Wrong, I would not feel or accuse Fleet for my getting screwed. I would not think Fleet makes what they do and have the benefits they have because my work group is subsidizing it. Don’t speak for me bro, you have no clue how I think and operate. Again, tell me why I make $30.82 and get 5 weeks VC?
Because your pay is too low, you only get paid half for sick days for whatever that term is. Maybe if I made $25 an hour and only had 3 weeks vacation you would be much better off. Your pain is my gain? You want me to suffer so you can flourish? Wow, so much for support. I’d love to hear the guy who agreed with you his argument...
I am an ex NWA mechanic and kind of in the same boat as you guys are with the twu with all ground groups were represented by the iam for most of the time I worked there. I will only speak for myself but I never wanted to take anything away from the ramp but it was obvious when it came time for negotiations the company would divvy up a section of the pie when it came to work groups they would give one section of pie to the iam and basically said you decide how to divide it among your groups but this is all you get and we most definitely as AMT's got the worst of it. I remember when I started I made less than a topped out ramp guy for the first 4 years I worked there until the 5th year and then it was only a modest increase. I didn't go to school for 18 months to work midnights forever only to make ramp pay if I had known that I wouldn't have wasted my time. Sorry if this sounds elitist but again I didn't want to take anything from any other workgroup I and others felt we were not getting properly represented or compensated being part of an industrial union and we were a minority in our union as well. When the iam finally pushed us AMT's over the edge enough for us to start a card drive for AMFA it's funny mechanics at the time were doing a/c pushbacks all of a sudden when mechanics would do their walk arounds and set up the tug in advance for their gate when it came time to push we started noticing the steering bypass pins removed it happened to me as well. To say this is/was extremely dangerous is an understatement I wish I could have caught someone pulling the pins. It was obvious the ramp was not happy with us mechanics wanting to go it alone so my question is why is that? When we finally did get the iam out which by the way was no easy task we got our first AMFA contract negotiated I got a 13 dollar an hour raise and more than double the pension multiplier something the iam said could never happen. Then 9/11 happened and a lot of other things that I won't go into but even though AMFA had it's faults it proved one thing and that was we as a skilled group are better off going it alone. Industrial unions have done nothing to improve the AMT's situation in the 32 years I have been in this industry. The compensation AMT's make now would be no where near what they are if it were not for our AMFA contract in 2001 and that is a fact. The other non AMFA airlines pretty much had no choice but to bump up their mechanic pay and of course likes of the iam and twu took the credit even though they were riding AMFA's coattails. I am at non union FX our topped out ramp guys and fuelers are at around 26-27 an hour. Right now a topped out AMT is at 56.06 and again we are non union. It is pretty clear to me who benefits more from the iam/twu and it is not the mechanics. Sorry just calling it like I see it.