“When we want your opinion, we’ll
tell you what it is”
First Contract Ready?!?!?
That Magic 8 Ball the
Machinists Union (IAM) campaigners are using during their airport visibility
sits must really be working overtime.
Without having spent one day
at the negotiations table; without putting out a single flight attendant
contract survey; without holding the position of collective bargaining agent for
the Delta flight attendants; without even having collected enough cards to file
for a representational election at Delta Air Lines, the Machinists’ quasi
campaign is now predicting the terms of
the Delta flight attendant contract!!! They are telling us what will be in that
contract!!!
Daring Desperate Duplicity
The despair in the
Machinists campaign is growing and the symptoms of that desperation are oddly
revealing. In their latest flyer, the IAM states:
“Keep Calm . . . A-Days Are (sic)
Here to Stay”
Say WHAT?!?!!?!
Setting aside any individual
opinions on whether A-Days are good or bad or the best alternative to a full
month reserve system, the IAM campaign has just tipped their hand on how they will decide what is best for the
Delta flight attendants (clearly with no input from the Delta flight
attendants). There will be no surveys of their members. There will be no
evaluations of comparative reserve systems, or a polling of reserve systems in
place at other airlines. They will simply issue a proclamation on what we’re
going to get and then tell us to “Keep Calm”. What kind of “representation” is
that?!?!
The last we heard from many
of the IAM supporters is that A-Days are a violation of seniority and that we
should go back to a full month reserve system. By what authority are the
Machinists now arrogantly decreeing what will be in the contract that they
negotiate for US, without formally
and officially (via a comprehensive contract survey) asking US?
Who’s the Decider?
Who exactly is making
decisions like this for the Delta flight attendants? Who is the unnamed source
of this epiphany regarding A-Days? Is it one of the self-anointed-
but-as-yet-unannounced National Campaign Leaders? Is it some self-assigned Delta
IAM Contract Negotiator? Is it the already self-proclaimed, but undisclosed
Delta IAM General Chairperson? Is it the woman on all their literature who’s
jumping around with her thumbs up?
What Else?
What other decisions have
they already made for us? Have they decided on pay? What about duty rigs and credits?
How about rest? Have they figured out how they will get a contract that
includes A-Days to win a vote, when no flight attendant contract in the world
currently includes an A-Days system?
Who are these people and why
do they think that they have any right, ANY RIGHT WHATSOEVER, to speak on
behalf of the 20,000 Delta flight attendants? More importantly, how are we
supposed to believe that the same people who are unable to put out one
original, cohesive, factual, comparative, intelligent, honest piece of campaign
literature would ever have the intellectual capacity or the moral fortitude to
craft even one paragraph of a working agreement for 20,000 members?
Sincerely,
Jose Arturo Ibarra
