Local 514 Officers - Make Fools of Themselves at AFW

[Bob Owens]

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On 8/7/2003 3:13:56 PM RV4 wrote:


Is Kevin Hammack and Les Howard going to testify at the Line Presidents and Bob Owens' International Kangaroo Court Hearing?

Will it be an open hearing for members to observe?

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I have not found out if its open or not. Its scheduled for August 20 at 10:00 am at the Internationals plush Headquarters in Mid Town Manhattan, perhaps the most expensive real estate in the world.

 

[Bob Owens]

J7915 did you miss this one? No comment? No rebuttal or do you accept this statement?
Just think, I will soon be able to spend even more time on the web now that Sonny is telling our members who they can and can not have as Local leaders. They made their choice, but Sonny dont care, after all what gives them the right to choose their own local leaders? The Constitution? He dont need no stinkin Constitution! Why should they have that choice when they dont have the right to vote on the contract, or vote on the guy who has control of the contracts. All this rights stuff is overrated, if the members want to make a good living all they need to do is suck up to Sonny so they can get appointed to some nice six figure job, if you are not willing to do that then just shut up and pay those dues, Somebody has to provide that $200,000 a year and pay for those nice new digs on Broadway!
Democracy and Sonny Hall are incompatable.
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On 8/4/2003 338 PM Bob Owens wrote:

The fact is that the rate we were earning on Sept 11 legally started on March 1, 2001, but we had to wait for the retro til November so we are already way behind what we were making on Sept 11 2001.

There is more to compensation than just pay. You also have to figure in the cost of losing one weeks vacation ($1400@pre-concession,the loss of 5 holidays,the reduction of the 5 remaining holidays to half pay and at least one full day of pay due to the half paid sick days and the elimination of seven sick days.

By the time Jim Littles deal has run its course we will be way way behind where we were prior to Sept 11 2001 and even further behind where we were on april 30, 2001. We will almost double the gap to the CPI adjusted rate of what mechanics made in 1983. Our rate will be approximately $14/hr below the CPI adjusted 1983 rate, not counting the loss of company provided LTD, company provided retirement health benifits, company provided health benifits,loss of double time and on and on and on.

For your information we had three crew chiefs leave the company and not demote. Two quit and the third took the street through a layoff.


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[Bob Owens]

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On 8/7/2003 559 AM Checking it Out wrote:


The TWU had the highest percentage of turnout this year and the judge ruled on the issue.

TWU SOLIDARITY!

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You are comparing a contract vote with an election.
Apples and oranges.
How many members voted for you or Jim Little?

 

[j7915]

Bob, no I didn't miss on the notices concerning the union officials eager to undermine the union they are officials off at present.

Trying to change the vote, I doubt if it made any difference which way I went unless only one direction was locked out.

Bob I do believe that the LTD was always paid by the employees at least the mechanics' was. As I recall the Co. stated that due to the higher payments they were going to double the cost and the TWU opted to find a cheaper alternative. I may be off here, regrettably I have pithched lots of company info from the 80s and early 90s.

 

[Bob Owens]

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On 8/8/2003 1:22:23 AM j7915 wrote:

Bob, no I didn't miss on the notices concerning the union officials eager to undermine the union they are officials off at present.

Trying to change the vote, I doubt if it made any difference which way I went unless only one direction was locked out.

Bob I do believe that the LTD was always paid by the employees at least the mechanics' was. As I recall the Co. stated that due to the higher payments they were going to double the cost and the TWU opted to find a cheaper alternative. I may be off here, regrettably I have pithched lots of company info from the 80s and early 90s.

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Its funny how a while back you were praising my posts when I went head to head with RV4 but now all of a sudden I'm trying to undermine the organization. I am tyring to change it. I've been trying since day one. Sonny Hall has been aware of this since at least December of 2000. I have proof. He has never objected to my actions before.
Being critical is a necessary part of pushing for change. What should I be saying "Gee everything is just dandy with the TWU the way it is but lets try to change it anyway"?
The basic question is who do we represent and in whose interests do we act? Do we represent Sonny Hall and seek to protect his $200,000/yr salary or do we represent the members who elected us and try to work to increase their meager salaries, the salaries that pay Sonny Hall?
On the LTD you have to check with the old timers. According to them the company used to provide LTD coverage to the employee that covered 60% of lost wages. The union allowed them to eliminate that and then started selling it to the members. Its funny how weeks after the union pushed through this contract that eliminated 70 days from the IOD bank I got a TWU sponsored offer to buy Short Term Disability. I never needed it before, and I cant afford it now. It seems that Sonny Hall is trying to be one of the biggest insurance salesman in the country. That seems to be the trend, negotiate away benifits and then sell the lost coverage to the members, and then tout it as a "benifit" provided by the union.
Apparently there are several Insurance companies that Sonny has deals with. Local 100 is investigating their International sponsored plan because they feel that they are paying too much, the benifits are not being provided to the members, the insurance company will not release figures as to how much they take in vs pay out and there is no competative bidding. Its likely that all those things apply to our plan as well. We pay a huge amount of money to this Insurance company and the union handles administration and has worked out payroll deduction so the insurance carrier doesnt even have to bother with billing. The question is are these savings, plus the fact that we are talking about a large volume of clients being deducted from the cost we pay or are they simply going into the pockets of the insurance company?
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[RV4]

STRENGTH IN SKILL
THE AMFA ADVANTAGE...

