An example of democracy in action.
AFSCME Local 1180, non-sworn Tulsa city workers, were polled by the union to find out whether or not they preferred to take pay cuts or lay-offs.
I would rather maintain the pay and benefits. It seems like once a membership gives into concessions there are always more requests to follow. When the budget crunch is not as severe and the workers are recalled back they will be called back to a job with pay and benefits worth keeping. If I was at the bottom of the seniority list I would probably think differently.
The point I am making is the workers themselves were allowed to choose which direction to go.
Maybe not. One of the few guys who accepted recall at JFK told me a few months back that coming back was not easy, but he liked working on airplanes. He said he knows he can easily replace his income if laid off so he told me "I want you to go for the money even if it means I'm out the door. At least then when I come back I'll be able to make a living doing what I want."
You are right about concessions, I said that to the USAIR guys back in 2002 before the first round of concessions there. We are around $13/hr below where we should be, around double what we were before 2001. We could either wait and let some other carrier and union fix the wage, like we did with NWA, or we could stand up and take a stand for once. We have allowed ourselves to slip to number eight out of the top ten carriers, and some still believe in "Working Together". I say if AA wants to put us at the bottom we should do the same to AA. Quid pro quo. Make us number one and we will do everything we can to make them number one, but telling us to accept bottom pay and make them "best" at anything isnt going to fly!
As far as all that farming out of OH stuff, when I first started at AA nearly 25 years ago my next door neighbors brother was a crew chief in Automotive at LGA, I remember my neighbor commenting about how his brother was just hoping to make retirement before they outsource his job, well the guy's been retired for around 20 years now and Title II has seen the least amount of reduction of headcount. Management loves nothing more than giving you something to worry about.
When you sell your labor to a single buyer you are always going to be at risk. Here at AA your fate lies in the hands of people you never see.The best way to protect your economic well being is to extract as much cash as you can out of them, and save enough to carry you to the next buyer, concessions only make you more vulnerable and less financially secure. Look at the savings we have given AA over the last seven years, has it made you or your job more secure? No, we gave up $120,000 of income for nothing, we could work for free and AA would still find a way of saying that we cost too much.
