TWU International visit to JFK

[Chuck Schalk]

I was on my days off  but I was told by several people who were at the meeting that it did not go well for the visitors.
I understand that the summation of the meeting was that anything connected with the contract was "Jim Little fault"!
Harry Lombardo was peppered with questions about the contract to which he had no reply other than it was "Jim Little fault". How do you come to meeting unprepared  do not know and worse blame the guy before you. That is what Jim Little said about Sonny Hall, andfor us to give him a chance. After all the contract has been in place for several months and the kicker is there are still unanswered parts of the contract to which no one knows anything about.
the meeting became heated to the point where yelling and lets take it outside came up.  What did the visitors expect?
We are the leading concessionary union and an embarrassment to the industry.  If you don't have answers to our problems, then don't come.  
 
since I was not there anyone else can add to this......
 
TWU present were but not limited to:
 
Harry Lombardo    TWU International President
John Samuelson    Local 100  TWU
dave Virella           TWU International (local 501)
Angelo Cacuzza     TWU Local 501
Alex Garcia            TWU International (local 568)
 
Bob Owens             Treasurer Local 591

 

[Rogallo]

Can I get a copy of the minutes?

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

Did they all pile out of the clown car upon arrival. You get what you elect.

I forgot, you don't elect the TWU, IBT, or IAM international officers.

 

[Bob Owens]

On Wed, Jul 09, 2014 at 09:16 AM, Santos wrote:
 







As you probably heard, the Lombardo meeting was packed with explosions at JFK yesterday. I was committed to staying in the background, and watching my coworkers cower to Lombardo. It was quite the contrary. Almost immediately anger and profanity erupted. I was proud of them, even though at times the discussion wondered or rehashed the same topic over and over. Lombardo looks like a street fighter. He didn't quiver and traded curses with the best of them. At one point a mechanic called out Alex Garcia and had to be restrained from going after the treasurer.
 
Lombardo's best moments came when he told the assembled group to be more militant. He repeated this often. This has been my ideology from day 1. However, my coworkers, subconsciously, chose the lazy route while blaming others for our misfortune. It didn't help that there was never any leadership from the Intl on the subject. There must be a blizzard in hell because I thought I'd never live to see a day when the Intl President openly advocated a job-action.
 
Afterwards I pulled aside Lombardo, Samuelsen, and Garcia and spoke to them individually without an audience. I thanked Lombardo for coming and told him his remarks on militancy was right on mark. That led me to the e-mail thread posted on the 591 web-site. He slinked for a moment. I reiterated some of the points from the e-mails. Shockingly, Lombardo said there was a prevalent cowardliness in the ATD. "They're terrified of management," he commented. He preceded to rail against the ATD without mentioning names. I assume he was referring to Drummond. Lombardo grabbed my hand and said that e-mail thread was his most embarrassing moment and his caustic reply to me was out of frustration with the ATD. I assured Lomdardo that my e-mail was not designed to antagonize but rather constructive criticism. Grabbing my hand again, he came closer, and with a smirk said, "if you really want to boil me over -- compare me to Jim Little."
 
I spoke to Garcia about corporate compensation and the TWU's inactivity on the subject. He replied that legal has been looking into whether they are accountable to an agreement made by Jim Little. "Just fire off a few comments and tell the company you'll see them in court," I scoffed. Garcia replied, "that may be the direction we're heading."
 
Sammuelsen gave me his phone # and expressed interest in continuing a conversation with me on militancy.
 
Santos

 
 

 

[Bob Owens]

The visit was organized by local 501, they invited Local 591, Local 504 and the AE Local and we visited Title II, Title III, Maint at the terminal and American Eagle. I believe they visited some TWU members that worked for the Port Authority prior to coming over. At all the AA meetings the members expressed their frustration and outrage over the lousy contracts we have had to endure. While these guys are used to lively internal political debates I believe that they were shocked at the image the TWU has among all class and crafts at AA. They may have seen where members would come and make personal attacks such as "we dont like you and want to get rid of you" but rarely saw where the guys said "We don't like TWU and want to get rid of TWU". In the transit world the TWU has a good reputation. Local 100 successfully bucked the trend for zero-zero-zero contracts and concessions and were able to get small but significant retroactive increases along with some other gains, one being free transport on anything under the MTA, Concessions were minimal, one concession is where they have to pay a very small amount compared to what we pay into their far superior Cadillac health benefit plans. The MTA pass is the equivalent of several thousands of after tax dollars per year that goes into members pockets. Some members were paying over $500/month (after tax money) to get to work. When the MTA demanded that Local 100 open their contract early and agree to concessions or face a layoff Samuelson told him to go pound salt, they laid off a few hundred workers and all of them were back within a year.  Contrast that to what Jim Little and Sonny Hall did at AA in 2003.
 
