Recently, AFA Safety and Security Co-Chair Gary Helton (PMNW LAX flight attendant) wrote a blistering, fiction-filled letter attacking me for any number of alleged misappropriations/misdeeds during my tenure with our former union, PFAA. His diatribe was so emotional, over the top and inaccurate that I’m surprised he didn’t blame me for global warming, the current recession, and for killing puppies, kitties and bunnies in my spare time.
I responded and set the record straight, reminding Gary that aside from his outrageous and false accusations, that this upcoming representational election is not about me, but about AFA and its ghastly record of failure.
Nevertheless, his libelous letter (without my response) continues to be emailed and disseminated, and whether he recognizes it or not, I may yet hold him and those who pass it responsible for damages. As I pointed out to Gary, I keep all of my records, receipts and emails, and unlike some of the highly questionable expenditures by AFA, I can defend my past expenses and reimbursements.
Since then, DTW flight attendant and former DTW AFA LEC President Scott Braxton has used Gary’s letter to smear my name and question my credibility. Most of you probably don’t recognize the name Braxton ... he was nothing more than a temporary placeholder appointment in 2006 (by AFA International President Pat Friend), and was quickly rejected by the Detroit flight attendants when he sought election to office later that year. And while he has no record of official accomplishments, in his short tenure he did manage to inflict some serious damage. At Pat Friend's urging he voted to surrender the NWA flight attendants' right to strike shortly after the rejection of AFA Tentative Agreement 2 (July/August 2006), effectively removing any leverage we had at the negotiations table. Following his campaign defeat, he also voted to reward himself with a full month of severance pay out of the membership's treasury after a mere four months of holding office.
Many of you, however, may recognize Braxton by his online persona, AverageJoe. In fact, Braxton runs the AverageJoe website. And while AverageJoe (Scott Braxton) claims to be some sort of authority, he doesn’t have the courage to put his name on his emails or his website (where he frequently runs political sleaze campaigns on AFA’s behalf). In fact Braxton even changed the registration information for the averagejoe website to try to cover up his connection with it. This is unfortunate, because that lack of conviction undermines his credibility, almost as much as the error riddled emotional rants he sends out. But then again, this is the same AverageJoe (Scott Braxton) who has portrayed fellow flight attendants as Nazis and terrorists – and whether average or below average, who would want their name tied to that sort of slimy behavior?
In the past, when flight attendants were in contract negotiations at the height of bankruptcy, Braxton thought it somehow “smart” to portray union leaders as stooges on his website – at just the time the flight attendants needed unity and solidarity the most. More recently, in July 2009 (shortly before AFA originally filed for the representational election), AverageJoe (Braxton) posted a video on his website portraying Delta and Northwest flight attendants as, and labeling Delta management as, fascists and Nazis. Braxton’s characterizations were idiotic and racist, as well as grossly insulting to the millions who suffered and died under the Nazi regime before and during World War II. In response, Inflight Services Vice President Joanne Smith contacted NWA AFA MEC President Janette Rook, asking her to work with the company to repudiate Braxton’s offensive video. Rook (one of AverageJoe’s frequent posters in the past) replied that she contacted Braxton to remove the video. That action in itself admits complicity as it demonstrates that Braxton acts on AFA’s orders.
Link here to see Joanne’s letter.
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/2256884/joannesmithlettertoafa-pdf-september-22-2010-8-08-am-32k?da=y
Link here to see Janette’s reply.
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/2256885/janetterookandaveragejoe-pdf-september-22-2010-8-08-am-32k?da=y
In the past, Braxton has altered the content of his website per instructions from the AFA legal staff, among others. And this is the same Scott Braxton, who crowed during AFA “leadership” training that he was an “AFA warrior” bent on attacking leaders of the former union with the intent of destroying their reputations and credibility.
Scott Braxton is now running for LEC president of DTW Council 94, one of the largest councils in AFA. It would indeed be a scary proposition if he should win office and the not so coincidental resurgence of his attacks against individual dues paying AFA members demonstrates just how eager he is to get in the good graces of Pat Friend, who has already demonstrated her penchant for attacking individual flight attendants when she encouraged union officials to make up lies about Kate Day after Kate resigned her position as the AFA LEC president of SFO. Pat, Scott and now Gary certainly are birds of a feather.
