Teamster Organizer caught forging Authorization Cards

[Realityck]

Your attempt to requalify CIOs remarks are noted.

I however do not agree with your assessment as you make the claim above that he was making the same distinction in his previous attempts too belittle AMFA.

I need only page back through a month or two on the American forum to find posts of CIOs where he clearly was trying in many threads to blame AMFA for the loss of all heavy maintenance at UAL. Yet only just recently after being proved repeatedly wrong,has his story changed to .... "agreed to continue"

The pension issue is no different. This wasn't something AMFA could've kept in any fashion the government had seized all the pensions at UAL, yet he and others try to spin it as an AMFA failure at negotiation. That is called deliberate deception.

As far as doing unto others ... don't preach to me, I've made no claim against the TWU.

Based on my check, CIO was not responding to you in the vast majority of his posts. He was responding to many other people who were doing exactly what you are complaining about, only in much harsher terms. His post on the termination of the pension plan was accurate— AMFA “further agreed” that the Company didn’t have to maintain the plan or a defined benefit pension or pay defined benefits and, even though the plan had been terminated by the PBGC, the Company needed this additional relief to free itself from the legal and contractual obligation to maintain the plan or its equivalent. It is also true, as you state, that the alternative to this agreement –which was to run the risk that the bankruptcy court would impose the relief (the almost inevitable result) and fight for the right to strike in federal court—was not rational. The alternatives available to the TWU in bankruptcy were no better. Yet, you will find hundreds of posts criticizing the TWU for making the same decisions in bankruptcy as AMFA, the IBT, or the IAM. You say you’ve “made no claim against the TWU.” If so, peace brother and maybe one day we will see some constructive discussion on this board, rather than the hourly attacks.

 

[swamt]

And I won't forget AMFA taking NW AMTs on an ill-advised strike costing them all but 800 jobs. I won't forget AMFA turning their backs on the AS AMTs at the OAK base when they all lost their jobs. I won't forget AMFA conceding the outsourcing at UA and an additional 20% of existing spend. I won't forget that AMFA lost over 80% of their membership due to outsourcing and members disgusted of their record of failure at UA and Horizon.

AMFA, a losing option for overhaul and then some.

And AMFA will not forget all the scab unions that crossed the picket lines. All the other unions on property crossed the picket lines. AMFA could have and more than likely would have came out exact opposite of what happened if they were to have received a better support system from all the other unions on property, instead of getting a bunch of scabs crossing picket lines, therefore showing their support in favor of the company. No wonder the outcome was as it was.

 

[swamt]

Really Overspin, read this and all will understand how unionism chose to fail due to self interests and not what was good for the industry as a whole.
Lets not forget the job fair the TWU held in Tulsa while the NWA strike was on......explain that union brother of one!

FromAMFA NWA strike, what really happened.....


Posted 19 August 2012- 06:27 AM


Previously posted by Boomer with some additions.



Peter J. Rachleff is professor of History at Macalester College in the USA. He is the author of internationally recognized academic books.

EDUCATION: B.A., Amherst College M.A., Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh

Peter Rachleff teaches labor history at Macalester College in St. Paul. He is currently involved with the Twin Cities Northwest Workers Labor Solidarity Committee. He was the chairperson of the Twin Cities Local P-9 Support Committee during the Hormel strike of 1985-86 and is the author of Hard-Pressed in the Heartland: The Hormel Strike and The Future of the Labor Movement.

http://works.bepress.com/peter_rachleff/


Comments from Peter Rachleff on the NWA AMFA Strike:

http://www.kclabor.org/strike_at_northwest_airlines.htm

The IAM has excoriated AMFA as “raiders” and “elitists,” and they have, so far, convinced the AFL-CIO to withhold its support and to encourage its affiliates to do the same.

Interestingly, in the midst of this process, the IAM used its influence with the National Mediation Board (this was during the Clinton administration) to get the bargaining unit redrawn to include the custodians and cleaners in AMFA’s jurisdiction. They were hoping that these workers, who had not been courted by AMFA’s advocates, would vote to stay with the IAM and thereby defeat the reaffiliation. But AMFA won the 1999 representation election hands down and went on to negotiate a contract that brought substantial (20% and more) wage increases to workers whose wages had stagnated for more than a decade.

