We Want Our Local Back.

[The Truth Will Set U Free]

I was not making any treats to anyone. I simply like to see if cowards that hide in the Dark will have the guts to come out. 
Again all I am asking for is the Right to Vote on giving us our Local back. Thats pretty simple. I am still waiting for a answer from someone on the Local Board to tell me what happen to our Motion. 

 

[WeAAsles]

I can honestly tell you that more than likely it will be denied. Even with the change in leadership.

 

[JABORD]

I was not making any treats to anyone. I simply like to see if cowards that hide in the Dark will have the guts to come out. 
Again all I am asking for is the Right to Vote on giving us our Local back. Thats pretty simple. I am still waiting for a answer from someone on the Local Board to tell me what happen to our Motion.

Hey pal, you want to give yourself the Right to Vote, sign an AMFA card. Those of you that believe we should try to fix the TWBoo and keep them as our Representation need get real!

 

[AMFAinMIAMI]

WeAAsles   All I am asking is give us MIAMI Local back. The Baker Letter has nothing to do with it. If the smaller locals cant afford to be on there own then they can stay with 591. We put a LEGAL monition in to go back to a single Local. I can't understand why that would be a problem. The answer to that motion was never given to us from the Board. I asked the  question and Bob Owens was the only one to respond on this board and what he told me you can read for yourself in my 1st EVER post. 
 
For this AANOTOK to attack me for asking a simple question and stating a few FACTs. I very wrong. I have been VERY involved with trying to fix this Union. I been Vice Pres. 1st Vice Pres. Temp President . Exec Board Member and Chief Shop Steward and so no and so on. So for any one to attack me for expecting people to do the right thing once they are in office . I did. 

 
 
Larry aka truth will set u free
 
Getting a Local back here in Miami will happen when we remove the TWU. The assigned AMFA Local for Miami will be Local 6. 
 
Attempting to fix the TWU is a lost cause, we have changed union leaders here and the same scams continue.
 
Once we rid AA of the TWU I believe that others will get involved so that the scammers we have in office now won't be in office.
 
Most of the Line stations have signed cards so that we can rid AA of this useless union and the scammers.
Soon the Big push to get the Tulsa guys on board and title 2 will get underway.
 
If you want the local in Miami then lets get rid of the TWU.
 
 
AMFA at AA in 2014

 

[WeAAsles]

Larry aka truth will set u free
 
Getting a Local back here in Miami will happen when we remove the TWU. The assigned AMFA Local for Miami will be Local 6. 
 
Attempting to fix the TWU is a lost cause, we have changed union leaders here and the same scams continue.
 
Once we rid AA of the TWU I believe that others will get involved so that the scammers we have in office now won't be in office.
 
Most of the Line stations have signed cards so that we can rid AA of this useless union and the scammers.
Soon the Big push to get the Tulsa guys on board and title 2 will get underway.
 
If you want the local in Miami then lets get rid of the TWU.
 
 
AMFA at AA in 2014

AMFA at AA in 2034. C'mon guys let's get er done.

 

[Kev3188]

Instead of arguing about the best way to organize the locals of the crappiest airline union around, why not simply collect enough cards to fire the bastards?

Bingo.

 

[AMFAinMIAMI]

AMFA at AA in 2034. C'mon guys let's get er done.

 
WeAAsles
 
With all the damage that the TWU has done to our class and craft and to the employees of AA tell us why you support the TWU?
 
Are you part of the TWU scam? Just think of all we have lost here at AA with the TWU on the property.
 
It's time to change, since the attempt to change from with in has failed. Getting rid of PHAT DON, Bobby Gless, and Jim Little is just the IEC way of
hoping to keep the dues flowing.
 
Lombardo and his gang of thieves will take from us as well. Local 591 in my opinion is failing the membership. Some may like the one local plan and the officers of 591
just like officers of the TWU past gave themselves pay raises. Some of the other union related slots in 591's chain of command have deals with mgmt so they don't even have to show up to work. Whether its an actual fact or not we see less of the union guys now than before.
 
14% hold back of your money to fight legal action against them by x employees which were TWU dues paying members. 5% then 10% now 14%,
doesn't that tell you something? Do you support that as well?
 
AMFA at AA in 2014 

 

[The Truth Will Set U Free]

AMFAinMiami
 
At this point I know I have done as much as I can to try to fix what we have. I hope and pray for any change. If AMFA get a Elections I will give Them My Vote. The sad part is that how do you stop the same people from running and doing the same thing. 
 
Trust Me at this Point AMFA would get my Vote.

 

[bikeguy]

I hear the AMFA drive is well underway in DFW, is anything going on in MIA,ORD or JFK etc....?

