TWU says the Teamsters are Telling Lies

[AMFAinMIAMI]

NOT TRUE the TWU helped the AMFA guys by walking the picket line and support buttons at LAX.

This was supported by the LOCAL

 

[AMFAinMIAMI]

At that time LAX was an AMFA station, many wore AMFA shirts and jackets even when Don V. and Bobby Gless showed thier faces. now they are split AMFA / IBT.

The local even paid for signs

 

[Overspeed]

Anomaly,

You posted Joshua D. McInerney, letter, and praised him in other post for what he does. This guy is a complete loser. Seham sent him away puking his guts out, he was so worked over. When the pressure was aplied to him he caved every single time. And in the end he yet again caved to the AT mechanics wishes (which were completely against his). The teamsters need to do themselves a favor and fire him. He even got completely beat up by the company (SWA) as well, he was so worked when he left, because he just gave up at the end. Some say it was hard to watch, but it couldn't have happend to a better rival to AMFA than the teamsters. AMFA's faultery point was after teamster attorney, Joshua D. McInerney, told AMFA's Seham he would sue SWA, and AMFA over the March 29th LOA, Seham's reponce was classical, he told Josh he would wipe the floor with him in any court of law, and told him to file. SWA could not help notice how quickly Josh started to back up into the corner. It was all overwith from there, and all this happend at the begining of SLI nego's. We've seen this guy in action, just by you praising him and letters he writes only hurts your case for the teamsters. But don't believe me just ask one of the AirTran guys, they will tell you the same. Had to say something about Joshua D. McInerney in action as it was pathetic to watch, but yet very entertaining!!!

Question, if Seham is so great why does the firm brag about instituting the first pilot B scale in at AA and not long after the APA fired the firm?

 

[Overspeed]

I'm not Bob, and I do not pretend to speak for him or anyone else from the TWU.

As of this posting, all of the links that follow are active; given that they are now posted, I would suspect that some number of them will become inactive.

It is well documented below that the AFL-CIO, and unions representing memberships outsidie of AMFA participated in dismantling the effectiveness of the AMFA strike at NWA:


The view from the political Left:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rachleff

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

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



Peter Rachleff conducts research in U.S. labor, immigration and African American

history. He teaches courses in these areas, as well as theme-focused courses between the

Civil War and World War II. Rachleff has tied much of his teaching and service to

interdisciplinary programs, such as Urban Studies, African American Studies, Comparative

North American Studies, and Women's and Gender Studies. Active in the community

around Macalester, from the Minnesota Historical Society to the labor movement, he is a

frequent sponsor of internships and student research projects.



Rachleff has been teaching at Macalester since 1982.



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

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.

IAM’s leadership is so overtly hostile to AMFA that their position is not surprising.

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. Once successful they spun off other workers to sub-contracting and will only "protect" the narrow craft interests of mechanics. Like PATCO a quarter of a century ago, AMFA became a pariah in the labor movement.

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. 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…"

Just as with PATCO, 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.

So AMFA went from 10,000 M&R in 1999 to less than 1,000 by 2004? Am I understanding that right? That's some great representation if I ever heard. Didn't the post BK agreement allow management AMTs to be on the same seniority list? Yes it did. Way to go AMFA!

 

[AC Tynker]

So AMFA went from 10,000 M&R in 1999 to less than 1,000 by 2004? Am I understanding that right? That's some great representation if I ever heard. Didn't the post BK agreement allow management AMTs to be on the same seniority list? Yes it did. Way to go AMFA!

Wow, I didn't know that. Not good at all.

 

[4A Mechanic]

Sounds like the same destination the TWu is headed for!

 

[Anomaly]

How can you say with such certainty that the IBT, IAM, and TWU looked upon the failed strike, looked at the destroyed families, looked at the financial ruin of so many good mechanics with "glee and a great sense of satisfaction"

In 2006, well in to the strike, my support for amfa was slipping. The Teamsters supporters were just beginning to discuss the possibilities of an election. However there was nothing but sympathy for the NWA mechanics. If I had heard anything other than that I would have never joined in support.

There has always been a wedge between amfa and the major unions. amfa tactics have diluted union solidarity over the years. It took me a while, but I have come to understand the issue. It still does not qualify your statement that ANY union would look at this tragedy towards fellow union members with any kind of glee. amfa failed these members, which is a travesty, but all unions should recognize the damage to all unions, to all mechanics by these complete failures. How can that make any union member happy?

You are an officer in the TWU. Do you speak from experience? Was glee and satisfaction your emotion to this? It certainly was not mine.

I'm not Bob, and I do not pretend to speak for him or anyone else from the TWU.

As of this posting, all of the links that follow are active; given that they are now posted, I would suspect that some number of them will become inactive.

It is well documented below that the AFL-CIO, and unions representing memberships outsidie of AMFA participated in dismantling the effectiveness of the AMFA strike at NWA:

Although I did not re broadcast your entire post, I liked it and read it all. Well done although I have read these web sites before.

My question to Bob, however, was not that there was several known rifts between AMFA and the AFL/CIO, it was to explain his position that the unions looked at the failed strike with Glee. NWA did not spell the end for the association. I simply find Bob's accusation to be bold and heartless.

 

[Buck]

Why is it that you need to answer your own posts?

 

[Anomaly]

Why is it that you need to answer your own posts?

I was referencing my own post to make clear what I was answering. The quote shows only his answer. Sometimes to reiterate or be clear of my point I post my original comment. I have learned to do this after so many time of having my posts taken out of context and subsequently being called a liar.

 

[Buck]

Fair enough

 

[TWU informer]

I was referencing my own post to make clear what I was answering. The quote shows only his answer. Sometimes to reiterate or be clear of my point I post my original comment. I have learned to do this after so many time of having my posts taken out of context and subsequently being called a liar.

LIAR

 

[Anomaly]

LIAR

 

[TWU informer]

And soon irrelevant LIAR

 

[Rogallo]

I was referencing my own post to make clear what I was answering. The quote shows only his answer. Sometimes to reiterate or be clear of my point I post my original comment. I have learned to do this after so many time of having my posts taken out of context and subsequently being called a liar.

Liar

 

[DNTULSA]

I was referencing my own post to make clear what I was answering. The quote shows only his answer. Sometimes to reiterate or be clear of my point I post my original comment. I have learned to do this after so many time of having my posts taken out of context and subsequently being called a liar.

anomaly is a latin word.

It means "Liar".