While I hoped I wouldn’t have to blast my reply to Gary Helton out via my bulk email list, because of Scott Braxton I am now compelled to do so. AFA (and especially Gary) can thank Braxton for the added exposure (something Gary should be familiar with).
Here is my response.
Gary Helton (AFA Air Safety, Health & Security Committee & Purser Committee)
By now, many of you have already read the delusional rant posted here and addressed to me by NWA AFA Safety Co-Chair Gary Helton, and have probably been waiting for my response.
Here it is:
I would proudly defend my record of integrity, success and labor on behalf of the flight attendant group against NWA AFA’s ghastly register of incompetence, corruption and failure any day and any time. And while the upcoming election is NOT about me, but about AFA and their inability to successfully represent flight attendants on almost all levels, given Gary¹s outrageous accusations, I am compelled to respond.
With that said, I have absolutely no intention of picking apart Gary’s diatribe line by line, however, I must point out to Gary and everyone else Gary has copied his email to truths that Gary knows but chooses to deny.
Gary alleges that I falsified reimbursement records during PFAA’s (former independent NWA flight attendant union 2003 to July 2006) tenure while I serve as the interim Vice President. This is an absolute lie and I not only have complete records to disprove his libelous statements, but when examined closely, it isn’t even a coherent argument. Gary served as PFAA’s interim Secretary Treasurer; as such he was primarily responsible for the union’s finances, and thus oversaw reimbursements. This begs the questions: Why wait until seven years later to make accusations? Given his past fiduciary responsibility, why didn’t he file internal union charges against me at the time? If we are to believe that Gary’s ridiculous allegations are true, then we must also whole-heartedly embrace the undeniable fact that Gary failed in his primary responsibility to the NWA flight attendants during his term as PFAA Interim Secretary Treasurer: that of safeguarding the members' treasury. The fact is that my expenses were approved as submitted by not only the McCormick Group, but by the PFAA President and legal team.
On the other hand, perhaps Gary should examine AFA’s expenditures and reimbursements ……. and just to give him a head start, I’ll post a couple of suggestions to boost his fact-finding mission:
*** Were our AFA union dues well spent when AFA International President Pat Friend decided to reward MEM LEC President Shawn Fivecoat with an all expense paid African safari in 2006, following AFA’s victory at Northwest? How did that promote the flight attendant profession? Is AFA expanding representation to tigers, lions and zebras?
*** In 2007, after NWA management announced a summer incentive program for the flight attendant group, the NWA AFA MEC decided that they were missing out on extra pay, and decided to give themselves bonuses. After great membership outrage, most returned the money, but some including current MEC President Janette Rook never did. Given that these elected and appointed officers knew exactly how much they would earn serving in official positions, how could they have possibly believed they deserved a summer incentive bonus, when they were doing the same job, regardless of the season?
*** What about the secret payout that AFA received from NWA after forcing TA 3 on the NWA flight attendants? How come there was never a full disclosure of that payout?
*** What about the NWA strike fund that flight attendants had to donate to? That’s right our dues don’t cover expenses when times get tough and AFA came to us soliciting donations in the midst of winning us 40% reductions in pay, benefits and work rules. Just like an insurance policy that won’t pay out when your roof leaks because it starts raining. AFA never provided its members a full accounting of the monies it took in and what happened to those funds. Where are they? Who has them? We never went on strike, so we know the money wasn’t spent on its intended purpose.
*** Most NWA Local AFA LECs have operated well over budget since 2006, some as much as 300 percent over budget. This is a direct breach of the AFA Constitution. When will we the dues paying members receive an explanation for this continued malfeasance, and when can we expect AFA to enforce its own Constitution and put an end to wasteful spending? For example, the SFO LEC is sponsoring an all expense bowling and free drinks night in September how exactly would a drunken stampede in a bowling alley protect and enforce our contract? Wouldn’t it be wiser to spend this money on AFA’s failed grievance and arbitration procedures?
