As a citizen I would fight till my dying breath to uphold the rights that you claim, however I still feel that the methodology of a strike is questionable at best. True power and endurance cannot be attained by usurpations. To seriously effect change can no longer be done by violence. It is better to stay the course and fight it out through protest and congressional action than to engage in a spiting match that you cannot win by employing such methods as those that AMFA used.
I still feel that the majority of the folly falls into the lap of AMFA. We are accused taking jobs that we had no right to. I submit to you that AMFA had no right to call a strike without at least giving its members the right to vote on the last contract. To further accent the point, ask yourself two questions. How much does Dell Feem take home each year, and how much of a strike fund was waiting for those who went on strike. Despite my best attempts at bringing this point to light, it is repeatedly ignored as the mud slinging continues.
Before you shoot off your uneducated scab mouth about the AMFA or what the scab lovin' IAM clowns you work with spew about the only honorable union that had the stones to stand up against tyrants like Dougie Stealin' and Neil "the butcher" Conehead, you should do some research on the union by reading its constitution first. This would explain some of the misconceptions you a ranting about.
Here's the lastest statement from AMFA National to shed some light on a subject which you do not understand;
September 2, 2006
Labor Day - A Day to Remember
By Steve MacFarlane
The Mechanics, Cleaners, and Custodians (MCC) will be celebrating their second Labor Day Holiday on strike against Northwest Airlines on Monday. Many people do not understand why the MCC group went on strike and remain on strike after 380 days. The reason is really pretty simple and anyone willing to place themselves in our shoes would probably have done the very same thing.
You see if Northwest can keep everyone thinking that it was the MCC group that was out of touch and unreasonable then they win the sympathy of their passengers and the public in general. Northwest spent over $100 million dollars preparing for a strike they knew they needed in order to dump thousands of loyal hard-working men and women on the street while at the same time claiming that they were in dire financial straits.
The people that you work with become friends after awhile. After decades of working together they become just like family. So when Northwest Airlines placed a contract proposal on the table that would have eliminated the careers of the majority of our ‘family’, naturally we found that unacceptable and were willing to fight for all of our jobs - not just a few.
Northwest’s plan pitted one group against the other and was reliant on the aircraft mechanics agreeing to sacrifice the jobs of others to save their own. Northwest insisted that in order to reach an agreement, all the plant maintenance and facilities maintenance mechanics jobs must be outsourced. They also insisted that all the cleaners and custodians jobs be outsourced as well. Predictably, the aircraft mechanics refused to be bribed and betray the men and women who they had worked with side by side for decades.
Some people say that AMFA should have accepted the August 19, 2005 offer and saved at least some jobs. Would people really have a better opinion towards AMFA and its members if we had sold out four other work groups just to save the remaining aircraft mechanics jobs? Unions were formed to defend against this very type of action by an employer and AMFA’s acquiescence to such a plan would have been an insult to all workers and set a very dangerous precedent. If that contract had been ratified it would have become the new bottom benchmark that other carriers would have used to eliminate whole classes of workers. Instead most companies today want no part of such a drastic and risky plan.
If American workers do not stand together and fight the ever present effort to reduce wages and benefits and outsource our work, then there is little hope of sustaining a healthy middle-class in this country.
If no one was willing to go on strike, corporations would have little to be concerned over. A work force that is willing to accept any terms to keep a job is a corporation’s dream-come-true. This is not how the middle-class achieved its current status and it’s not how it will be kept.
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is the day our country has chosen to take pause and acknowledge the contribution and value of American workers. Many corporations have co-opted labor’s day and use it to try to sell us a new mattress or a new car in some ‘blow-out’ sale. Do not let corporate America distract us from the true and important meaning of Labor Day.
This Labor Day please take the time to thank a family member or friend who has gone on strike for the greater good and betterment of their fellow workers. This is also a great opportunity to talk to your children and grandchildren about the importance of workers joining together and fighting together for the good of our middle-class.
Without these men and women putting it all on the line, we truly would have never achieved fair and proper compensation for our labor. In the 1930’s there were thousands of strikes in this country. Without that effort and resolve in the past we would have not had much of a future.
Without that effort and resolve today the future of the middle-class is truly in question. We must each take up the fight of the middle-class and defend it much like those who came before us. It is our duty not only to our parents and grandparents, but to our children and grandchildren as well.
“The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.” Abraham Lincoln
“If the workers took a notion they could stop all speeding trains; every ship upon the ocean they can tie with mighty chains. Every wheel in the creation every mine and every mill; fleets and armies of the nation, will at their command stand still” Joe Hill
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable” John F. Kennedy