Nightwatch said:
Sorry dude, I won't be layed off 'till they turn the lights out, but I love the compassion. And my concessions? Well, they did allow the brothers and sisters to hold on a bit longer.
We at TWA knew all along that AA was BS and they did not want the workforce. We watched them decimate our stews and pilots, and hand us this staple job, doesn't take a rocket scientist. When you see the Credit Union three weeks before you see any company rep ya know you're not top drawer.
BTW, if I do get furloughed I'll just retire, go fishing, and assist the TWU in fighting you, pretty simple agenda.
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You are pretty much saying what your Local says that I said, only they claim that its "AMFAs" position on MCIE. I said that out of the three bases, if they were to close one it would likely be MCIE, and I stated several reasons why, however you put it more bluntly.
Imagine that, you realize that the company does not love you. Gee, is this the first time you realized that although corporations are "legal persons" they are not real people? They are an institution that has a specific purpose-to create wealth for its owners. Even if the executives had a heart their obligation lies with the shareholder, not you. Its a pretty cold ruthless deal. Dont take it so personally though, they feel the same way about us as they do you. It all boils down to the numbers, its the six weeks vacation and the probability of higher medical liabilities that your older workforce presents, it means higher costs per unit.
Workers set up their own institutions, called unions, to protect them from the corporations ruthless nature. Unfortunatley over time some unions basically became more like corporations where the members became the commodity instead of the owner. That is what happened to the TWU and to a lesser extant, the IAM. Why didnt the IAM even try to keep representing you guys? Why didnt they push for a vote? With all the ex-EAL and TWA guys at AA the IAM would have had a good shot at getting the whole 35000 member pot. Was it because they feared that it would open the door to get AMFA on the ballott? Your seniority, your career and your job were all a collateral sacrifice to a business deal between the two unions. I have no doubt that the company would much rather have the TWU than the IAM, which still retained some semblance of being a union and I think we all know that they dont want to see AMFA either. AA, in as much as a corporation can, "loves" the TWU, even if they dont feel the same way about its members. In fact I recall how at Ed Koziateks retirement party Don Carty proudly announced that he had the perfect retirement gift for Koziatek-"7000 new members"., to the wild applause of the crowd which was mostly made up of management and representatives from the ATD who were not AA.
Whatever happens to MCI I wish you guys the best. I tried to warn you how rolling back system protection would leave you more exposed but your leaders were in too much of a panic to listen. They trusted Art Luby, Little Gless and the TWU. Big mistake.
Rumor here is that MCIE will eventually become part of AMR, seperate from AA, still TWU, offering services as a third party provider or part of Eagle. After all there is a legal requirement to keep the base open with I think 700 people, right?I'm not saying this is going to happen but the possibility is there. MCI would join the ranks of the majority of TWU members like those at Triangle, Worldwide and Ogden. MCI would see work, however they will do so at a wage that is comparable to third party operations and not what airline workers historically saw. The average TWU wage is lower than the median average wage for the American worker, 87% of which is non-union. Workers who once enjoyed a wage that was considerbly more than the National average, and considerably more than their neighbors will see at best average wages while forking over 1% of those gross wages to a company friendly union like the TWU.
This industry has always been cyclical, one day, not in the far too distant future we shall read about how there is a shortage of mechanics. Hopefully by that time the mechanics will be united in one union so we can gain back what organizations like the TWU have taken away. Hopefully we can work together to make sure that we all see a wage that suits what we offer.