When 10,000 mechanics, cleaners, and custodians elected AMFA to represent their interests and 14,000 flight attendants elected PFAA, NWA refused to give them seats on the board. They continued to treat the IAM and the Teamsters as if they still represented the very workers who had voted them out, and they still sit there.

The IAM and the AFL-CIO have been overtly hostile. The IAM not only ordered its members to cross AMFA’s picket lines (they threatened to replace the president of Local 1833 and trustee the local if he did not cross), but it also negotiated with NWA to “take back” work, such as the pushing back of airplanes, which had been “theirs” before the 1999 redrawing of the bargaining units.

Rick Banks, director of the AFL-CIO's "Collective Bargaining Department," privately ordered all state labor federations, city central labor bodies, and affiliates to deny AMFA strikers food, money, or other forms of material support, or advocating a boycott of NWA. Leaders of central labor bodies in the Twin Cities moved quickly to discourage affiliated unions from offering support, speaking at rallies, or welcoming AMFA speakers at their meetings.



AMFA had inherited a contract negotiated by the IAM which included no language limiting "farming out." In their first contract, they reached a "compromise" figure of 38%, which NWA wanted to raise to 53% in their current proposal. (can we put this bed finally, it was not AMFA)

Unity of action has been effectively blocked for decades, despite legal access to the right to sympathy strike. Unions have been pitted against each other at the bargaining table, even more so in the concessionary environment of the past decade.

The larger labor "movement" has not provided effective mechanisms (e.g. the AFL-CIO's "Transportation Trades Department") to bring unions together. Unions have been largely left on their own for better or, more often, for worse (AMFA has always strived for one union/one voice)

The IAM has excoriated AMFA as "raiders" and "elitists," and have so far convinced the AFL-CIO to withhold its support and to encourage its affiliates to do the same.

When the mechanics, cleaners, custodians, baggage handlers, ticket agents and white collar office workers said "No," their union, the International Association of Machinists District 143, insisted that they vote, revote and re-revote (what is "democracy" the third time over?) on the same package. As voter turnout plummeted, the concessionary contract was finally ratified. (sound familiar to TWU?)

AMFA also instituted internal union practices which cemented the members' allegiance. Its locals have no bureaucracy, no full-time officers; AMFA officers wear the same overalls and work the same jobs as the women and men they represent.

AMFA's practice of collective bargaining also allows for an open door to rank-and-file observers. Despite fierce protests from corporate management, any member who wishes to watch a bargaining session is welcome to attend

Shortly after the NWA mechanics defected to AMFA, frustrated flight attendants launched their own campaign to withdraw from the Teamsters and start their own independent union, modeled after AMFA, called the Professional Flight Attendants Association. When Hoffa responded by placing Local 2000 under trusteeship he pretty much guaranteed that the Teamsters would lose the election, which they did.


http://www.fightbacknews.org/2005/04/afscmeamfa.htm

They hate AMFA because AMFA is independent and has grown by ‘raiding’ AFL-CIO unions, particularly units represented by the International Association of Machinists (IAM). The Northwest mechanics used to be IAM members but voted in 2000 to switch to AMFA. The IAM officials have bitterly attacked them ever since. It’s true that AMFA made their appeal to the mechanics on a narrow craft basis tinged with elitism. But it’s also true that the workers had good reasons to throw the former IAM leadership out.

http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/853/amfa.html

AMFA members don’t lack determination, but they can’t win alone!What’s needed first of all is for AMFA to call on the International Association of Machinists (IAM), the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) and the Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA) to stop scabbing and join the picket lines. There are already individuals fighting within those unions to do the right thing. Addressing a strike support rally in Minneapolis on August 27, Peggy Lubinski, who was fired for honoring AMFA picket lines, told her fellow flight attendants: “You need to walk!” An IAM baggage handler walking the picket line in Detroit told WV that he had been fighting for his union to stop scabbing.

Today the union tops are brazen in their backstabbing. IAM general vice president Robert Roach responded to AMFA’s request for solidarity from IAM ramp workers and customer service agents: “IAM members will not be duped into standing with AMFA.” The IAM local president in Detroit tried to put a spin on the scabbing by claiming it was better for his union to do the scab work than have an outside contractor do it!

