Boomer said:
CIO,
When is the 29(d) over the "force-majuere" at AA going to be heard?
It has been over two years since AA "forced-majuered" several hundred TWU Members, yet, that case has not been presented to an arbitrator.
If you think that NWA Mechanics should walk over their arbitration taking so long to render a decision, I guess you think we should walk as well.
If we are on the subject of station staffing, how many cases has the TWU won over that issue? I know we lost BWI/CLE and withdrew another one, but, how many has the TWU won?
Boomer;
The TWU has no intentions on bringing the force majeure grievance forward. At the 2001 Convention Little replied when queried about the status of it "Sure we may win the grievance but we would bankrupt the company". He refused to elaborate on how the TWU was going to pursue it, if ever.
The fact is that the TWU is a company union, they dont like saying no to the company. They haven't yet, and likely never will. Thats why we have to get rid of them.
CIO;
Many times I've asked you the question "What is wrong with the idea of getting all the mechanics in one union? What is wrong with having all the other ground service workers doing the same?" To date you have not responded. I've posed these same questions to Sonny Hall, Jim Little and Mike Bakala and they all agreed that it is a better idea than having us all split up but Little blamed the guys at the top and Hall blamed the guys below him that were looking to move up. Even John Sweeney contacted me and thought the idea was worth pursueing. But they all lacked the courage to try it. If you like I'll FAX you the letter I got from Hall on this subject. Tell me what principle of unionism does this violate?
The fact is that we can no longer claim to operating like an Industrial union. We have seperate contracts, seperate locals and seperate negotiations. In the 2001 negotiations, each set of negotiations compared their respective workgroups with the going rate for workers in each particular classification on an industrywide basis. So our end result in wages had nothing to do with our common association within the TWU but rather what other workers in other companies doing the same job got. Logic dictates that if those other workers impact our rates of pay that we should be in the same union as them so we can compliment each other instead of competeing against each other. In other words we should be united in solidarity with those that have the greatest impact on our ability to raise standards, workers who do the same job as us. The same goes for other workgroups since our common association within the company has not proven to benifit any of us, in fact the main benificiary of this structure is the company, since this structure allows them to throw a figure on the table and let us fight amongst each other for our respective shares. As a result of our screwed up structure which can not really be called industrial unionism, or craft unionism, (the only terms that fit are business unionism or company unioism) our stores guys ended up coming away with a much smaller percentage increase than any other group. For the first time ever, stores-the original group to bring in the TWU, ended up making less than Fleet service. Mechanics ended up getting much more than any other workgroup. How does this reconcile with the concept of Industrial unionism? The fact is it does not.
One thing that has become crystal clear is that the current structure of unionism in this industry, especially for ground workers, is completely ineffective. How can anyone deny that? After two decades of concessions one would have to be a complete moron not to see this.
The leaders blame it all on the members. But guess what? Changing the membership is not an option, the leadership must be changed, and within the TWU that is not an option so in order to change the leadership we must go outside of this organization. And if we are going to do that why not address the problem of having our class and craft-the most influential factor in our negotiations, being divied up between several different unions that could care less about the profession?
The fact is that AMFA brought the wage from $25/hr to $35/hr. In that one move they did what none of the other unions that represent airline mechanics could or would do for the last twenty years-they restored our earning power.
What has the TWU ever done for the profession?
The fact is that Sonny Hall admits that we need to restrucure the unionism in the airline industry.
John Sweeney admits that we need to restructure unionism within the airline industry.
Just about everyone in this industry, even you, realize that we need to restructure unionism within thec airline industry.
The problem is that once these guys get up there making six figures they lose the sense of urgency and motivation to do what must be done. They refuse to lead. Leading is risky, so they decide to administrate and pass the blame on the unled membership.
So its up to us. We are the ones most affected by this. We must seek to unite across corporate lines. As brothers we should help other workers in this industry do the same. We need to start anew. For mechanics the choice is clear- AMFA, sure it has its faults but at the end of the day we, as a group of mechanics, have the rights to change it, a right we lack in the TWU. For ground workers they too finally have the option to try and join together with other workers doing the same job, they now have the AGW. Both of these groups can make a huge positive impact for their members. The fact that the company can no longer throw a figure between us eliminates any reason for there to be friction between us when it comes to wages and perhaps we can become closer than ever before since we are no longer forced into each others faces while the company laughs as we snap at each other.
What does the TWU have to offer us? We can see what they have done over the last twenty years. Concession, after concession after concession.
AMFA and the AGW offer what the TWU realistcally never will- HOPE based on a sound strategy. A strategy of uniting workers across the industry into Unions that have been effective for the pilots, actors, baseball players, longshoremen, plumbers, electricians, laborors, truck drivers, steamfitters and scores of other workers. Focused-industry specific, craft specific unions that have the ability and resources to meet the unique needs of workers in our industry.
Clearly its worth a try at this point.