Are they different?  Little would on the one hand say "we got to fight" then turn around and say "Don't do anything to upset the company". During negotiations Videtich told me not to fight with the company. When AA locked out JFK passengers and told the media that the mechanics were staging a 24 hour job action and I went and exposed the lie to the media Little called, but he did not say "good job" , in fact the opposite.  Harry openly says we will go after AA's image publicly in order to get us a fair deal. He has said he is willing to use the same tactics he used in PHL. Under Little it was "Never turn down a TA" and "dont piss off the company", under Harry its "we will shut them down if he have to". Yes they are different.
 
They stated that they wanted to rebuild the union, told the members they have eliminated scores of patronage appointments in the 9 months since they took over, fired Videtich and Gless and admit they still have a long way to go.  Not once do I recall them uttering the words "Give us a chance", instead he said he wishes whatever representation votes are coming to go forward and get done, let the members make their choice, then whatever the outcome is focus on fighting the company instead of each other. Did they blame everything on Little? Yes, and they should, Little and his team at the AATD did everything they could to make sure that American Airlines got everything they wanted and preserved their AA pension based on " the wage reported by the union" and A-5 passes.  
 
Harry and John are from transit and for many years there were barriers between the divisions, nobody knew what was going on in the other divisions and it was kept that way. Even within the ATD other Locals outside of the AA system referred to it as "the AATD". Little guarded AA as his own private little empire, the transit divisions saw that, saw that within the AATD there was serious discontent and realized they had the opportunity to oust him, and they did just that. 
 
Here is the thing everyone has to remember, ultimately no matter what union we end up with its the members that have to do the fighting, People like Overspeed don't like Harry because Overspeed only supports the TWU as long as the TWU gives AA everything they want and AA wanted Videtich exactly where he was, or even higher. What we need from the Union is leadership, leadership that will lead us to get what we expect from a career, good wages, good benefits and good workrules. You get whatever Job security there is to be had through seniority and language-NOT CONCESSIONS!!!!!  Harry Lombardo and John Samuelson both have good track records on those points, that's why in 2009 I asked Little to oust Videtich and put Harry in charge of our negotiations.  I agree that the membership should choose our leaders and have serious issues with flaws within our structure and the Constitution, but if we have someone who is willing to lead us where we need to go then at least as long as that someone is the only option why not support him? Right now he is what you have.  So do what you will as far as representation, but in the meantime if you have leaders that are willing to lead and fight the company why not support them? Whatever differences we have as Unionists should be put aside when it comes to fighting the company.  In reality the AMFA vs IBT vs IAM vs TWU debate is not the battlefront for the struggle for better contracts, its the contest to see who leads us there. Voting for a different union and leadership isn't going to stop the company from threatening to outsource your jobs its not going to stop guys who will slit each others throats for OT, guys who say yes to OT when the leadership asks that they send management a message, guys like Overspeed who spill poison telling the DFW guys that guys in MIA and JFK are trying to steal their work, these are conditions that each individual member has to confront because if you wont do it now then you probably will find an excuse to do it later regardless of whether you end up in a new union or not. 

 

[DallasConehead]

Action talks Bullshit walks..

 

[AANOTOK]

Sounds like a TWU endorsement. From Obama on down, anyone can talk one hell of a fight, but of course actions speak louder than words. So far I've read a letter asking the company why I do not have my prefunding match and to please explain why they don't feel it's contractually ours if that's their stance. Again, that sounds like something Jim Little would write/ask, not someone who is demanding "militancy".

 

[Deleted member 14439]

Twu apologists

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

  I agree that the membership should choose our leaders and have serious issues with flaws within our structure and the Constitution, but if we have someone who is willing to lead us where we need to go then at least as long as that someone is the only option why not support him? Right now he is what you have.  So do what you will as far as representation, but in the meantime if you have leaders that are willing to lead and fight the company why not support them? Whatever differences we have as Unionists should be put aside when it comes to fighting the company.

 
I can't believe I'm reading this from you Bob and I can't believe that I'm saying it, but to me it looks like you're a sell-out. 

 

[DNTULSA]

Maybe, if AA/US mechanics voted in AMFA the twu/iam  big boys might have to take a pay cut.
 
Why? Because they would loose a whole lotta dues money. There wouldn't be enough money  to pay their inflated wages and bennies.
 
Can you imagine the wailing and tears?
 
Delightful...