Trying to justify such strikebreaking, the national AFL-CIO organizing director labeled AMFA a “renegade, raiding organization that is creating havoc in the airline industry,” adding, “It’s not in the house of labor.” It was the IAM misleaders’ pattern of agreeing to concession after concession that convinced mechanics at a number of carriers to leave the IAM for AMFA.

http://oreaddaily.blogspot.com/2005/09/amfa-strike.html

Questioned about AMFA’s requests for support, AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff attacked the union shortly before the strike as a “renegade, raiding organization” and said AMFA and its more than 10,000 members are “not in the house of labor.”

The Machinists union, which represents gate agents and other ground crew workers at Northwest, holds a grudge against AMFA, which has gained most of its members by decertifying IAM units. Northwest mechanics and cleaners left the IAM for AMFA in 1997.

IAM Vice President Robert Roach has said, “IAM members will not be duped into standing with AMFA.”

Some IAM members have not only been crossing the lines, but also taking on AMFA members’ work. “To cross a picket line is bad enough,” said Yubian, “but crossing a picket line to do struck work—you shouldn’t even be in a union.”

http://libcom.org/library/the-2005-northwest-airlines-strike

AFL-CIO Treachery
AMFA is not affiliated to the AFL-CIO. Apparently still smarting from the workers exodus from the IAM, the federation did all it could to undermine AMFA during the strike. The AFL actually sent a letter to every metro labor council in the country ordering the unions to refuse any support to AMFA. This had a very chilling effect on solidarity efforts. In concrete terms it meant that even raising simple motions for a donation at your local union’s meeting would be opposed by most union officials. It meant that no wider mobilizations of official labor solidarity would be possible. It created a huge obstacle to reaching the constituency that would be most naturally supportive of AMFA’s struggle.

http://www.socialistaction.org/pollack5.htm

Northwest exploits divisions in labor

From the beginning of the strike, officials of other unions—from the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and Air Line Pilots’ Association (ALPA) at Northwest, to the heads of the AFL-CIO—have denied AMFA support, claiming it was a breakaway union that had raided IAM locals.

It’s not surprising that IAM officials showed no support for AMFA strikers. Unfortunately, they tried to cover their backstabbing with misrepresentations of AMFA’s bargaining approach, claiming—incorrectly—that AMFA was trying to shift portions of the billions in cuts the bosses wanted onto other unions on the property. But in fact, AMFA repeatedly pointed out how all unions were in the fight together, and AMFA negotiator Jeff Mathews warned that“some groups, including the IAM, may be asked to shoulder a disproportionately larger share of the new target amount.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/aug2005/nwa-a23.shtml

Northwest owes whatever“success” it has achieved largely to the betrayal carried out by the trade union bureaucracy. The airline has been able to continue its operations only because of decisions by the Air Line Pilots Association and the International Association of Machinists, both member unions of the AFL-CIO, to cross picket lines. The Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA), which like the AMFA is an independent union, has also decided to continue work.

http://www.mltranslations.org/Us/ROL/ROLaflcio.htm

No Labor Solidarity for Northwest Airline Mechanics


Those who claim to want to rebuild the labor movement within the newly formed CTW coalition as well as those who remained in the AFL-CIO have flunked an early test.

On August 20[sup]th[/sup], less than one month after the AFL-CIO "split", 4,400 mechanics, represented by AMFA (Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association), went on strike against Northwest Airlines, refusing to accept massive concessions and job reductions as so many other airline unions have done. AMFA is an association built on the raiding of other unions, particularly the International Association of Machinists
For whatever reason, AMFA has followed through with a commitment to resist concessions. The AMFA airline mechanics at Northwest took a stand to stop the floodgates of massive concessions plaguing airline workers from mechanics to pilots, from flight attendants to reservationists.

Northwest Airlines has a well developed plan to break the union and the Bush Administration acceded to the request by Northwest not to invoke emergency provisions as is usually done (against the workers) in airline disputes. In an article from the Christian Science Monitor entitled "Why Big Labor hasn’t aided striking machinists," staff writer Alexander Marks accurately surmises that, "If Northwest rides out the strike and succeeds in breaking the union, it could be a watershed in the history of the American labor movement, many analysts say -- a key event in a long string of setbacks that have weakened the role of organized workers as a political and social force in the country".

The article continues, "Some labor experts go so far as to infer that Northwest isn’t alone in wanting to break AMFA, speculating that Big Labor, which has not come to AMFA’s aid would not shed too many tears if it fell. As a result, they say, the strike was lost before it began. ‘This is payback time for AMFA. That’s the way the labor movement is looking at it, says Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations … raiding is a sin, and AMFA raided and won [by] saying it would never accept concessions. It’ll be much easier for other unions to tell members that they must accept concessions if AMFA was killed for not doing it’."

