This is where we disagree. In my opinion it is better for American Airlines employees to have a UNION of JUST American Airlines employees and not get mixed up with UNIONS that represent other companies. In my opinion it would be best to cover all groups possible rather than just the licensed AMT's. You come from more of a position of power when you represent more facets of the business.eolesen said:
eolesen said:
IIRC we had a team of negotiators that included the ALR, ACAC and AMFA Locals, plus lawyers and actuaries. I attended a few negotiations and side bars with the 'Team' in SFO.Glenn Quagmire said:
IMO, Levitt's book is required reading.RJcasualty said:
WorldTraveler said:
xUT said:
Thanks RJ, even more relevant advice than it was twenty years ago. Odd how the Jim Little ATD employed the very same Union Busting tactics on their own members. First they tried to convince us how worthless and easily we could be replaced, (hench Videtichs attempt to minimize the attrition rate). When Little pushed for the concessions in 2003 he said not to worry, they would open the contract in 2006 and get everything back, its now 2014 and we lost even more. Only the dispatchers were able to do that, Kudo's to John Plowman. When I got there in 2009 they had already been talking for two years, and shortly after that started mediation. I told them if in this stage of the process if they had not moved in two years they are not going to move, we have to go to the next step- we have to move towards release. that's when mark Richard started saying things like "Owens WANTS to go on strike" and "Owens wants AA to go out of business". I said I didn't want either but we have to move to the next step , yes there are risks, but that's what being in a Union entails, you collectively fight to get more than they want to give, and there is always risk, if you don't want to take that risk you don't belong in a union. In 2010 when the members rejected a substandard TA Little and his team delayed, delayed, delayed. In all my years I never saw where after a TA was rejected that the Union did not ask for a release, instead we did absolutely nothing for three months. To reward all the YES voters they no longer were expected to sit through the faux negotiations, they stayed home, the plan was to delay, delay, delay and hope the members would turn on us, but that didn't happen. Even after the Mediator walked away, even after the committee voted to ask to be released there was no request. Instead they brought in Larry Gibbons, a Union Buster, who Little presented as a friend of labor, to tell us that we should not ask because in his opinion we would not get it and we should just give AA everything they wanted. When Little told us Larry Gibbons was coming I told him that Gibbons was a Union Buster, former President of AIRCON and head of HR for Airbourne Express (no doubt his function there was to keep it non-union). , he claimed that Gibbons had done good things for labor and asked "Do you know him?"