 

[Kev3188]

Here is the thing everyone has to remember, ultimately no matter what union we end up with its the members that have to do the fighting...

^This^

Armchair QB'ing is easy. Agitating for change? Not so much. Nothing of value ever is...

 

[737823]

^This^

Armchair QB'ing is easy. Agitating for change? Not so much. Nothing of value ever is...

 
 
*You* are the union
 
Josh

 

[Bob Owens]

Sounds like a TWU endorsement. From Obama on down, anyone can talk one hell of a fight, but of course actions speak louder than words. So far I've read a letter asking the company why I do not have my prefunding match and to please explain why they don't feel it's contractually ours if that's their stance. Again, that sounds like something Jim Little would write/ask, not someone who is demanding "militancy".

Did you see Lombardo's name on the letter? So far the company has not responded to either the TWU or the APFA, hopefully Harry and Laura will be a little less polite in the near future. 

 

[OldGuy@AA]

I talked to Lombardo personally when he came to Tulsa.  He saw my AMFA pin and told me "We need one union here and you need to get rid of that pin."  I told him he and the TWU International needed to give me one good reason why I should lose the pin.  He told me "We got one union here."  A fork lift drove by just then and I asked him if we had one union why did forklift drivers and all the other stock clerks along with fleet service have superior benefits than AMTs?  He looked at me for a few seconds and said nothing.  Then his trained monkey Sean Doyle jumped in and offered to answer any questions I had.  When I started asking them he said he would do it over email.  When I emailed him he said he would rather do it over the phone.  When I told him I wanted everything in writing so there could be no misrepresentation of either of our words he agreed so I emailed him the questions.  One of them being why any union would agree to discriminate against one group by forcing inferior benefits on them such as unpaid sick time and less vacation.  He did not answer one single question.  This is the TWU International that Bob Owens is talking up.  I wanted to know why the inferior benefits were allowed and what was being done to rectify it.  At this point after not having paid sick time for well over 10 years, and the loss of yet another week of vacation, I feel the TWU has no intention of getting either for us ever again.  I also think that maintaining 6 weeks of vacation for stores (along with the skill pay they got them and their continued 100% paid sick time) is a complete slap in the face to all AMTs.  Mr. Lombardo is just another windbag who will do nothing for AMTs because he has no respect for us.  Anyone who condones inferior benefits for any work group in the same union is not fit to hold office.  His refusal to answer my questions prove that there is no plan to get us the basic benefits that stock clerks enjoy.  He didn't even use the excuse that we would get everything back in the joint agreement.  If any one of you on this board thinks for one second that the TWU (or IAM) will gain anything in joint negotiations you are completely out of touch.  In the first place, AA will drag these negotiations out for several years.  In the second place remember that the TWU got stock clerks skill pay when they couldn't get us full sick pay.  I'm sorry and I know I have said this before and some of you are probably tired of it, but I and all AMTs deserve the same benefits as a stock clerk.  Bob, I'm sorry but you are out to lunch on this one.  The only way we AMTs have any chance to salvage anything from our careers is if we dump the TWU.  Of course the IAM is no better and I point to their TA as proof.  Why are they setting the bar at AA compensation when we are in a BK contract?  We have one last chance to fix what is wrong and throw the TWU out.  We cannot trust lip service from the likes of Harry Lombardo.  We are not bus drivers so we do not matter to Harry Lombardo.  Sean Doyle is a recipient of the Junior Mechanic Program that handed free A&P licenses to career fleet service clerks, cleaners and stock clerks instead of forcing AA to raise the pay for AMTs so they could hire them instead of all of them going to UA, US Air and Delta for the higher pay.  This is the TWU and I am sick and tired of seeing them take care of everyone else except the AMTs.  Get rid of them now.  For me and a lot of others it is too late to save our careers but we have a chance to help the next generation of AMTs.  I challenge anyone to email Sean Doyle and ask these questions and see the answers (or lack of) that you receive if you receive anything back at all.  Sorry Bob but I must disagree with you on this one.  The TWU is cancer to AMTs.

 

[AANOTOK]

Did you see Lombardo's name on the letter? So far the company has not responded to either the TWU or the APFA, hopefully Harry and Laura will be a little less polite in the near future. 

Bob, it might not matter to some, but it matters to many. It has been stated on numerous occasions the prefunding is contractually ours (not by you but by many other mouthpieces of the TWU). If this is the case, then why not start with the militant action and forcing AA to respond ASAP. And as for seeing Lombardo's name on the letter, yes, yes I did...I have in  red for you.
 

Letter from TWU-ATD to AA on Prefunding.
He is the President isn't he?