the TWU was able to convince their members to give up. UAL and USAIR had to go bankrupt in order to get what the TWU gave to AA.
I've been a mechanic for 25 years now. I've had several employers, however AA is where I would like to retire from.
However as we continue in our TWU led decline, as illustrated in the graph, I have to wonder if that is possible. How low , and how long should we hang on?
We know that this union, with their average $15/hr member, and six figure earning International officers, still feels that we are overpaid.
WE know that they have no plan, they have never recovered what they gave up in 83 even though other carriers did not follow, why should we think that they will ever get us back even what the bankrupt carriers still have?
We know that we have no right to choose who controls our contract nor do we have the right to pick who controls him.
WE know that with the TWU we have led the Industry in Concessions for twenty years and when we confront the leaders we did not, and can not, choose, they simply say "You guys voted it in".
We know that if we stay with the TWU we will stay on the same path we have been on for twenty years, far longer than the current economic slowdown. A decline that has remained nearly uninterupted by two of the largest economic expansions in history. In good times and bad there is one constant with the TWU-Concessions.
The fact is we need a New Direction. WE can go that way by voting to take back control of our careers. Control that we had when we first enrolled in A&P school. Control that we gave up when we signed on to a union that was led by people who never worked on an airplane or worked in the industry. WE can get that by voting for AMFA.
We need a union that will lead us into the fight for our profession, not order us to surrender or else.
We need a union where we can hold those at the top accountable with our ballott.
We need a union that respects and promotes the profession.
We need a union that is our union, a mechanics union.
THe TWU will never meet any of those needs, there is only one union out there that could-AMFA.
Talk about thought process how about how Sonny Hall and Jim Little tell people things that they want to hear. I've heard numerous contradictory statements from these guys. Some of them I have in writing, signed by them. The biggest one is how Sonny says that we are a Democratic union, with a Democratic Constitution, then the TWU testifies in court that, according to the Constitution they do not have have to let the members vote on their contract and that those members who did not recieve ballotts were not denied anything they were entitled to.
Being able to vote is one of the things that qualifies a Democracy.
In the AA TWU/ATD members do not get to vote on who controls the contract nor do they have a right to vote on what those people choose to bring back. THe negotiating committee is a farce because that committee never actually negotiates face to face with the company. Instead they "negotiate" between themselves and the International. When they come to a concencus they give the result to Jim Little who leaves the room and comes back with the company's reply. Those who favored the result do not get to present their logic and arguements directly to the company. So in reality they can sit there for years coming up with whatever they want but unless Jim Little, the man who does the actual communicating with the company, is in favor of it, it is not going anywhere.
There are so many barriers to Democracy in this union that it is demeaning to the whole concept of Democracy to call what we have a Democracy.
Look at you guys, more than likely you are TWU officers who make wild allegations from behind an alias. While none of us are without sin,your chosen role models are hardly moral examples to follow. Is that why you choose to remain anonymous, or are you hedging your bets so that when AMFA gets in you can deny what you say now?
We could go back and forth and the conclusion from any outside or neutral observer would be that we are all subject to human falibilities. While you focus on the individual the real debate should be upon the ideology of the institutions we are supporting. This is not going to be an election of an individual but rather an election where mechanics choose their future path. Do we stay with the TWU and continue to sacrifice wages and benifits in order to help American grow and create more jobs? Do we confine our perspective to American Airlines, putting their earnings and financial well being ahead of our own? Do we buy into the "trickle down theory" and follow the Walmart concept and work for less so we can work more? Or do we choose to get a union that looks at a broader perspective of a career and not just one single employer? Should we stay with a union that considers us overpaid since we make more than double that of the average member or do we join a union that want to focus on and promote the craft that we learned independant of and paid for prior to even coming to AA? What should our union promote? The company or our profession?
There is one simple fact that the TWU supporters have chosen to avoid. That fact is exposed on the AA mechanics pay vs CPI thread. That fact is that the decline that we just saw, as dramatic as it was, was not an anomaly. It was in effect a reverse snap back. A snap back to the company. Before 9-11 we had to get what AMFA got over at NWA because without it the TWU would have been out. The demand for mechanics was insatiable at the time so the company and the TWU had no choice but to match AMFA at NWA.
The sagging economy gave the company and the TWU the opportunity to get things back on the path they have taken since 1983. They put in place a long term contract that locks us in and claim that they have saved jobs, however our rate of A&P mechanics, being paid as such, is still one of the lowest in the industry. As far as A&P jobs lost, never to return, we have led the industry for twenty years. We pioneered the erosion of A&P jobs by transferring work to other departments and by creating a subclass of permenently low paid unliscenced mechanics called SRPs.
If you look at the graph its clearly shown that we were simply put right back on the track that the TWU has had us on for the last twenty years. The constant but slow decline that we have been on since 1983 has allowed the company and the International TWU to reap huge rewards off our continued slow decline.
As our wages sank, their profits and per capita swelled.
I have no doubt that our paycuts and lost benifits helped to create more jobs at AA, however they were created here at the cost of better pay and benifits elsewhere. Before you were hired at AA would it have really mattered which company hired you? Over time other carriers were forced to try and get the "Industry Leading Concessions" that the TWU gave AA on a consistant basis.
Most other Unions were not able to get their members to give away what the TWU was able to convince their members to give up. UAL and USAIR had to go bankrupt in order to get what the TWU gave to AA.
I've been a mechanic for 25 years now. I've had several employers, however AA is where I would like to retire from.
However as we continue in our TWU led decline, as illustrated in the graph, I have to wonder if that is possible. How low , and how long should we hang on?
We know that this union, with their average $15/hr member, and six figure earning International officers, still feels that we are overpaid.
WE know that they have no plan, they have never recovered what they gave up in 83 even though other carriers did not follow, why should we think that they will ever get us back even what the bankrupt carriers still have?
We know that we have no right to choose who controls our contract nor do we have the right to pick who controls him.
WE know that with the TWU we have led the Industry in Concessions for twenty years and when we confront the leaders we did not, and can not, choose, they simply say "You guys voted it in".
We know that if we stay with the TWU we will stay on the same path we have been on for twenty years, far longer than the current economic slowdown. A decline that has remained nearly uninterupted by two of the largest economic expansions in history. In good times and bad there is one constant with the TWU-Concessions.
The fact is we need a New Direction. WE can go that way by voting to take back control of our careers. Control that we had when we first enrolled in A&P school. Control that we gave up when we signed on to a union that was led by people who never worked on an airplane or worked in the industry. WE can get that by voting for AMFA.
We need a union that will lead us into the fight for our profession, not order us to surrender or else.
We need a union where we can hold those at the top accountable with our ballott.
We need a union that respects and promotes the profession.
We need a union that is our union, a mechanics union.
THe TWU will never meet any of those needs, there is only one union out there that could-AMFA.