 

[AMFAinMIAMI]

I hear the AMFA drive is well underway in DFW, is anything going on in MIA,ORD or JFK etc....?

 
 
Bikeguy
 
Most of the line stations are done, signed...
 
Tulsa and a few of the smaller class 2 stations are all that is left.
 
You will see in the very near future the Big Push to get the Tulsa men & woman on board.
I am hoping that with all that has happened with the failures of the TWU we should have no problem getting the required cards to get an election here at AA.
 
I am telling you that AMFA cards are being signed at USAirways as well.
 
AMFA at the New AA in 2014

 

[AMFAinMIAMI]

AMFAinMiami
 
At this point I know I have done as much as I can to try to fix what we have. I hope and pray for any change. If AMFA get a Elections I will give Them My Vote. The sad part is that how do you stop the same people from running and doing the same thing. 
 
Trust Me at this Point AMFA would get my Vote.

 
You can't stop them from running but you and all the others who vote can refuse to put them back in office.
 
Wipe the slate and start over, put people in who want to do the right thing for the betterment of all rather than themselves.
But with AMFA they can be removed, unlike the TWU, IAM, IBT... if they do not do thier job.
 
If you want to help talk to the Title 2 guys you know and have them sign a card.
 
AMFA at AA 2014

 

[Bob Owens]

Larry;
While I was against the way they did this I do favor having a larger stronger Local vs 5 smaller Locals. It was something I’d been talking about for some time. That said personally I liked being President a lot better than being Treasurer, having done both jobs in the past I was somewhat aware of what I was getting into but still I do not favor going back. The negatives of having smaller Locals outweigh the positives, one big positive is having control of who sits on the System Arbitration panels, another is having the funds to pursue cases that otherwise we could not, and another is that for the first time all line mechanics are in maintenance Locals, ask the guys in DCA or RDU if they want to go back to Fleet Locals. While there have been growing pains and frustration is understandable I think that most of the issues you brought up are being resolved and you will find that in the end we will have a Local that despite its much larger size will be more accommodating to the membership than anything we had in the past.

Monthly Meetings-you have monthly meetings, meeting where you can make motions. The holdup is working out how they will be discussed and voted on. One of the problems we had in the past was five guys who don’t have to go to a second job or rush home to watch the kids so the wife can go out to work determine what the policy will be for 600 guys. We are trying to make it easier for everyone to get the opportunity to vote on motions that affect them.

The Motion to go back to smaller locals was addressed and brought to the International. If the majority is that serious about getting their own Local back then start a petition. As far as us being no different than Don or Little the first thing that makes that statement incorrect and not a “fact” is we were voted in, and not only can we be voted out if we don’t do what the membership wants but you also have the ability to recall us at any time. Yes we serve the members but no I don’t think that every move we make needs to first be approved by the membership and due to changes in the structure changes in the way we operate as a single Local instead of five, with five different ways of doing things, needed to be addressed. Things we put in can be changed if the majority determines they want it changed but the circumstances required that we get something that works in place as quickly as possible.

If the majority feel as you do then there should be no problem getting enough signatures on a petition to bring going back to small Locals forward.

Even when I was President we would make decisions and I always said that if the majority wants me out all they have to do is say so but don’t tell me I’m the President but I can’t do anything in that capacity because we want the five guys who were not elected but are able show up a meeting to run the show instead of the guys who were chosen by the majority where everyone had plenty of opportunity to vote not just at three meetings in a single day of the month.

You can still read the BB at work, but there isn’t enough room there to put as much as we can on a website that you can access with your phone or Laptop. Also the contract limits what we can post there.
The drawbacks of small Locals include;
-limited resources
-inefficient use of those limited resources
-limited scope of authority over the contract both in Negotiations and enforcement
-limited pool of people to choose to run the Locals, ie Todd Woodward-need I say more?
-insignificant electoral power at the Convention

There are more but instead I will ask you, what would we gain by breaking up back into smaller locals? We had our small Locals over the worst period ever for our careers and even with some of us getting as much as we could out to the members we were completely ineffectual at stopping the International from destroying our profession. My guys in 562 voted over 96% against concessions while Woodard was telling you guys to vote YES. How would going back to small locals help us get a better contract? How would going back to smaller locals help us unify at least the line for the next challenge we will face when dealing with the joint CBA? Do we really want to have 20 guys sitting in contract negotiations again? I agree that other changes need to be made concerning the Title II mechanics but I do not agree with going backwards. God knows we have done enough of that.

 

[Bob Owens]

Did somebody mention trolls?
 