While such bourgeois analysts understand what is at stake for the workers, a shameless and clueless AFL-CIO representative is quoted in the same article as saying, "I don’t think this will have wider implications because of the nature of this particular organization."

No sooner were these words spoken than the initial company victory in the Northwest strike opened the floodgates for an aggressive corporate drive against the US workers and their unions. (this is what scabbing AMFA’s work,helping the company and not supporting the NWA strike got everyone)Northwest has gone after the rest of their workforce demanding massive concessions from flight attendants, ramp service workers, and pilots. Delphi, the largest automobile parts maker, declared bankruptcy. Holding up the example of the Northwest mechanics, Delphi’s CEO warned the UAW workers not to strike. Delphi is demanding a wage cut from $25.00 to $9.00 per hour and a similar reduction in benefits. Now General Motors is wresting massive concessions from the UAW amounting to $15 Billion in savings on health care costs. The pundits of Wall Street gleefully reported in a lead editorial ("Rip Van UAW") in the Wall Street Journal of October 18, 2005, "Two cheers for the United Auto Workers Union … this is a watershed concession by the American industrial workforce in the middle of a contract that doesn’t expire until 2007…"

if other airline unions had honored the Northwest mechanics picket lines, the strike could have been won. Instead, the strike is essentially lost, and the US monopoly capitalist class was the victor. Unions in both the AFL-CIO and the CTW Coalition represent airline workers. Both consciously refused to stand in solidarity with the mechanics and both share responsibility for the labor setback that is occurring now. The PATCO history is repeated. Stern of the CTW motion is right that the labor movement must be rebuilt, but union solidarity is the best place to start. He and the CTW leadership as well as the AFL-CIO leaders miserably failed "Labor Solidarity 101".

http://atwonline.com/operations-maintenance/news/northwest-moving-forward-strike-contingency-plans-0309

"We are virtually the last airline to have fully licensed A&P mechanics driving pushback tractors and we're also virtually the last airline to have its own cleaners," Steenland said. Senior cleaners, including benefits and pensions, "cost the company approximately $65,000 per year per employee."

The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association is, like the PFAA, not affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Six years ago, the Northwest mechanics, who were then members of the IAM along with baggage handlers and other ground employees, left the IAM and formed their own unit of AMFA. Now the IAM has reportedly agreed to allow some of its members to perform tasks normally done by striking airplane cleaners who are members of AMFA.

And now you have the rest of the story... Paul Harvey quote, well deserved at this time for Anomaly, Realityck, Overspeed, and CIO's benefit...

 

[Realityck]

The NWA FAs did go for it, IIRC they backed off when they got an Equity stake worth 93% of what they agreed to give up. (they agreed to $195 million in concessions and got $181 million in equity, we gave another $2.2 billion on top of the $3 plus billion we gave from 2003 to 2012 and got an equity stake worth at best $400 million or less than 10% of what we gave up)

We went in 8 years after giving up 25% with our wages already at the bottom of the industry and agreed to an equity stake that was only worth at most 25cents on the dollar compared to what we gave in additional concessions beyond what we gave up in 2003.

In court the companies lawyers claimed that with the profits they expect as a result of reorganizing we would get back everything we gave up, so what did we do? We gave it back in exchange for 3.5% for mechanics and 4.3% for Fleet.

Airline workers are the only workers who are told they cant strike upon abrogation of our contracts, every other worker in this country can, if Unions wont defend our right to strike then what do we need them for? Believe it or not Unions aren't supposed to be a place for kiss asses to escape to and get six figure salaries while telling the members to give the company everything they want or risk losing their jobs.

You really don’t know what you are talking about. The Northwest flight attendants rejected two contracts, sought the right to strike and, as we all know, lost their case in federal court. The contract they ratified had the same 195 million in annual concessions as the contracts they rejected, which amounted to a 40% cut in pay and benefits for the duration of the contract. They did receive an unsecured bankruptcy claim which, when sold, was worth an average of $15,000 for each flight attendant. The $15,000 was, of course, a one time payment which, in no way, came anywhere near offsetting the value of what was given up. Every other union on the property except AMFA also received the same claim, the value of which was calculated based on the concessions given.

