During my 30 year airline career, those of you who know me know that I have always been a strong and vocal advocate for issues and causes that are important to flight attendants. That advocacy has taken the form of union activism during most of those years. I have been instrumental in bringing reform to a corrupt union, founding an independent union and holding union leaders accountable for democracy of decisions and transparency to the members.
For me it has always been about advancing our career collectively through contractual improvements. Although I did not vote for AFA during their raid on the Northwest Airlines in the midst of bankruptcy negotiations, I supported them wholeheartedly once they arrived on the property. I took them at their campaign word that they would use their experience at nine airline bankruptcies to help the Northwest flight attendants stave off draconian company demands, and I was therefore shocked when AFA tried to force a shoddy contract on us only 10 days after they were voted in to represent us.
In that single act, AFA had essentially broken every single campaign promise that they made to the Northwest flight attendants: promises of experience (9 airline bankruptcies), support (largest flight attendant union in the world, backed by 700,000 CWA members), funding ($300 million strike fund – which we later found out we couldn’t access), and democracy (all the decisions on the tentative agreement were made by Pat Friend’s hand-picked and appointed “leadership” and negotiators – we did not have the opportunity to elect a single person). Most of all, they broke their fundamental campaign promise of being able to win us a substantially improved concessionary contract.
Despite this huge slap in the face to the 8,000 Northwest flight attendants, I believed that AFA could do better and I believed that the Northwest flight attendants deserved better. I encouraged the members to send the tentative agreement back to the negotiations table, and I encouraged AFA to use all means available to win us a livable contract. Even the outrage of Pat Friend coercing our MEC to give up our right to strike (despite AFA’s repeated campaign promises to deploy their “trademarked” CHAOS strategy if necessary and an AFA Board of Directors Resolution calling for a world-wide strike if a contract was imposed on any of their groups) was not enough to dissuade me from working within the system and exercising my rights of democratic free speech and member involvement in my union.
In fact, it wasn’t until Pat Friend’s secret meeting with NWA CEO Doug Steenland (in the midst of our contract negotiations) and the subsequent theft of the contract vote on the third tentative agreement (which passed by 128 votes after AFA International inexplicably voided 482 ballots), that I finally realized that AFA is not here to protect the interests of the Northwest flight attendants. AFA is here ONLY to protect the interests and the pocketbooks of the AFA bureaucrats and insiders. This organization – this dues collection agency – is neither interested nor capable to win significant contractual improvements for its members, and the fact of the matter is that AFA has set the benchmark on a new lower floor for airline contracts. Whether we look at legacy carriers or at regional carriers, none of the top contracts belong to AFA and in truth they have lowered the bar so much that other airlines were forced to reduce compensation to their flight attendants to remain competitive with the AFA carriers on a cost basis.
Based on their historic and recent performance at airlines throughout the industry, AFA has shown absolutely no competence in negotiating even an industry-standard contract, much less one that is industry leading. But in some strange contortion of logic, they want us to believe that in some magical way, they will somehow negotiate an industry leading contract for the Delta flight attendants; just like they have promised the United flight attendants and flight attendants at other airlines that their contracts will also be industry leading. This begs the question: How many contracts can be industry leading in one industry?
Rather than spouting meaningless rhetoric and setting unrealistic expectations, AFA should sign its own “Contract With the Combined Delta Flight Attendants” so that we have in writing exactly what AFA will do for us in return for our $11 million per year in dues money. If AFA wants our money, than they should sign a legally binding agreement with us. Anything less is bad business and pure hypocrisy on their part.
And so we Northwest flight attendants have come to a crossroads with respect to the upcoming representational election. Do we vote for AFA for the sake of voting for a “union” even if it is in name only? Do we vote for an “insurance policy” that we know will never pay out? Or do we vote against AFA for the true objective we have sought all along: improvements in pay, benefits, work rules, flexibility and general quality of life? A lot of money is at stake in this election. A “yes” vote means at least $11 million a year in dues for AFA. A “no” vote means that pre-merger Northwest flight attendants would immediately be brought under Delta’s work rules, which translates to a $70 million annual increase in Delta’s labor costs, or an average raise in pay and benefits of $10,000 to each pre-merger Northwest flight attendant.
I respect the democratic process and I respect the individuality of your vote. I am not here to tell you which way to cast your ballot, but in the coming days I will explain the reasons why I will vote “no” to AFA. I will also provide you with impartial facts and objective truths, because I believe that an informed vote is an intelligent vote. Most important, though, is that each of us returns a ballot to the NMB. This time, for the first time ever, not returning a ballot could result in an unintended yes vote for AFA.
Jose Arturo Ibarra