If you read Owens letter back from when the local merger was put out he was against it. Why? Maybe because he was worried about the membership system wide not voting for him. Little did he know that 75% of the new 591 membership would be so apathetic they wouldn't even vote. Most of the votes they received were more due to their ability to label the other ticket as "Team Videtich". I doubt anyone voted on issues and the 75% that didn't vote were just sick of the political blame game and jockeying for their own position off the floor and in to a lifetime officer job. 
 
But look at Owens, Peterson, JR, Rojas, Schiable, and Knapp now. Where are they? Not on the floor addressing member's issues. You have them writing letters, disappearing, or blaming people that aren't even there anymore. They sure did get motivated to get the 591 bylaws passed with their fat raises in them without a membership vote though. Oh wait, Bob says the International "gave" them the raises. Yeah, right. If the expended the same amount of energy and pressure on the International to get their bylaw change and raises through on equity and retiree emdical, we would have our money by now!
 
What has to happen, TWU or AMFA (I hope not), is that members get involved and vote the hacks out. Some are gone already that were blamed, right or wrong, for the mess we are in. The members need to wake up and steer this union in OUR direction. Get accountability and visibility for our dues. This is OUR union and it belongs to us.
 
We need to draft bylaw changes that strip them of their raises and directly tie it to what we all get or don't get. Submit a motion to have a report of how many hours are being paid to each officer for UBP and what we got for it. Make a motion to force officers that are on UBP to spend a significant amount that time on the floor answering our questions about equity, the BK, future plans for a JCBA, and what is happening with joining the TWU and IAM.

Yes Overspin we were so worried that we opted not to spend $4500 on a mailout from the International like Team Videtich did and instead spent $100 on Business cards with the names of who was on our slate.

The guys I spoke to who admit they didn't vote said to me that they instructed their wives to simply toss anything that had the TWU logo on it into the garbage, don't even open it. So all the money that Team Videitich spent on their fliers was for naught, they went the same place as 75% of the ballots, not only would these guys have not voted for team Videtich anyway but they never even read their schpeal. The members are apathetic because of Videtich's dream contract that we got stuck with. I admit that I'm rarely on the floor, and I miss that part because I always liked that part of the job, still cleaning up the mess the Little -Videtich team created by blowing up the five locals and then saying, there you go, rebuild it into something, and we have been doing just that. Instead of offering assistance they initiated a forensic audit, starting with Local 562. As any mechanic knows it takes a lot more time to put something together than to blow it apart. So in addition to trying to build 591 we had to deal with the Auditors who wanted details on every single transaction and even things like "Why is there an odd number of taxi receipts in Puerto Rico to and from the Hotel?
(In PR the Hotels do not provide bus service, I did meetings at the airport and went back to the Hotel in between and I asked one the Chairman if he could pick me up at the Hotel on his way into work.)
Spring is here, surely you could be out doing some yard work or something productive now couldn't you? Me I'll keep chugging along, next project is to set up an efficient more automated dues tracking system, have had discussions with local 100 and may adopt some of what they develop, that may leave me a little more time to get out and hear what the members have to say. Also through our State Conferenece pushing for changes in Sect 1167 to include Airlines so AA could not do what they just did again. have appointments with one Congressman before the Cope Conference after already meeting with a staffer and have Contacted the pilots Union that testified before congress about the need for reform especially concerning Airline workers.

So Overspin, what have you been doing the last year?

You seem to be worried about UBP, funny but I don't recall you asking about it when Gordon Clark was on UBP organizing for the IBT. Or what about Bob Vanderloo, or ,,,,,,,,,?

 

[The Truth Will Set U Free]

Bob 
 
The motion that was made in Miami did not ask for all the Locals to go back. It asked for Miami to have it Local Back. All the reasons that you give dont apply to why that motion was not addressed. You can't just say we felt it works better this way.
 
That is the reason so many guys are fed up with the TWU. That is what Jim and Don use to do. You speak of all the growing pains.Please stop addressing this as if We asked for all the Locals to go back. You are the only one that is speaking on this and I give you your props but you are not correct to keep saying what you are saying. I dont think you are doing it on purpose but answer my Question What happen to the Motion. It was only asking for Miami. Nothing you have said is about letting go of one station. If everyone else is happy then you guys can keep it that way. But why not give us a chance to vote. Is it because you guys know the rest of the Locals will follow. 

 

[paul1]

The pilots and f/a pretty much got back alot of what they where going to lose. The twu just kept giving more. We lost profit sharing for a 4.3 % raise,We should have not lost anything. The 401k we have to put in 5.5% to get a match when other work groups do not even have to make a contribution. We still have the least amount of holidays and etc and etc etc etc