In the recently concluded election for the combined United/Continental flight attendants, IAM filed interference charges against AFA-CWA. Read IAM President Robert Roach’s letter to flight attendants (below) and see how many of the dirty AFA tricks you can identify from the Delta campaign.
Hypocritically, even though AFA-CWA filed their own bogus interference charges in the Delta campaign and keep touting the “due process” of the NMB investigation, they were clearly not pleased when charges were filed against them.
Using every back door and every trick in the book, AFA-CWA tried to quash the IAM’s interference charges, EVEN ATTEMPTING TO INVOKE THE NON-COMPETE CLAUSE IN THE AFL-CIO CONSTITUTION, which is the same clause AFA-CWA General Counsel Ed Gilmartin promised they would invoke in response to the current Delta TWU write-in campaign.
As further proof of AFA-CWA’s complete lack of respect for the free speech and self-determination rights of their own members – and flight attendants everywhere – they were rebuffed not only by the NMB, but by AFL-CIO itself which has found that AFA-CWA HAS VIOLATED THE AFL-CIO CONSTITUTION!
Read further to witness the continually unfolding AFA-CWA drama, which proves once again that AFA-CWA is not about protecting the flight attendant career or the livelihoods of its members, but only about safeguarding its own dues coffers.
As you read, ask yourself these questions:
Where is this new, member-focused union we keep hearing about?
What does Veda Shook have to say about all of this (Hint: the front page of the AFA website focuses on a “review” of the television show “Pan Am”, rather than addressing these very substantive issues)
When did AFA-CWA become so anti-union and anti-flight attendant?
Please share all of the FACTS with each other. We can’t allow this travesty to continue.
Sincerely,
Jose Arturo Ibarra
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Dear Flight Attendant:
As many of you are aware, the IAM has filed a protest with the National Mediation Board (NMB) concerning the conduct of both CWA-AFA and United Airlines during the recent election.
In response, the CWA-AFA filed charges against the IAM with the AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization of labor unions in the United States of which both the IAM and CWA are members. The CWA-AFA is asking the AFL-CIO to interfere with a federal investigation and force the IAM to drop the election interference charges it filed with the NMB. It is clear that the CWA-AFA is afraid of what a federal investigation will uncover.
During the campaign, the CWA-AFA engaged in numerous breaches of the NMB’s voting rules, including:
Providing multiple hyperlinks to the Board’s voting website in violation of Board rules;
Holding a voting party;
Reproducing the Board’s voting instructions and indicating which way to vote;
Coercing Flight Attendants to tell CWA-AFA how the Flight Attendant voted, among other charges.
The evidence for the charges was submitted by Flight Attendants from United and Continental Airlines. They came from IAM members and many of the CWA-AFA’s own membership. The IAM simply filed the charges on behalf of Flight Attendants who documented the CWA-AFA’s violations.
Many of these are not new charges against CWA-AFA. In fact, the National Mediation Board admonished CWA-AFA not to engage in such behavior in 2008 during its second of three unsuccessful attempts to organize Delta Air Lines Flight Attendants.
In the matter of reproducing Board voting instructions, the NMB previously notified CWA-AFA that, “Should further investigation establish that such disseminations continue and/or that employees were misled and that the materials at issue undermined the credibility of the Board’s voting processes, the Board will take appropriate action, which could include, but would not be limited to, overturning the election results and imposing a one-year bar.”
In regard to the illegal hyperlinks to the voting website, the NMB notified CWA-AFA in 2008 that the “Board may consider hyperlinks to the voting website as possible evidence of election interference.” And as far as instructing Flight Attendants to contact CWA-AFA to advise how they voted, the NMB said, “The Board reminds the participants that NMB elections are conducted by secret ballot and that the confidentiality of the voting process must be maintained.”
You can read the NMB’s admonishment to CWA-AFA for yourself, along with the IAM’s complete, documented charges below.
Now that Flight Attendants have complained about the CWA’s continued violations, the CWA-AFA is trying to block a federal investigation. It is time for the CWA-AFA to face the consequences and for the NMB to overturn the election results to ensure Flight Attendants have a truly fair election. The IAM will not abandon Flight Attendants at the new United Airlines. We will not allow repeated, flagrant violations of Flight Attendant rights to go unchallenged, whether by an employer or another union. The IAM will continue to vigorously defend the right of all Flight Attendants to have their voices heard in a free and fair election.
Sincerely,
Robert Roach, Jr.
GENERAL VICE PRESIDENT
Link to this letter is found here: http://www.iamnow.org/protest/iam-flight-attendant-update
PDF file of this letter is found here: http://www.iamnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/08.11.11.UAL-CAL-CAL-Micronesia-letter.pdf
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The following is available here: http://www.iamnow.org/protest/cwa-afa-violated-afl-cio-constitution-loses-bid-to-derail-nmb-investigation
In July, 2011 the Communication Workers of America (CWA) filed charges with the AFL-CIO alleging the IAM violated the AFL-CIO Constitution by posting the election interference charges it filed with the National Mediation Board in the United/Continental/Continental Micronesia Flight Attendant election on a website for Flight Attendants to review. The independent umpire assigned by the AFL-CIO found the IAM was in compliance with the AFL-CIO Constitution, stating that “an affiliate is entitled to keep its membership abreast of an ongoing dispute regarding the validity of an election.”
With regard to the communications CWA provided Flight Attendants during the election, however, the impartial umpire ruled:
CWA-AFA violated the AFL-CIO constitution when it allowed distribution of bag tags that were derogatory toward the IAM;
CWA-AFA violated the AFL-CIO constitution when it posted anti-IAM logos on in-flight crew room bulletin boards;
CWA-AFA violated the AFL-CIO constitution when it asserted in communications that the IAM made “quick and dirty” deals with management; and
CWA-AFA violated the AFL-CIO constitution when it insinuated that an IAM representative was in bed with the company because he testified at a Congressional hearing alongside company representatives – especially when “an AFA-CWA representative was at the same table and cropped out of the photo."
Under a separate section of the AFL-CIO Constitution, the CWA also sought to force the IAM to withdraw its election protest with the NMB, claiming it had achieved final representation certification for the combined Flight Attendant group. The independent umpire rejected CWA’s bid and stated that granting the CWA’s request would come at the cost of “depriving IAM and the very substantial number of workers who supported it of an opportunity that the law has long provided…”
The complete rulings are available below.
Section 5 Ruling ~ http://www.iamnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/11-07-Section-5-Decision.pdf
Section 2 Ruling ~ http://www.iamnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/11-07-Secsion-2-Upmires-Decision.pdf
