still see no one on here from the IAm FS Side to say what they are going to do for us West employees, is that because there is nothing they can do for us? What could the IAM give the West employees? or do they not want to answer because they cant give us anything but concessions.
The TWU is the industry leader in concessions, and has been for a long time.
Through the late 80s and early 90s there were a series of migrations to AA from other airlines. First there was Peoples Express, then EAL, Pan Am then TWA.
The Peoples Express guys generally had no opinion on unions. The EAL guys all had favorable opinions of the IAM when compared to the TWU, same with the TWA guys who quit TWA after their first BK. The Pan Am guys however said that the TWU was just as bad at Pan Am as they were at AA. If there was an election at AA between the TWU and the IAM the IAM would win, if the Teamsters were on the ballott they would beat both.
The fact is the TWU is a company union. Right now Jim Little is the President. Jim is a liar. He even lies on stupid things. He often cites his "union roots" going all the back to Scotland. He leaves out his much more recent management heritage. Not only was his father in law in management but so was Jim Little himself. On his Bio on the TWU website he cites his "degrees". He claims to have a Batchelors and a Masters degree. However under deposition he admitted that those "Degrees" were obtained from Columbia State University. They are worthless, Columbia State University was a diploma mill that was shut down by the FBI.
So, if you want to leave the IAM and go to the TWU you will be going from bad to worse.You will be going into an organization led by self-serving promanagement liars. A better option would be to go for the Teamsters.Due to government observation the Teamsters is probably one of the cleanest unions out there. Real opposition exists within the IBT with well organized groups like the TDU in existance. Opposition keeps the leadership honest, such well organized oposition does not exist in the TWU.The TWU simply thows out any opposition then settle the resulting court case with gag order stipulated cash settlements. Apparently they have some friends at the DOL who help cover up the illegal payments that TWU officers recieve from employers and the failure of both the TWU and employers to file required DOL documentation forms LM-10 and LM-30.This way they can continue to lie to the membership about how democratic the TWU is.
After 20 years, many of them spent trying to reform the TWU, I can tell you that the TWU is a corrupt, pro-company organization that cares nothing about their members.
All they care about is making sure there is enough dues coming in to provide the six figure salaries and other perks that TWU officers grant themselves. The TWU is a small union and a large portion of your dues are solely used to pay these officials their huge salaries and perks. Not only that but they apparently have arrangements to suppliment those six figure salaries with kickbacks from employers, one of them being AA. Now these are pretty serious charges. The TWU and AA are aware that I've made them, in fact I made them two years ago. If I was lying dont you think that they would have taken action against me? The fact is if they do, then in my defense I can petition for disclosure and find even more corruption and colusion between these two organizations. So if you think its bad that the IAM is in bed with the company do you really want to partner up with the union thats in bed with American Airlines?