 

[TWU informer]

If it was not for our livelihood being the issue, the bickering back and forth over what union has been screwed the worst in the industry would be laughable. Fact is we are always bashing each other while we all are failing and the real enemy goes unchallenged. I am surrounded by idiots. Dismantle the failing AFL-CIO, destroy the idea that campaign finance and lobbying is the answer, and then stop the belief that paying union dues is the extent of your involvement and responsibility to the cause, and we just might actually make some progress. Otherwise, we will keep comparing other's failures as justification for our own failures which quite frankly is not only stupid, but just more of the same BS that got us here to begin with. All of you idiots need to get a clue. All it takes is simply backing away to see that every Federal Law that really matters is stacked against the working man. This means the political arena strategy has and still is failing us all. Time for a new plan. Of course the easy path is keep blaming, keep bashing, keep hiding, and pretend someone or something else will come along and correct the injustice. IDIOTS!

 

[limit]

And now you have the rest of the story... Paul Harvey quote, well deserved at this time for Anomaly, Realityck, Overspeed, and CIO's benefit...

Is this required reading for Amfa organizers,or just your guys version of todays lumpenproletarier bs?
Next chapter the revival of the comitern lumpen style.......stay tuned.

 

[ThirdSeatHero]

Based on my check, CIO was not responding to you in the vast majority of his posts. He was responding to many other people who were doing exactly what you are complaining about, only in much harsher terms. His post on the termination of the pension plan was accurate— AMFA “further agreed” that the Company didn’t have to maintain the plan or a defined benefit pension or pay defined benefits and, even though the plan had been terminated by the PBGC, the Company needed this additional relief to free itself from the legal and contractual obligation to maintain the plan or its equivalent. It is also true, as you state, that the alternative to this agreement –which was to run the risk that the bankruptcy court would impose the relief (the almost inevitable result) and fight for the right to strike in federal court—was not rational. The alternatives available to the TWU in bankruptcy were no better. Yet, you will find hundreds of posts criticizing the TWU for making the same decisions in bankruptcy as AMFA, the IBT, or the IAM. You say you’ve “made no claim against the TWU.” If so, peace brother and maybe one day we will see some constructive discussion on this board, rather than the hourly attacks.

You may continue to try and requalify CIOs posts if you wish, but I doubt you’re convincing anyone.

It is plainly obvious what his initial intent was, and it was not for the sake of simple comparison.

No, his statement on the pension was not accurate. It was a deliberate distortion, and your recent post is the perfect example that illustrates the point.

You accurately described the situation …The Pension already gone, and the legal/contractual ramifications of the remaining language and why. This vs his generalized attack, that AMFA gave up the rights to termination.

One tells the majority of the story one does not.

The same occurred with his attack on AMFA concerning UAL and foreign outsourcing.

In his initial attacks, he claimed AMFA was responsible for all of it, when in point of fact it was the IAM that allowed the unrestricted outsourcing of heavy maintenance. Yet he still attempts to mislead, by claiming AMFA allowed the foreign outsourcing pointing to our language that allowed the B777 and B747s to go to foreign vendors, while at the same time never mentioning that work was already outsourced to domestic vendors at the time.

The critical particulars of these sorts of issues always seems to be left out, and the reason is obvious.

The truth isn’t the anti-AMFA indictment others want it to be.

 

[eolesen]

Again, how did this become about AMFA, NWA, etc. instead of the Teamsters committing election fraud?...

 

[xUT]

Again, how did this become about AMFA, NWA, etc. instead of the Teamsters committing election fraud?...

I think it started here then escalated, as usual.

 

[CIO]

Have you noticed the Teamsters are mum about the subject?

In Solidarity,
CIO

 

[swamt]

Have you noticed the Teamsters are mum about the subject?

In Solidarity,
CIO

You would be too if you were caught at forgery and fraud, they do understand the possible outcome of such actions should the NMB get a hold of it.

 

[TWU informer]

Did Hoffa admit to James C. Little yet, that the IBT organizers have been violating Federal Law by forging signatures on authorization cards?

 

[swamt]

Did Hoffa admit to James C. Little yet, that the IBT organizers have been violating Federal Law by forging signatures on authorization cards?

Do you really think this will happened? Hoffa admitting?

 

[TWU informer]

Do you really think this will happened? Hoffa admitting?

No but satire is all we have left on this one.

 

[Lloyd Grey]

How are the AMFA cards coming along?