Oldweirdharold said:
Bob, I believe it to be a great idea to have all mechanics in one union, an AFL-CIO union. See what you can do about speaking to the AMFA repped mechanics about this dream of yours.
The TWU welcomes all mechanics openly, now go and enjoy Holiday Season!
😉
Is it just me or does it seem as though this persons posts always seem condesending while at the same time offering no answers and nothing positive. Teaamtwu you deserve an award for speaking without really saying anything, reminds me of a politician... Name for me the advantages of being affiliated with afl-cio as opposed to independant craft union and forget sheer mumbers of members which do not support each other and will in fact take in struck work per their weak agreements

.. Why has the great afl-cio not informed us to avoid Walmart, or Albertsons, Ralphs or any of the other companies which dump all over union and non union alike.. Albertsons are local here and I'd bet you'd find some twu faithful buying beer and cigs there now, WHY THE SILENT TREATMENT- BTW I do still read the twu excuse last page boycott section but why not make a flier to get the word out double quick on local level??
Jim Anderson 4D
Jim;
The Boycott list simply covers their behind. It supports the facade that the International is pro-worker instead of just pro-dues. They also put in the Agency Fee Policy every year too. There is no real effort made to inform the members why they should boycott these goods, but it looks good to have it there.
The fact is the TWU will not take active steps to support other unions, why should they, they dont even support their own members!
At 562 we urged the International to support other unions time and time again. Against their wishes we encouraged our members to walk with our flight attendants to give them moral support. Little claimed that "thats not our fight, they are not even affiliated". We took part anyway and they returned the favor when we picketed.
A while back Little sent out an E-mail telling us about how an organizer who was working for the TWU got fired by Delta. I wrote to Little that we should get the AFL-CIO involved and picket every Delta Terminal in the country in protest. He danced around it and then pretty much said that "most of the members dont care", the AFL-CIO wont back us, etc.. I replied that some of them (the members)do care, and thats why we do what we do. I believe I still have those E-mails. Its someting how the blame gets passed back and forth.
Little and the TWU often send out things, but they really dont want the members to do anything about them. They dont want them to do anything and then they blame them for not participating. Its a Catch-22 for the members.
I'm so sick of hearing that the members are to blame for the decline that we have suffered. The fact is that the TWU never made any effort to resist the decline. The members never failed the leadership of the union, the leadership of the union failed the members. When the union suggested that an agreement be rejected it was, when they said to accept it, it was, so if the membership followed their lead it is extremely hypocritical to blame the members for accepting the agreement.
At one of our membership meetings Jim Little told the membership "Dont ever reject a TA because you will never get anything better". UNBELIEVABLE!!!
While it is true that if members fail to particpate in AMFA that the union will be weak it is not true that the members are entirely to blame for not participating in the TWU and that a "change of venue" by going to AMFA will not change anything. While AMFA can not guarantee instantaneous radical change it does offer us the opportunity to join together with most of the other mechanics as we strive to get all mechanics under one organization with the same objective- representing mechanics and promoting the profession. The TWU could never offer us such a focused objective. AFL-CIO affiliation prohibits the TWU from seeking to have us join together with other mechanics who are in the AFL-CIO. So we could never strive to unite all the mechanics with the TWU, even if we could get democratic reform and accountability, which at this time we cant. Their chances of raiding AMFA represented mechanics is pretty much-NIL.
The fact is that the TWU only makes superficial attempts at getting the members involved. A raffle does not increase participation, it may increase attendance, but not participation. The TWU actually inhibits participation because they lambast anyone with a differing opinion. Instead of trying to convert with logic and issues they blast them with accusations and slurs. They are not alone at this, they have successfully made it a part of our culture. They do this because when scrutinized as far as how their positions and record alligns with the princeples of true unionism the facade of industrial unionism is blasted away to reveal that the TWU/ATD is a company union operating under the princeples of business unionism. Its all about the bottom line, ideology is not the governing factor.
I think that everyone agrees that we need change, well the fact is that all of the members at AA could not change the TWU ATD director or the TWU President if they wanted to. They do not get to vote on either of these people. And these people, despite what they say about Presidents council votes etc, have complete authority over our contract. That is a fact. Court case after court case will support that statement. The courts take this position because the court assumes that Presidents can be held accountable by the members, and in a way they are right. Sonny will be held accountable when we get our ballotts. In the meantime he will do everything in his power to prevent that from ever happening.
If the Presidents council does not vote the way Little/Hall wants them to he simply tells them that the company wont accept that and keeps them voting over and over again until they vote for what he wantedin the first place. The only time this did not work was when the International wanted seperate locals. The Presidents council firmly rejected it, but then Hall put them in place whether they liked it or not. So much for the Presidents council running things at AA.
Time and time again we hear the Littles and the Halls say that members need to get involved if they want change, basically saying that its the members that must change and not the leaders. Well the members have taken proactive steps towards change. RDU recently bounced out their President. Time and time again they replace their Local leaders when concessionary contracts are brought back. They voted for change but changing local officials does little to change the TWU or the inevitability of concessionary contracts. Each wave of fresh inexperienced officers make easy pickins for the International. Competant leaders who resist the International and concessions are sabotaged by the International, in some cases fired by a cooperative company, in others they simply remove them from office.
The members hit a brick wall if they try to push for change beyond the local level. For over 20 years the members have been changing their representation or withdrawing from the union as much as they can because for 20 years the TWU has been bringing back and selling concessionary contracts, and nothing has changed. If they have their way nothing will change either.
The TWU has no incentive to change. They have effectively thrown the blame back into the face of the membership and gotten away with it. The TWU has had a twenty year success with a 'jobs (dues) for concessions' policy. The TWU gives AA Industry leading concessions. Uses the members dues to sell them the concessions then when the members realize that they got stuck with a bad deal tells them "you voted for it". They set up the Presidents Council to make the members believe that they have control over the contract and by changing the Local Presidents they could change the outcome of the contracts. Of couse this proves to be a falacy because the Presidents council/negotiating committe really does not negotiate with the company. They negotiate between themselves as to what they are going to ask the International to present to the company. Show me where the contract even acknowledges the AA Presidents council as an authoritive body on the contract. You wont find it, it does not exist. Show me where the Constitution gives the Presidents Council authority over our agreement. You wont find that either. The fact is that Jim Little, through Sonny Hall has complete authority over our contract, AND WE CAN NOT VOTE HIM OUT. This was displayed during the Concessions of 2003 and the court case that Local 562 filed afterwards.
The fact is Jim that the TWU is about one thing-collecting dues to provide International officers six figure salaries, a union pension, cars, secretaries and loads of other perks. Sonny Hall is about one thing-consolidating power for Sonny Hall. We have a man who is comfortably beyond retirement age whose lust for power is insatiable. He is the image of Stalin. Weilding an Iron hand to any opposition while posturing as a great benifactor to the working class. In the meantime he has been instramental in Labors decline. I doubt that any other union out there spends as high of a percentage of their revenue fighting their own members in court. They fail to promote any real ideology because the last thing they want is a militant, educated membership. The IAM tried that and they lost Alaska, NWA and UAL to AMFA. An educated membership would clearly see the deficiencies of the TWU and a militant membership would not tolerate it.
However despite their smokescreen of deciet the truth continues to slowly come out and the truth will set us free from this company union.