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On 7/18/2003 10:30:49 PM PITbull wrote:
Members have to understand...you can change your name as a union, but you still have the same members. If they are are passive now, and don't participate to make change, they will have no different outcome. Members have to become collectively proactive in their union. I've told many f/as this...that the union is not about 6 leaders. They don't run the union; members do. All union dues are for is the "pulling" of resources to ensure contract protection.
Everyone should never forget, that it was under threat of BK and liquidation that this mangement had us all, and now in all carriers, same egregious threats. What union, unanimously, said "no way"? NONE anywhere at any carrier. Even AFA, with two dissenting union leaders at U out of 6 voting members could not convince the others that the gutting of our contracts was not worth the job. And only PIT with the winter concession, members stood alone and told Managament "take their proposal and shove it".
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While there is truth to the statement that "If they are are passive now, and don't participate to make change, they will have no different outcome" sometimes the change that is required is the entire organization. Good leaders such as the one you mention will likely continue to make good leaders in a new organization. I dont know how the IAM is structured but in the TWU change can not be mandated from the members. At AA control over the agreement is put in the possesion of appointed officials, not elected. This creates a barrier to the ability to change from within and discourages meaningful participation and eliminates or misplaces accountability. Local leaders are usually held accountable for poor contracts even though our structure isolates them from control of the process. Appointed officials can make changes without the consent of the members, and the members have no recourse within the union, their only recourse is to seek representation through a different Union.
The drives going on at USAIR and other carriers are a good thing. The franchising of the industry between the IAM,TWU,IBT and CWA should have ended with deregulation because airline workers needed unions that were focused on this industry, not to be just a profitable source of dues for big institutions like the IAM,TWU, IBT and CWA. These big organizations would never take a real, potentially risky stance in defence of airline workers. Anyone who does not see this after what has happened over the last two years is blind. The incumbant airline labor unions failed their members PERIOD. They allowed the burden of the excesses of the nineties (in which we did not share) and the terrorist attacks of Sept 11 to be bourn by the workers of this industry. Instead of uniting under the umbrella of the AFL-CIO and taking a united stance against what we being done, these unions joined with the companies in raping airline workers, instead of uniting, the unions salivated at the thought of a carrier with other unions liquidating. Admittedly none more successfully than my union, the TWU.
It would be a good thing if the workers of USAIR, United and American were all in unions that were completely focused, run by and accountable to airline workers. The IAM, TWU, IBT and CWA will never do what is best for those of us who chose to work in this crazy industry, all they want to know is how to keep the dues flowing.