- Most pre-merger NWA committee members are elected to their posistions based solely on their "pro-union" stance; without regard for experience, character, or track record of work on behalf of the flight attendants they are supposed to represent. For some inexplicable reason, the MSP flight attendants (albeit the vast minority of them) elect Dotty Malinsky and Barb Schlosser - who have horrible track records in the representation of flight attendant interests - to committee positions.
- The PMNW committee members, in typical union-style self-indulgence, refuse to work more than 2 1/2 days per week (while collecting full-time salaries) and treat themselves to full-month, fully paid vacations during the months of August and December. Money that the PMNW committee members have showered upon themselves is money that could have been paid out in profit sharing to all Delta employees.
- The PMNW committee takes over nine months - without once surveying the flight attendants, or even really communicating with the members they are supposed to represent - to present a proposal that would have taken a competent group of people about 30 days to hammer out. Committee member Scott Braxton sells out the PMNW SIC's jig when he publicly admits on several occassions that the proposal was ready "months ago".
- Apparently sensing the PMNW committee's reluctance to bargain in good faith or to move forward with the integration, Delta leadership facilitates a process agreement, which lays out a timeline to resolve outstanding issues.
- January 6, 2012 - PMNW SIC finally presents their integration proposal, which includes a recommendation for integration according to length of service and gives the PMDL flight attendants credit for training to put them on equal (fair and equitable) terms with their PMNW colleagues. PMNW SIC also stipulates that this is an "all or nothing" agreement. In other words the entire proposal is accepted or none of it is accepted.
- PMNW SIC employs every divisionary tactic and every bad faith bargaining tool they can think of to avoid reaching an agreement with the PMDL SIC during the negotiations process. In the end, the PMNW SIC ends up violating their own "terms" by modifying part of their own agreement and finally walks out of discussions.
- Fast forward to the upcoming week: PMNW has now violated their own stated Process and Guiding Principle (as posted on the company portal), the process agreeement signed by Chair Dotty Malinsky and every tenet of good faith bargaining, in order to force the issue to an arbitrator. They even viloated the terms of their own original proposal! The PMNW SIC withdrew its earlier proposal and in typical bait-and-switch-stlye, presented a last minute proposal that withdraws training credit for the PMDL flight attendants. Hypocritically, the PMNW SIC is creating the very division between flight attendants and employing the same dirty tricks that they always accused Northwest management of using.
It should – whatever the arbitrator decides after meeting with both committees this week is FINAL and BINDING, and per Alleghany-Mohawk and HR 2764, his ruling must be fair and equitable, which could mean any number of outcomes outside of the date-of-hire integration generously offered by the premerger Delta committee in 2009.
In case you believe that a less than stellar outcome isn’t possible, you may recall that the USAirways and America West pilot groups had a decent deal on the table during their integration talks, but couldn’t agree on all details, so instead took their debate to FINAL and BINDING arbitration. Unfortunately for them and for the combined airline, the decision was much worse than the original deal, resulting in the unresolved debacle still spinning out of control today.
Do you want your fate decided by an outsider, someone who will never be affected by his own decision?
And what will the arbitrator glean from last week’s regressive and bad faith bargaining tactics by the NWA committee, in which the committee changed their proposal (Did they run any of this by us? Did they ask for our opinion?), modifying policy requests and removing training credit for premerger Delta flight attendants. Does that sound fair to you? Could you imagine the uproar and outcry if the premerger Delta committee had pulled a stupid stunt like that on us?
Apparently that’s fine for Dotty Malinsky. In fact, the former multiple office holder (and multiple salary collector) under the discredited and corrupt Teamster Union somehow deluded the rest of the premerger NWA committee into hiring an attorney from the long-time Teamster trusted law firm of Baptiste and Wilder. In fact, the attorney “advising” our committee down this trail of lunacy is none other than William R. Wilder, son of the firm’s senior member. Do you remember voting “I want a Teamster attorney meddling in my future!” when we elected the premerger NWA committee?
As for Dotty, at 45 years of flying (longer than many of our flight attendants have been alive) she’s nearing if not past retirement age, so given a catastrophic decision, she can just retire and collect her generous Teamster pension. So don’t worry about her, or her good friend and fellow MSP flight attendant/committee research director Barb Schlosser (42 years), who with Dotty, has meddled in previous mergers to the extreme detriment of her fellow flight attendants. Dotty was part of the Teamster gang that attempted to staple the Republic Airlines flight attendants to the bottom of the NWA seniority list. Barb’s also nearing if not well past retirement age so she can simply bail too, should her and Dotty’s poor leadership result in another debacle.
Come on Dotty, Barb, and premerger NWA committee members – quit the nonsense and agree to date of hire before it’s too late. We’re holding you all personally responsible for the date of hire outcome we absolutely must achieve, and anything less is unacceptable.
Email Dotty, Barb and the rest of the committee today. Demand that they come to an agreement outside of arbitration. It’s not too late to end this charade and protect our futures. Also demand a full accounting of all decisions made on your behalf, including a breakdown as to how each committee member voted on each decision throughout the entire process. You have the right to know if your base member voted in your best interests.
Most importantly, contact the PMDL SIC and let them know that you support ONLY a fair and equitable integration of the seniority lists with full credit for training given to ALL flight attendants. Let them know that anyone that employs dirty tactics and back-stabbing strategies does not speak for you in this integration process. It's time to let the PMDL flight attendants know that not all PMNW flight attendants are the angry, bitter, self-indulgent people that the PMNW SIC is representing us to be.
WRITE TO THEM NOW! Email Here: PMNWSIC.IFS@delta.com
Sincerely,
Jose Arturo Ibarra
