Response to AFA paid staffer Kim Evasic

Some have wondered why I have been so critical of specific paid AFA union staffers - including those who pretend to be volunteers but are paid. I figured it should be obvious considering we are still under a forty percent cut in pay, benefits and work rules while another union on the property, ALPA, has gotten its members back what our union should have...AND AFA staffers continue to profit while we struggle. We all deserve better than this. We should all be speaking up. But when we do, we get attacked in emails like the one sent by paid volunteer, Kim Evasic, (see email below mine) in which AFA does not offer solutions and strategy to progress our contract and careers and does not defend their horrific track record, but instead mocks me personally. Again, we deserve better than this.

"You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore." --Cesar Chavez, 1984

Thank you for your support and feedback,
Jose A. Ibarra

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Dear Kim,

Your email was forwarded to me by several people who were appalled that AFA continues to attack individual members who exercise their democratic right to free speech.

It is unfortunate that you choose to cast yourself as the authority of what is “unintelligible drivel” and then send your judgment of me out in an email that is rife with spelling mistakes, run-on sentences, fragmented structure, poor paragraph formation and unsupported accusations. Nonetheless you have raised some issues that require a response and some questions that I would like you to answer:

*** 1) You are listed on the Delta AFA website as a Michigan chairperson for the campaign. You are sponsored and paid by the AFA campaign, so why do you refuse to disclose that in your email? That is a lie of omission of fact and as far as I am concerned, your hate filled email is an officially sanctioned AFA communication designed to squash any type of free speech or independent thought.

*** 2) You chastise me about the misspelling of Ed Bastian’s name. You seem to believe that you know the correct spelling to be Bastion. Did you also inform Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines about the correction? Did you tell Janette how she should be spelling his name? Did you tell Ed Bastian that he is spelling his own name incorrectly? Or was your attempted correction of the spelling in my email just a political attempt to malign me?

*** 3) You call me “little Jose Ibarra”, and refer to me as “small”. Are you referring to me as small in physical stature? Or are you implying that I am insignificant as a human being because I don’t care to remain silent about union corruption, incompetence and ineffectiveness? What is your intent when using the adjectives “little” and “small”?

*** 4) When you refer to my writing as “unintelligible drivel” what exactly are you referring to? Sometimes I respond quickly to emails and sometimes I am sending emails from my iPhone, both of which lend themselves to errors. When I send out bulk emails or post on my blog, I take more time in constructing the emails and will often have several people review them for consistency, focus and factual accuracy. Take a lesson Kim. You have provided the perfect example of the type of pointless, destructive communication I hope to avoid.

*** 5) Why do you and AFA have such an issue with the fact that English is my second language and that I did not learn English until I came to this country when I was 18 years old? One of the great strengths of the United States is the diversity of its people, so I find your intolerance of people from different cultures, backgrounds and races as amazing and appalling. Even more alarming is the fact that you work for a global carrier and serve people from nations all over the world. Perhaps your intolerance is exactly the reason that Ed Bastian made the remark in the first place that there is no proof that having a unionized workforce provides better customer service. Perhaps people like you and others at AFA become so filled with hate and division and racism that you forget why we are here in the first place.

*** 6) Please show me where I intimated that Janette should “sit back quietly like a good little girl”. You don’t know me at all if you think I am about sitting back quietly. And why do you think little girls are only good when they “sit back quietly?” That’s a rather sexist simile you are using, isn’t it? My email was very clear in stating that I believe Janette – and AFA – should stop trying to distract us with meaningless drivel and focus on those items that have significant impact on us our families and our finances. What is an ‘apology’ going to get us? Will it put food on the table or pay for healthcare? Rather than “sitting back” and settling for a meaningless apology, Janette should be taking a stand on enforcing the contract we have. The LOA 35 debacle is just one important AFA failure, among many.

*** 7) You claim that you are “appalled” to be “forced” to write your email. Who held the gun to your head? Was it Pat Friend? Todd Hurlbut? Who forced you to write it? Why don’t you just own up to the fact that it was a choice you made? Stop playing the helpless victim and take some ownership for your actions. The truth is you CHOSE to write the email because I’m not on board with your political agenda of waging a fear-based “what-if” campaign. And stop making comments that are insulting to young women who attend school. You seem to have an issue with strong women who speak up or educate themselves. What gives, Kim?

*** 8) You claim that I spout off incessantly about another home in Paris and that I don’t need this job. Please name one instance when I told you this. Just one Kim. Incessant implies continuing or without interruption. I’m asking you for just one, single instance when I told you anything close to what you claim. The fact, Kim – and you would know this if you would ever decide to speak TO me, rather than ABOUT me, is that I do need this job and I realize that many others need this job and that is exactly the reason that I believe AFA should be held accountable for being so cavalier about our careers and our financial security. They have not kept one promise that they have made, and yet you are right on board with believing all the new promises that they are making for the future. I’m guessing that the new flavor of AFA Kool-Aid is grape to go with that failed “power to the purple” campaign.

*** 9) Re-check the definition of oligarchy and get back to me if you have any questions. Here’s what I have: “a form of government in which all the power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique”. Let me know how you think that this definition doesn’t apply to the AFA structure and I can clarify it for you further.

*** 10) I have not lost my “singular voice” as you claim. (Do you even know the definition of singular? It means one. All I have ever spoken with is one voice. Do you even know what you are even trying to say, Kim?) I have a singular voice and I choose to exercise my right to speak up and speak out. Rather, it is you who has lost your singular voice and chosen to repeat whisperings that you have heard and spout talking points that you have picked up, rather than reaching your own independent conclusions, supported by observation, fact and historical performance.