*** By the way Gary, as long as you’re casting blame, here’s a dose of reality for you when you attacked me from your AFA email account, you used union resources to attack a dues paying member. And the attack was personal, Gary. It wasn’t even a discussion of the issue at hand. This is yet another example of AFA’s “shoot the messenger” mentality, their inability to foster two-way communications . . . and of your own cowardice. Do you think that your attempt to discredit me in any way absolves AFA of its misdeeds? It especially does not change the fact that AFA has been unable to win increases in pay and benefits that other unions have won for their members.
In a complete denial of reality and fact, Gary also accuses me of causing the downfall of PFAA - believe me, if I had that sort of power I wouldn’t be wasting my time posting rebuttals on websites.
But just to remind Gary and everyone else for that matter of the truth, we have to look back to 2003, when PFAA was elected to replace Teamsters (Local 2000) as the NWA flight attendants’ union.
As many of you may remember, the Teamsters ran an ugly campaign of smears and lies (much like AFA’s 2005-2006 campaign) in a desperate attempt to retain representation rights, and what they described as a “cash cow” of dues. Following their loss, NWA Teamster (Local 2000) Trustee Mollie Reiley (later NWA AFA interim MEC President) sent a final hotline to the Northwest flight attendants, promoting the non-payment of dues to PFAA. Simultaneously, NWA management decided (prompted from a letter by Reiley) to not enforce portions of the Union Shop and Dues Checkoff Section of the contract, in spite of the contract’s Section 1 Recognition, Scope and Job Security “successorship” clause. These acts of arrogance and stupidity began a struggle to create a well-financed organization to defend and protect the NWA flight attendants. And while in 2005 the company eventually relented and enforced the entire section, approximately ten percent of the membership never paid dues until forced thus creating a permanent crack in PFAA’s foundation. Ironically, some of those people would later hold office at AFA, including MEM LEC President Fivecoat, NYC LEC President Josh Zivick, and MEC Grievance Chair Greg Riffle.
Questions for Gary: Did Reiley’s, Fivecoat’s, Zivick’s and Riffle’s actions promote unionism, or dissention and ignorance? Should we trust leaders whose sunshine unionism dims so easily do they really have our best interests at heart, or just their own?
Regarding PFAA’s loss to AFA, Gary should also remember that Northwest filed bankruptcy in 2005, and on that very same day AFA President Friend aided by none other than Reiley, Fivecoat, and former Local 2000 President Danny Campbell initiated a raid on PFAA. That’s correct; at the very worst possible time when the union needed the most possible support “unionists” Friend, Reiley, Fivecoat and Campbell began their campaign of smears and broken promises in the midst of bankruptcy and contract negotiations. And for that win, and for all of their subsequent “success,” we remain tied to a draconian contract that AFA, its so-called “experienced attorneys, negotiations experts, award-winning communications department, and bottomless pockets of parent union CWA” is either unable or unwilling to enforce.
And while it’s all but pointless to discuss my loss in my campaign for PFAA President in late 2003, I must point out that at least with PFAA the membership had a democratic right to elect all of their officers and representatives. As for AFA, aside from democratically elected local base leadership, the membership does NOT get to vote for their MEC officers and negotiators, they’re appointed. In fact, it is well known that these positions serve at Pat Friend’s will through her strong-arming of the LEC Presidents. (Of course, members do NOT get to vote for International officers, either.) And maybe, just maybe, that is the true impetus for Gary’s unprovoked attack against a dues paying AFA member for exercising nothing more than my right to speak freely.
Finally, it is not worth getting into an argument over honor, or morality, or fiduciary responsibility with someone who once sent a naked picture of himself to Liz Fedor, a journalist at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, because he was not happy with the level of coverage she was providing the union. More than any other, that one act betrayed Gary’s misogyny, unprofessionalism, and cowardice. Like a flasher trying to mortify women passersby, Gary’s bizarre choice of expression revealed his inability to communicate directly and honestly. Ironically, the majority of the people Gary represents are women. The terrible relationships Gary’s actions caused with our key media contact directly before negotiations didn’t hurt the woman he intended to hurt, but harmed the thousands of flight attendants Gary was supposed to be representing.
Comments, Gary?
One month later and Gary has not replied to my email.
Here below you can read Gary’s letter….
