If someone wants an agreement that would be ratified then certain principles have to apply.
First, no more "at their discretion" or non-existing language that some TWU Stooge claims in a video that management has "confirmed" or that it has "been done in the past". Put the friggin language in the agreement and lock down the intent and stop with the we can change it if you vote yes bullcrap. This Last best offer was being changed as the rebellion was launched against it.
Second, if AA wants our pensions, our retirement medical, our job security, then we must be paid at the top of the industry.
This last best offer was giving away everything that was not taken in 2003. While leaving us the bottom of the industry in all-in pay and benefits. Forget that crap.
Third, If FEAR is required to obtain yes votes then it should never pass. If there is not a viable business plan to really save our futures then it will fail again.
Fourth, this is about our future being able to remain in the overhaul business. Allowing the union to dictate headcount in exchange for concessions is not going to fly anymore. The only way to save jobs in Tulsa is to implement boundries that place the work force at the highest in production, safety standards, and attendance policy. Allowing the inmates to run the place without any accountability is not going to save jobs. The culture must change. The Management needs be evaluated. We have Managers that are only even at the Tulsa Base because Carmine Romano is the GodFather is his children. We cannot allow Management to remain a good ol'e boys club that cannot or will not manage their areas. There are so many stories of relatives and friends filling improtant postitions at the Tulsa Base with employees that are incapable of doing their jobs. These folks do not want to be held accountable or evaluated fairly, so they hold nobody else accountable and evaluation is a joke. This is the most unaccoubtable workforce I have ever seen, and if not changed, I would not blame AA for getting out of this business. No viable business allows a Union Membership to dicate terms of production, safety, and attendance. No viable business allows positions to be filled with warm bodies via the buddy system instead of placing the best they can find into those jobs. No viable business has workers and their union running the place without accountability standards.
Basically if AA wants ANY concession, while in Bankruptcy, their must be a business plan attached to every concession and in the contract that assures us that we are going to get in exchange for the concession that which the concession is intended to obtain. We need the ability and the right to file a grievance or a legal claim if AA fails to keep the promises associated with the concession. We keep funding and never get in return the assured viable management plan that will secure our futures. We are basically pissing in the wind. We give, and it gets pissed away. I want to see a business plan that assures my future now that AA is in BK Court. Lack of sound management, and lack of accountability in both management and union employees is NOT going to secure anyone a future, it is going to lead to complete collapse.
This fight is not about the past for me, it is about the future. I don't mind telling you that I have grave concerns about the Tulsa Maintenance Base and if we even have one more chance to turn this around, if we are lucky enough to have another chance then is surely the last chance. The Union leadership needs to stop worrying more about getting re-elected and focus on leading this base into a true culture change for the future. Both Union and Management is at fault here, and if we do not stop blaming each other instead of fixing the issues that are making us fail, then we will untlimately all be out of this business and still blaming each other all the way to the grave.
Giving up job security and assurances of your job, places you in the position of sink or swim. Even if we wanted to swim then we have no management to get us to the shore, and our union refuses to allow the boat to be used because it is too full a cash from union dues. I will be damed if I will vote to give away my job security clause while nothing is put in place to assure I have a chance at beating the competition. Giving up Job Security along with a flawed management and business plan is suicide and ignorant. Just the idea reaks of a mangement group that admits they cannot succeed and wants the right to end your career. I have not put in 28 years to be shafted by a gool old boy club of incompent management that could not put together and exectue a vialble business if their life depended on it and instead they and all their inadequacies are being hid away in a company that has so much cash flow they cannot be seen or identified.