Nightwatch
Veteran
- Jun 8, 2004
- 888
- 2
*copied from the-mechanic forum board
Received: 09/13/04 08:30:43 EDT
Name: Stomped
E-Mail:
Employer: Alaska Airlines
Location: Oakland LINE
Message:
I had thought that AMFA was not the kind of union that would engage in backroom deals and cronyism. I thought wrong.
The same day of the shocking announcement that Alaska Airlines had suddenly closed its Oakland Maintenance base, our union representative (and I use that term loosely) came out to the Oakland Line to tell us that around the end of the month more senior base employees would be displacing us. He then went on to say how unclear the union agreement was even though it plainly states in black and white that after first trying to displace the most junior employee at his own station, “…in the event of a lay off involving forty (40) or more employees, the employees affected must displace the most junior employee in his own classification on the SYSTEM.†Not only did he claim that Oakland Line was the same station as Oakland Base, but he also said that he got the company to agree that the contract language wasn’t fair to more senior employees. He then went on to say that he felt more senior employees should have the right to first bump junior employees at San Francisco Line as well.
Well my friends that is where this so-called union rep really tipped his hand. It turns out that he may not have the seniority to bump to Oakland Line but he will likely have the seniority to bump to San Francisco Line. You don’t get much more blatantly self-serving as that.
To top things off, I went to look for what exactly classifies a location as a station. I mean they closed Oakland Base not Oakland Line so right there is a huge difference. We also have a very different management structure from the hangar as a line station. Yes, we do all share the same airport but they are in a totally separate hangar on a separate field (North Field) that the puddle jumpers use. Whenever we needed help from the hangar boys they usually kicked and screamed acting like not only were we a separate station, but we were a different airline as well! Heck, we even use different uniforms than the base employees.
It turns out that the only definition of the term “station†that I could find was in a section of the company’s General Procedures Manual (GPM) which is THE document that we must follow for our maintenance program as we can be fined or even shut down by the FAA if we don’t. That section states:
“Alaska Airlines (ASA) stations are classified in accordance with the level of maintenance performed at the station.â€
The real kicker is that this same GPM section lists Oakland Line not only as a separate station from Oakland-Main Base, but it also lists it as a totally different class of station. Oakland Line is shown as a class B station just like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and even Anchorage. Oakland – Main Base is (or was) the only remaining class A station for Alaska Airlines.
In other words, a location’s management structure, its station or city code, whether or not it shares the same building/field/airport/geographic region, or even the look of its uniforms are all irrelevant. The deciding factor of what classifies a location as a station is the type of maintenance it performs.
So there you have it. Unless AMFA national steps in and provides us with truly unbiased representation, AMFA has shown its true colors. While I certainly respect the importance of seniority, I don’t believe that seniority rule should be used as an excuse to violate our union agreement to further the interests of a select few and stomp on the rights of more junior employees. I have seen where airlines have used seniority rule to divide our trade and shut down maintenance base after maintenance base laying off layer after layer of junior employees in a death by a thousand cuts.
You may have heard of the term “the tyranny of the majority.†Well now we have “the tyranny of seniority.†To my great disappointment, AMFA has taken that tyranny to a whole new level.
It will be different with AMFA!..Yeah right you bozos.
Received: 09/13/04 08:30:43 EDT
Name: Stomped
E-Mail:
Employer: Alaska Airlines
Location: Oakland LINE
Message:
I had thought that AMFA was not the kind of union that would engage in backroom deals and cronyism. I thought wrong.
The same day of the shocking announcement that Alaska Airlines had suddenly closed its Oakland Maintenance base, our union representative (and I use that term loosely) came out to the Oakland Line to tell us that around the end of the month more senior base employees would be displacing us. He then went on to say how unclear the union agreement was even though it plainly states in black and white that after first trying to displace the most junior employee at his own station, “…in the event of a lay off involving forty (40) or more employees, the employees affected must displace the most junior employee in his own classification on the SYSTEM.†Not only did he claim that Oakland Line was the same station as Oakland Base, but he also said that he got the company to agree that the contract language wasn’t fair to more senior employees. He then went on to say that he felt more senior employees should have the right to first bump junior employees at San Francisco Line as well.
Well my friends that is where this so-called union rep really tipped his hand. It turns out that he may not have the seniority to bump to Oakland Line but he will likely have the seniority to bump to San Francisco Line. You don’t get much more blatantly self-serving as that.
To top things off, I went to look for what exactly classifies a location as a station. I mean they closed Oakland Base not Oakland Line so right there is a huge difference. We also have a very different management structure from the hangar as a line station. Yes, we do all share the same airport but they are in a totally separate hangar on a separate field (North Field) that the puddle jumpers use. Whenever we needed help from the hangar boys they usually kicked and screamed acting like not only were we a separate station, but we were a different airline as well! Heck, we even use different uniforms than the base employees.
It turns out that the only definition of the term “station†that I could find was in a section of the company’s General Procedures Manual (GPM) which is THE document that we must follow for our maintenance program as we can be fined or even shut down by the FAA if we don’t. That section states:
“Alaska Airlines (ASA) stations are classified in accordance with the level of maintenance performed at the station.â€
The real kicker is that this same GPM section lists Oakland Line not only as a separate station from Oakland-Main Base, but it also lists it as a totally different class of station. Oakland Line is shown as a class B station just like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and even Anchorage. Oakland – Main Base is (or was) the only remaining class A station for Alaska Airlines.
In other words, a location’s management structure, its station or city code, whether or not it shares the same building/field/airport/geographic region, or even the look of its uniforms are all irrelevant. The deciding factor of what classifies a location as a station is the type of maintenance it performs.
So there you have it. Unless AMFA national steps in and provides us with truly unbiased representation, AMFA has shown its true colors. While I certainly respect the importance of seniority, I don’t believe that seniority rule should be used as an excuse to violate our union agreement to further the interests of a select few and stomp on the rights of more junior employees. I have seen where airlines have used seniority rule to divide our trade and shut down maintenance base after maintenance base laying off layer after layer of junior employees in a death by a thousand cuts.
You may have heard of the term “the tyranny of the majority.†Well now we have “the tyranny of seniority.†To my great disappointment, AMFA has taken that tyranny to a whole new level.
It will be different with AMFA!..Yeah right you bozos.
