The longer this Machinists Union (IAM) campaign slogs on,
the more dazed and disorganized and disjointed and disrespectful it gets. It’s
been well over a month since many of you emailed important and germane
questions to the IAM Delta campaign regarding their so-called campaign promises
and the track record they keep hiding from. (See list of questions here: http://joseaibarra.blogspot.com/2013_06_04_archive.html). They have yet to answer a single question or address a single
historical fact or provide a single objective comparison of how IAM can do
better for the Delta flight attendants. Instead, they have tried to distract us
by stirring the rumor mill and sending out increasingly inane and childish
communications.
One of the latest, titled “How’s Your Quality of Life Been
Lately?” appears to have been written by a 3rd grade aspiring poet with a jaded
world view and intense bitterness issues. This June 29 email contained little
in the way of a campaign platform or proposed solutions and was little more
than a disjointed series of grammatically incorrect statements. For example:
“A Days (sic) working out for you? (sic)”
“Take Delta Corporate (sic) with a grain of salt, (sic) they say its
(sic) your fault. We know who’s to blame and it sure ain’t (sic) the rain.”
As ridiculous as the IAM email started out, it ended on the most preposterous claim possible:
As ridiculous as the IAM email started out, it ended on the most preposterous claim possible:
“It's time for positive change, (sic) we can prove that we are part of
the solution, not part of the problem.”
Say What?!?!
The same people who have refused to communicate a single campaign platform or one original idea are now claiming they can provide a solution?!?!? A solution to what? To the challenges and intricacies and realities of operating a global airline? They haven’t even definitively identified the “problem” much less their “solution.” And when you’ve asked them questions about the “problem” and their “solution”, they were unable to provide any answers.
The same people who have refused to communicate a single campaign platform or one original idea are now claiming they can provide a solution?!?!? A solution to what? To the challenges and intricacies and realities of operating a global airline? They haven’t even definitively identified the “problem” much less their “solution.” And when you’ve asked them questions about the “problem” and their “solution”, they were unable to provide any answers.
In other words, they are promising that IAM has some sort of
solution to some sort of problem, neither of which they can intelligently
articulate, and so they want everyone to sign a card because I suppose you
should always sign a card if there’s a photo of someone jumping up and down
with both thumbs up.
Still more puzzling, on June 1 IAM pledged unyielding
bravery on behalf of all Delta Flight Attendants, because the IAM is “Not
Afraid.” That has a nice ring, doesn’t it? “Not Afraid.” After all the
pot-stirring and fear-mongering they and their supporters have instigated. After
all the fear that they themselves have feigned, now they tell us they are not
afraid. But that message too loses focus before the words are put to paper
because, even though IAM acknowledges that Flight Attendants want to sign cards
confidentially, the campaign admits that a “select few” IAM staffers will see
who signed cards.
That’s right, IAM knows who has signed cards, and who
hasn’t, and those “select few” (perhaps future union officers, even though IAM
has yet to answer the simple question of which people will represent us) might
create lists that get passed along to other “select few” IAM supporters, who
show up on your next flight and ask you if you’ve signed an IAM card yet. Yes,
brave, aren’t they? Can no-fly lists be far behind? We’ve all seen the
aggressive behavior of union supporters against those that may not necessarily
agree with them, and these lists just facilitate that behavior.
Apparently the June 1 email wasn’t very convincing, so on
June 16 IAM attempted but failed to reiterate that signing a card is “All
Confidential” even though it’s really not. How “brave” of them to promise a
pledge they’ll never keep.
It Gets Worse
It Gets Worse
As bad as all of the above is. As sad and desperate and
insulting to our intelligence the Machinists Union communications have been,
the most bizarre, embarrassing and humiliating communication to date was mailed
directly to our homes. If you’re wondering how the Machinists Union got your
home address (or email address for that matter), it undoubtedly travelled from
the AFA campaign to the IAM campaign with those flight attendant defectors who
used to think that AFA was the be-all, end-all, but have since dumped them to
support the Machinists Union. You know, the same people who now have access to
see if you've signed a card to call for yet another union election at Delta.
The same people who have no problem indiscriminately passing around your
private contact information who have no problem distributing your personal
information wherever they want in their relentless pursuit of highly paid and
unaccountable union positions.
They may soon have access to even more of your information
if they are voted in to represent the Delta Flight Attendants. The same people
who have treated your contact information with such disregard would also have
access to your personnel file and employment record if you vote for them to
represent you. Has anyone associated with the Machinists campaign demonstrated
the type of measured behavior or basic respect or personal honor that merits them
having access to your information?
The Six Figure “Grass
Roots” Campaigner
Machinist's Union General Vice President Sito Pantoja, who
earned almost
$300,000 (see U.S. Department of Labor report here: http://kcerds.dol-esa.gov/query/getOrgQryResult.do
- Enter 000-107 for the File Number) last year on the backs of IAM members and
gets to fly around in the IAM private jet (FAA registration record here: http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=11AM),
also funded with members’ dues money, should have some clue about how labor law
and negotiations work.
He should be aware of the Railway Labor Act and understand
the process behind the National Mediation Board. Pantoja's letter belied his
failure to grasp the most basic tenets of labor law by offering to release
Delta from any future laboratory conditions.
Aside from the obvious, namely that only the National
Mediation Board has such authority, there is the less noticeable but more
troubling mistake no labor union, organization, association, or insider’s club
worth its charter should ever release a corporation from its obligations during
any current or future negotiations, because then a company would be free to
offer raises, changes, enough to disrupt, stall and undermine negotiations.
That’s the sort of stupid stunt AFA has tried to pull in the past, and just
look at their stunning record of incompetence (7 plus years to negotiate a
contract at USAirways/America West).
Sito Pantoja’s letter not only illustrates a complete
ignorance of U.S. labor law, but deploys the dumbest negotiations strategy ever
in the history of the labor movement.
That letter, which was an embarrassment to the entire labor
community, is, ironically the only communication we've received from any
Machinists Union bureaucrat in a campaign that is now approaching its
fourteenth month.
And we have to ask ourselves: “Is this an indicator of what
life would be like with the Machinists Union representing the Delta flight
attendants? Is this all we can expect from them: some random, illogical and
grammatically disjointed communications? Some bland, broad clichés that lack substance
and facts and vision? Some saber-rattling rhetoric which is all fluff and no
substance, that doesn’t even have the effect of fooling more than maybe three
flight attendants?”
Based on the facts and the evidence and the history we would
be unwise to think otherwise. Based on their performance over the last fourteen
months – to say nothing of their poor record of negotiating and ratifying
contracts in a timely manner (e.g. over 5 years of negotiations at CommutAir –
where the last update from the Machinists Union to the CommutAir flight
attendants occurred on September 26, 2012! Link here: http://www.iamdl142.org/fa/CommutAir/
), we would be foolhardy to expect competent representation from the
Machinists. Based on what has transpired over the past fourteen months, it
would be almost as ridiculous as actually believing that union bosses have the
power to lift Laboratory Conditions.
As their campaign continues to lose momentum, get ready for
a doubling down of the Machinists Union’s efforts. Of course, that probably
means their next mailing will include TWO photos of people jumping up and down
with FOUR thumbs up.
Sincerely,
Jose Arturo Ibarra
