AFA, Smoke and Mirrors, and the FAA Reauthorization FairyTale

In her latest irresponsible effort to draw attention from hers’ and AFA’s broken record of intransigence and incompetence, AFA International President Veda Shook has jumped on the blame game bandwagon, attempting but failing to tie Delta management to Congress’ failure to pass the FAA reauthorization bill.

According to Shook and AFA, “Delta Air Lines management is the not-so-invisible hand behind the political fight for FAA reauthorization, and the current partial shutdown of the agency that has left 4,000 FAA employees furloughed and caused another 90,000 layoffs as airport improvement and update projects are halted.”

Not so fast Veda, that’s not how the U.S. political system works. Very (very) basically: to pass legislation through Congress, congressional committees (made up of Representatives in the House and Senators in the Senate) propose, compile, debate and draft bills, which then pass to the House or Senate floor, hopefully for further debate and an eventual vote. If passed, the bill is sent from the House to the Senate (or Senate to the House), to be voted on (or if both chambers passed similar bills, then to a conference committee, to work out the differences). Once passed, it is sent to the President, who may sign or veto the measure.

Regarding the specific case of the FAA reauthorization bill, Congress has had many debates over FAA funding, before and after the recent NWA/Delta flight attendant representation election. In fact, Congress has debated FAA reauthorization time and again for the past several decades, and has previously allowed the FAA’s reauthorization to lapse. There are many components to the FAA reauthorization bill and there have been and remain many unresolved issues ... but to blame Delta for Congress’ inability to pass legislation is like blaming the Jolly Green Giant’s bad asparagus breath for global warming. Shook’s false accusations are delusionary, absurd and nothing more than a cheap political swipe. You get the representation you vote for, and in the 2010 elections, U.S. citizens voted for divided government. Congress dithers, and we pay.

Clearly Shook doesn’t comprehend the basic tenets of democracy, but quite frankly, how could she? AFA’s own twisted take on democracy – enshrined in AFA’s Constitution and Bylaws – allows members to only vote for local officers, who then appoint their friends or whomever they can tempt with trip drops (whether capable and trustworthy, or - more likely - not, as all NWA flight attendants know so well) as MEC officers, negotiators, committee heads, etc… The unelected then appoint the International leadership, who pull strings and dictate behind the scenes. So understandably, unelected-but-appointed-Veda could suffer the delusion that other organizations (including the U.S. Congress) are as corrupt and undemocratic as AFA is. Hypocritically, Veda promised “a new day” at AFA in her New Year’s address at the beginning of 2011. She also promised to listen to the members. Sadly, Veda has fallen into the same tactics of finger pointing, demonization and blame-game playing that her predecessor Pat Friend perfected during her reign of horror. Even worse, Veda has turned a deaf ear to the wishes of the democratic majority of the Delta flight attendants, when they told AFA to go away and leave us alone.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the premerger NWA flight attendants continue to suffer under our AFA negotiated concessionary contract, which remains in effect indefinitely while AFA attempts to overturn a democratically conducted election, simply because AFA refuses to recognize that the democratic majority of the Delta flight attendants voted them out, even in an election that was heavily rigged in AFA’s favor. So exactly whose not-so-invisible hand is in the mix, and in our case holding back pay raises and improvements to our working conditions? And who is going to repay each pre-merger Northwest flight attendant for the $700-$1,000 per month in pay, benefits and quality of life that we have lost each and every month, since this merger was announced in April, 2008?

So to Veda I say from so many former AFA supporters:

Before you came along we were hungry. Because of you and AFA, now we’re starving and we’re fed up.

Sincerely,
Jose Arturo Ibarra