“How splendid (her) Majesty looks in (her) new clothes, and how well they fit!” everyone cried out. “What a design! What colors! These are indeed royal robes!”
On Monday and Tuesday, the NWA MEC will be electing new national officers. After much vacillating and self-victimization (two decidedly unleader-like qualities), Janette Rook has decided to put herself up for re-election as our MEC president, so it is appropriate to review her record while in office.
Of the many missteps, gaffes and outright failures during Rook’s administration, the most egregious, and the one that is costing former NWA flight attendant tens of thousands of dollars out of their pockets, is her refusal to pursue the second me-too arbitration, which has the potential of restoring our pay and benefits to what they were under our yellow book contract. But Janette isn’t satisfied with just leaving our AFA-negotiated contract in its decimated state; no she is actively seeking to enrich herself yet again with an extra bonus payment.
We have only to look at two recent AFA hotlines to connect the dots and see where Janette’s loyalties lie:
1. A May 31, 2010 MEC hotline covers Janette’s recent testimony before Congress, where she misstates the truth in the first paragraph, with regard to the number of airlines and members that AFA represents. Isn’t lying to Congress considered a felony?
Further in her testimony (although what can we really believe that comes out of Janette’s mouth?), she admits that the “contract” that AFA negotiated for the Northwest flight attendants isn’t as “legally binding” as they would have everyone believe, and she asks Congress to come in and do the work that she should be doing as our MEC president to defend our contract.
The utter hypocrisy in Janette’s testimony is belied by the astonishing fact that she has the vehicle to restore those cuts, simply by pursuing the second LOA 35 (me-too clause) grievance to arbitration, yet she and the MEC, in some secret and inexplicably horrendous decision, have chosen to either delay the arbitration or not pursue it at all. In other words, Janette and the MEC have a way to restore most – if not all – of our pre-concessionary agreement and they continue to fail to do so. If others are going to do their work for them, than why should we be paying them the salary, perks and benefits that they continue to take from our dues money?
2. In a June 14, 2010 hotline (NOTE: the July bid deadline for all bases had already passed by this time), Janette discloses that she had sent Richard Anderson a letter, dated June 10, 2010, requesting another summer incentive bonus program for summer flying. We have to wonder what took Janette so long to send this letter. Why did she wait until so close to the July bid deadline and why is she asking for an “extra-contractual” payment, when she should have negotiated this into the agreement?
There can be only one logical explanation for this random, arbitrary and self-indulgent letter, which will surely go unanswered as frivolous by the company, and that is that Janette was hoping to collect another unauthorized bonus payment for herself, just as she has done in the past. Previously she has paid herself money above and beyond what is approved by the AFA Constitution and the NWA MEC, and has used previous company incentive programs as an “excuse” for reaching into the dues cookie jar and treating herself. When her embezzlement was found out, Janette promised the MEC that she would repay the money, yet she recently publicly admitted that she hadn’t repaid any of it. With this recent letter to Richard Anderson, it appears that the lies and the theft of the members’ dues treasury will only continue, if Janette Rook remains in office.
But the (Empress) has on nothing at all!” cried a small child. “The (Empress) is wearing no clothes!”
It’s time for Janette Rook to acknowledge her extreme and utter failure as our MEC president and step aside. A union with Janette Rook at the helm is worse than having no union at all: it is nothing but a sinkhole that sucks up dues dollars and returns nothing whatsoever to the members, other than a feeling of frustration at the continuous deceptions, hypocrisy and self-interests of those in office.
It is very simple, this representational election is not about the membership, it is about $10 million in annual union dues and nothing more.
Sincerely,
Jose Arturo Ibarra