In closing Kim, you – just like all the other AFA staffers and campaigners - have failed to answer the important questions:

*** 1) How does AFA plan to have a combined agreement in place by next March when the cross training is complete?

*** 2) If after 60 years AFA doesn’t have the industry leading contract at any airline it represents, how are they going to achieve this at Delta? What’s the new and different plan? What’s the strategy?

*** 3) Why has AFA failed to enforce the contract we currently have? Is it unwillingness or ineffectiveness? Why should we believe that will change just because we’re now Delta?

It is unfortunate and revealing that your email and personal attacks betray the very qualities in you that you falsely claim that I have displayed in exercising my democratic right to speak up about AFA inconsistencies and betrayals. Since I don’t know you personally I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you deny me, and assume that your email was sent with reckless abandon because of your fear of being without a union. You now have the opportunity to correct your errors and set the record straight about the items above. No one is forcing you into a course of action, or whether to take any action at all in retracting your personal smears and unfounded accusations to those who received your original email.

The action that you choose, however, will speak volumes about your individual character. In the meantime, I will express my disappointment in this age-old AFA campaign tactic that condones attacks on individual flight attendants. It’s a throwback for me to their raid on NWA three years ago when individual flight attendants were ostracized, attacked and received death threats from AFA organizers. You have taken the first step down a slippery slope, Kim and I will leave you with this final thought: No one in management at Delta or Northwest has ever undertaken the kind of action that you just did to attack me on a personal level. So the question remains: How am I better off with AFA?

Sincerely,
Jose Arturo Ibarra

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Email from: Kim Evasic <kimevasic@yahoo.com>

Generally, I don't write anything about persons that aren't in an office, hold no title and are just silly annoyances; today I'm willing to make an exception. I suppose "having a blog" constitutes putting oneself out there, even though everyone from my youngest son to my cat has a blog these days. I guess it's not really a valid way to measure someone's involvement in anything other than self promotion. Anyway...
My reason for sending this is because a piece came across my screen from little Jose Ibarra. It was a very derogatory statement about AFA, in general, and Janette Rook, in particular. I don't have a blog so I felt the need to set a few things straight about what he was attempting to say. Janette, as the new MEC president sent Ed Bastion (that's the correct spelling, Jose) a letter which I'm sure all of you have seen. She was sending Delta a message about the fact that we are not going to take their unethical, I believe illegal, interference lying down. We are a strong contingent and we are going to win this election. Jose intimated that Janette should sit back quietly like a good little girl and wait for crumbs. Maybe this is how he operated, but maybe that's why he has nothing but his blog to keep him warm at night in the here and now. Maybe not, I don't know. I found it reprehensible that he would write that he believed it embarrassing that she would write to Ed Bastion about statements he made that definitely left the perception that Delta flight attendants were superior to Northwest flight attendants because Northwest is unionized. Janette showed true leadership qualities. Take notes, Jose, maybe you'll learn something about character and altuistic motivation.
Now, a few other things I'd like those of you who read or don't read things Jose writes to understand a few clues as to Mr. Ibarra's writings: If it's unintelligible drivel, Jose actually wrote it. If it's intelligible drivel (that's the usual), someone wrote it for him. If you can't decipher spellings and entire paragraphs, well I think you get the picture. Now, I know what I'm writing right now is very derogatory; this is not my usual style. But, folks, we are fighting for our lives right now. This is too important for me to sit back and let one small man try to take away everything I know in my heart is the only thing that's going to give me job security. He, perhaps, doesn't rely solely on his airline paycheck. He spouts off incessantly about his other home in Paris and how he doesn't need this job. I do. It's not a lark for me. I need a contract with Richard Anderson and crew at the helm.
Anyone who believes this is a career must stop reading Jose and passing it on to anyone. There are flight attendants out there that may not know he's disgruntled because his power trip at PFAA got squelched by a lot of flight attendants who said we don't want that union in place. His anger and embarrassment have been transferred to an organization. He called AFA and Pat Friend and oligarchy. Please look up 'oligarchy'. It is a completely incorrect, laughable, use of the word. Understand when you read his junk it's big words from a little, selfish, self-absorbed mind. He doesn't know what he's talking about. I suppose he'll start writing silly school-girl stuff about me now. I'm appalled that I'm forced to write this and stoop to his level, but I cannot, for everyone I'm working for (primarily my family) let this foolishness go unanswered. He's not a movement. He's a mad boy. Period. STOP GIVING HIM A PLATFORM IN ANY WAY...
Here's the clear, real, true message: With this management we need a contract and we will get it by voting for a union. We will vote when we have been able to educate all Delta flight attendants and Northwest flight attendants about what this management is willing to do without a contract in place. We don't need to vote until everyone has had the luxury of learning about contract v. no contract. Only those that don't want a contract for us scream that we need to vote now. You know why? Because they don't have a real argument. We're not merged yet. Nothing's changing tomorrow. They want us to lose our rights and our voice. Jose lost his singular voice and is petulantly trying to burn the entire group. I say, "Back off and stay out of my way." I'm not taking this quietly anymore. I've had it with his insipid, amateurish blog.
Here's the bottom-line cliche that is as true today as when it was written: Slow and steady wins the race.
In solidarity and sincerely
-Kim Evasic