I guess I'm not the only elitist.
Dear Brother Lombardo
We’ve been seeing several documents and letters explaining to snails pace that the Alliance and American Airlines have been negotiating at.
You blamed Brother Peterson and his lawsuit against this Alliance for the delay in moving forward. It then turned out that the two parties have only met six times in six months, since the lawsuit was thrown out by the NMB.
I do wonder if it were your pay rise at steak, whether you would employee lethargic sloths to keep you in the top 2% of wage earners.
I, on the other hand, have been mulling this viscous pace the TWU/IAM have adopted. I have a theory that could explain this, which I will now put forward.
The TWU just isn’t used to negotiating a contract that is beneficial to its membership, the whole structure of our Union is used to give-backs, cuts in pay, depletion in vacation weeks, slashing of perks, handing back sick time, company favorable contract language, drastic reduction in holiday pay, pension benefits thrown to the four winds, retiree medical eliminated completely, etcetera, etcetera.
The prospect of coming back to the membership with what is now an inevitable contract based on all the other airline contracts has got all the TWU officials in their ivory towers completely flummoxed.
The TWU for decades has carefully nurtured a well-oiled machine that is used to coming back to their membership with, what only be described as, contracts worthy only to be used as toilet tissue.
All of this while the isolated TWU officials, sneak in and out of airports, and fail to respond to membership letters and complaints, while driving in union provided cars and living in the lap of luxury.
Now we are faced with an airline that is making record profits, and throwing money around like confetti on new aircraft, new trucks, new terminals, and even new Cadillac’s. The other competing airline’s mechanics have seen a surge in pay and benefits. So what is the TWU to do? Come back with their tried and true method of explanation of how the economy could turn south, and everyone, except the TWU officials, have to tighten our belts to ensure the survivability of the Airline. Well, Brother Lombardo, we both know what that will mean! You guessed it! AMFA again, and I’m sure that would not go down well at the Alliance headquarters of sluggish movement. I’m sure the Teamsters won’t be persuaded to be up for another distraction drive.
Brother Lombardo you now only have one choice, turn that sluggish mule-train around, and get negotiating.
There is one silver lining to this cloud that has descended on the TWU/IAM Alliance headquarters, and that is, anything you win back for us, you can then give back at the next contract talks and again lead the way as the premier union racing for the bottom.
Yours truly, and enduring the hardships of a failed labor movement
Brother Michael Allen