Oops, IAM did it Again . .
.
During NWA bankruptcy
negotiations, the IAM undermined the efforts of the flight attendant (PFAA) and
pilot (ALPA) unions by refusing to stand in solidarity with them against the
onerous concessions that Northwest was demanding. The Machinists union struck a
secret deal with the company in the middle of the bankruptcy court hearing.
That action effectively took the wind out of the sails of the court cases of
the other unions, and FORCED ALPA and PFAA into 40% concessions. That IAM
debacle of a contract also caused thousands of their own members (at 59 NWA
stations) to lose their jobs. Then the IAM went after the NWA mechanics and
helped the company break their strike, resulting in thousands of more lost
jobs. The IAM is like a bull with a baseball bat in a china shop when it comes
to representing workers.
Now they’ve done it again.
At Southwest Airlines, the Machinists (who represent ground workers there),
just undermined the other employee groups by agreeing to a new contract with
ONLY a 1.5% pay raise. That’s ONE POINT FIVE PERCENT. Delta flight attendants
have gotten DOUBLE that amount each and every year since the merger (except for
the year AFA forced us into laboratory conditions during their unnecessarily
long campaign). Southwest has now gone to the other groups and told them that
the IAM contract will be the “template” for their negotiations.
Let’s do the math: without
IAM, Delta flight attendants have received annual pay raises of 3-5%. With the
IAM and after contentious and conflicted negotiations, IAM was only able to
extract a 1.5% pay raise for its members. Who do you think is better off?
Listen to the president of
TWU Local 556 (representing the Southwest flight attendants) talk about how IAM
has boxed their negotiators into a corner here: https://twu556.org/important-negotiations-update-february-6-2015/
The Machinists don’t know
Solidarity and they don’t know Flight Attendants. Is this really an
organization that will benefit us in any way at all, or is this just going to
be some “cause” that we are going to contribute $14 million a year to?
Please
take the time to share with your friends and coworkers.
Sincerely,
Jose
Arturo Ibarra
Please
find out additional factual information here: http://bedeltabedifferent.com/