 

[Checking it Out]

How much are AMFA dues?

According to local 19 2001 LM-2, Labor Organization Annual Report, their dues were stated as $15.93 to $58.48.

Their AMFA constitution allows for two times the base hourly rate. However, there other ways for AMFA to collect additional monies from their members. These methods are calls ASSESSEMENTS and have freequently been used by AMFA through out the years.

According to AMFA the total costs of contract negotiations at NWA were approximately $2,100,000.00 (2.1 million). This caused a big problem as EACH LOCAL IS RESPONCIBLE FOR THEIR FAIR SHARE OF THE 2.1 MILLION. The 40% of the dues the National keeps are exempt from tnegotating costs. Also any and all contact with the AMFA National Legal and Administrator are billed directly to each local. Ever time a local representative contacts either Seham or McCormick they are billed for their time.

Presently all members of local 14 are paying a $5.00 per month assessment for legal fees incurred in the last round of negotiations. AMFA tried to impose similar assessments on other locals , but they were voted down. In the case of the local 35 membership the ASSESSEMENT would have been $10.00 per month.

The fact the each locals are responsible for these costs has caused a lot of financial problems. To correct these problem the National took action at their last “SPECIAL CONVENTIONâ€￾.

Remember they had to call this “SPECIAL CONVENTIONâ€￾ because Delle-Feminee attempted to declare the referendum election, on the changes to the AMFA Constitution, NULL AND VOID.



Local 33 had to sue the National to allow the members to vote on ALL the changes to the AMFA Constitution. Local 33 had to get a restraining order against the National in order to allow the vote to continue. However not all the proposed changes were voted and a “SPECIAL CONVENTIONâ€￾ was called to address those remaining issues.

Well after a week of beer drinking and gorging on food paid for by the National, Dell was able to get these LITTLE change put into the 2001 AMFA Constitution.

Article VI section 3
During the times of negotiations commencing at the acceptance of proposals, or after and ending at the date of signing, any Local may choose to institute an assessment up to 0.5 (50%) the base hourly rate per month of the affected members in negotiations.


XII, section 5
No other fees, dues, or assessments of any kind besides those stated in Section 3 of this Article and Article VI, Section 3 shall be levied without prior approval by secret ballot of the majority of members.

Now the road is paved to allow each local to impose a 50% increase in their members dues from the time section 6 openers are delivered until the day the contract is signed.

This means that members could pay an additional $14 per month in dues for as long as it takes to get a contract with out so much as a vote.

If this was in effect the last time at NWA members would have paid the ASSESSEMENT for over six years. This would have cost each AMFA member an additional $1,008 in dues.

 

[Bob Owens]

Last week a coworker and I went to lunch at a local Deli. There was what we call a Title II mechanic there from UAL. My coworker asked him how he liked the new union, his response was "Too soon to tell but my dues went down $10/ month."

How much money has the International spent in court against its own Locals? How much have they spent violating the rights of the Local 234 EBd?

I have a question, after the lawsuit that Local 33 had against the National did Delle remove any of their officers on trumped up charges or order an audit?

CIO do you have a point to make or are you starting to panic like Sonny and the rest of the gang? Dont worry about the pay cut you and flaptrack are going to have to take, after all $60,000 is plenty of money right? Hey you can always move to TULE.

I dont remember anyone complaining about the rate that we pay for dues, more of the complaints lie around the fact that we have no democratic accountability from the likes of you. How about letting us know what changes the International are going to make that satisfies what the members have clamored for -Democracy, Accountability and Transparency?

The harder you squeeze, the more that slips through you fingers.

The next Convention will clean house, if you make it that far.

 

[RV4]

I would be willing to PAY 3 HOURS PAY PER MONTH if we could obtain union representation that wasn't in bed with management and selling us down river.

MAYBE... "You get what you pay for", including productivity in the workforce.

 

[RV4]

 

[RV4]

Just like the TWU Hearing at AFW, the Kangaroo Court Hearing in New York also turned into a Circus.

I cannot wait to hear tommorow's stories for Chuck's hearing.

I bet the media gets another really big show thanks to the TWU!

 

[RV4]

Has anyone heard the decision from the New York Supreme Kangaroo Court?

I hear there was a 25 foot inflated RAT outside TWU Headquarters the day of Chuck's Kanga-Trial.

 

[RV4]

Bob Owens,

Do you have a verdict on your trial yet?

How about a transcript we can all read?

 

[Ken MacTiernan]

Why did mcdonald in Tulsa write the boot licking letter dated August 22nd? Was he insecure that the might puppet master sonny hall did not ask him to be the next int. appointed puppet? mcdonald seems to be an even bigger sell out now. I did not think it possible but there is the proof.

 

[RV4]

Why did mcdonald in Tulsa write the boot licking letter dated August 22nd? Was he insecure that the might puppet master sonny hall did not ask him to be the next int. appointed puppet? mcdonald seems to be an even bigger sell out now. I did not think it possible but there is the proof.

Only response we have received from McDonald in Tulsa...


YOU'RE DANGED IF YOU DO, and YOU'RE DANGED IF YOU DON'T

And I'm not joking either!

We have a video tape from the Local News showing this activity.