Who’s in Charge?
Here are the questions that any responsible potential voter
should ask now that the IAM has filed for a representational election at Delta
Airlines. In fact, most of these questions were asked more than a year and a
half ago and the IAM campaign has refused to answer them. What is IAM afraid
of? If you see one of the IAM campaigners, or converse with them on social
media, try to get an answer to these questions and I’ll pass them on for
everyone to see:
1. What is the
IAM’s recent track record in negotiations? When’s the last time they negotiated
significant improvements into a flight attendant contract? What were those
improvements and how long did those negotiations last?
2. During the
merger with Delta, why did IAM lose every single election for every single
group it had represented at Northwest (including ACS, ground, reservations,
etc.), by as much as a 70%-30% margin? Isn’t it unusual for an incumbent
organization to lose an election so often and so consistently?
3. Why did IAM
allow outsourcing at 59 Northwest stations for ground personnel during the last
Northwest contract negotiations? Do you think this strategy played a role in
their overwhelming defeat in the representational elections when Delta and
Northwest merged?
4. What is the
current top of scale pay for IAM flight attendants at ANY airline the IAM
represents?
5. When will IAM
provide Delta flight attendants a line by line comparison of the IAM
Continental contract with the Delta work rules? Why hasn’t IAM already done
this?
6. Your website is
“promising” the Delta flight attendants an industry leading contract. What are
some items that are currently in an IAM “industry leading” contract that we
don’t have at Delta? Please list specific examples. Please explain how you will
achieve those improvements at Delta without giving up items in other sections
of the contract?
7. Isn’t it true
that in the last Continental contract, IAM gave away items in almost ALL OTHER
CONTRACT SECTIONS, just to preserve (and not raise) the hourly pay rate?
8. Are there any
items in the Delta work rules that are superior to an IAM contract?
9. Do you consider
the IAM Continental contract “industry leading” even though it has no trip
credits/rigs/averages/minimums?
10. Aren’t you the
same people who told us AFA would get us an industry leading contract? Why did
you stop supporting AFA? Did the “power” to achieve an industry leading
contract somehow magically transfer over to IAM and that’s why you decided to
endorse them instead of AFA? If not that, then was it just a whim to change
your allegiance? Your campaign leaders admitted to “learning” from their
mistakes when supporting AFA. How do we know that they are not still in their
“learning from mistakes” process and just trying to drag the Delta flight
attendants along for the turbulent ride down a slippery slope?
11. Why did IAM allow rest at Continental to be reduced to
as low as 7:45 from release to report in some cases? Does IAM believe that this
is adequate or fair for the Continental flight attendants after working a 16
hour duty day? Delta already has an 8:30 behind the door guarantee. Why do NO
IAM contracts have a behind the door guarantee?
12. Why did IAM help Northwest management break the mechanic’s
strike just prior to Northwest’s bankruptcy?
13. If the IAM thinks 14 hour scheduled/16 hour actual duty
days were so arduous at Delta, why did they allow it in the Continental
contract, with even shorter rest requirements and no behind the door guarantee?
Delta and the EIG have reduced our domestic duty days. Why do IAM Continental
flight attendants still have to endure 16 hour domestic duty days? Aren’t those
inhumane conditions?
14. If IAM thinks the Delta crew meal policy is so bad, why
did they write into a legally-binding, black and white contract that
Continental Airlines did not have to provide ANY crew meals on ANY domestic
flights, regardless of duty day length? IS that how they will fix our issues .
. . get rid of crew meals altogether?
15. Who’s in charge of this IAM campaign? Where does the
buck stop?
16. Who will the IAM officers be if IAM is voted in?
17. What’s the longest it’s ever taken the IAM to get a
contract negotiated and ratified?
18. What specific guarantees in improvements can you give
the Delta flight attendants if IAM is voted in?
19. Will IAM promise us in writing that they will
voluntarily de-certify themselves if they can’t get us meaningful improvements
in a reasonable time period (say in two years)?
20. Could we face the same six-plus years of negotiations
that the CommutAir flight attendants endured (along with the freeze on
improvements that go into effect during union elections and contract
negotiations)? Can you guarantee a specific timeframe?
21. IAM campaigners Laurie Gandrud, Tammy Yeager, and others
keep insisting that we will NEGOTIATE what our monthly IAM dues would be. How
does that work? Do the Delta flight attendants sit at a table with IAM people
and negotiate back and forth about the amount of dues we’ll pay? Do Laurie and
Tammy mistakenly think we’ll negotiate our IAM dues with Delta? (They can’t
really be that uninformed about how this whole union thing works, can they?)
Why do they keep saying that WE decide what our dues would be? Could we really
decide to pay NO dues? What are they even talking about . . . do they realize
how ridiculous they seem?
22. Isn’t the truth
really that IAM International sets the amount of dues we would pay, with no
direct electoral input from the Delta flight attendants? Isn’t it true that IAM
dues go up each and every year, even if you don’t negotiate a pay raise for us?
Isn’t it true that MOST of the dues go to the International to pay for things
like private jets and that if we want any services at the base level, we would
have to decide to pay EVEN MORE DUES?
23. Why does the IAM
Continental contract have absolutely NO CREDITS or RIGS or DUTY MINIMUMS? How
could IAM just give away all the work rules that flight attendants fought for
decades to achieve?
24. Why does the
latest (not so greatest) IAM flight attendant contract only have a 3 hour
minimum duty period credit vs. 4:45 at Delta? How is that “advancing the
profession” as IAM campaigner David Bachman likes to claim?
25. Why has no IAM
flight attendant contract in the history of the world ever included A-Days
language? How are we not supposed to believe that you will drag us back to full
month reserve, since that’s all you’ve ever negotiated for flight attendants?
Pass these questions along to your coworkers and if you get
any answers from IAM, let me know and I’ll be sure to share them. In the
meantime, stay informed, ask your co-workers to sign up for my email list. It’s
only through unity and sharing information that we can shine a light on the
shade that IAM and their supporters are trying to throw.
Sincerely,
Jose Arturo Ibarra
