Previous AMFA

The Appeal to the National Mediation Board has been denied.
The AMFA National has received the final disposition of the Appeal, and when it is posted to the Web, we'll provide you the link.
Be prepared for the twu to claim that 'the membership has spoken' when in fact only a government bureaucracy has spoken. Remember, the twu celebrated in their own version of Pravda, 'the twu express', that they had defeated the AMFA 'raid.' This was not, and is not, a raid. It is fellow employees of a Union trying to secure more effective leadership and representation to defend and promote the will of the membership. Denying an election is not a statement of the will of the people, ONLY AN ELECTION WILL SHOW THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE!
One has to wonder about an organization, the twu, that successfully fought side-by-side with the company to deny the people their right to an election!

WE, the Committee, want to thank everyone around the system for their hard work and dedication. We now ask that they, as well as anyone else with the desire to change our current representation, step up and help us with the next step in the process, the now AMFA infamous re-sign! The good news, historically, is when the AMFA fails to secure enough cards on the first time around, they usually receive sufficient cards the next time around and WIN the ELECTION! Just look at UAL, NWA, Alaska and others!

The cards have already been ordered and the NEW AMFA@AA Election Authorization Card Drive will begin very shortly, if you are interested in helping with the drive, please e-mail us at amfa-aa@comcast.net !

Local twu Presidents are frustrated, and the reason is simple. Their ability to even SPEAK directly with the twu international has been seriously curbed. On the other hand, the National Officers of the AMFA are ALL readily available to the membership through either e-mail or phone. The AMFA Officers know that communication is the most important tool for protecting their members!

The Mobil phone numbers and e-mail addresses of "OUR twu atd representatives" at the international have been shut off. The twu international would have us believe this is somehow streamlining their ability to represent us, the membership. We say, BULL, it's nothing more than an additional barrier between the membership and the non-elected, non-recallable, contract deal makers in the twu.

Whatever happened to the democratic process? Where is the transparency in the twu that it claims it expects from the company? Without constant, effective and OPEN lines of communication, there is also NO ACCOUNTABILITY. When the twu international atd will not even take e-mails and phone calls from the MEMBERSHIP, how can they ever have any idea about how to represent us and what our REAL needs are, not what some focus group thinks our needs are, or maybe they have finally gone to a more reliable method of determining our fate, the dartboard method with a small part saying follow AMFA pay rates and the rest of the board with excuses and pay/benefit concessions! Something like this?

On both April 15, 2003 AND May 1, 2003, the Transport Workers Union of America labor destroying contract with American Airlines becomes effective.

Our modern celebration of Mayday as a working class holiday evolved from the struggle for the eight hour day in 1886. May 1, 1886 saw national strikes in the United States and Canada for an eight hour day called by the Knights of Labour. In Chicago police attacked striking workers killing six.

The next day at a demonstration in Haymarket Square to protest the police brutality a bomb exploded in the middle of a crowd of police killing eight of them. The police arrested eight anarchist trade unionists claiming they threw the bombs. To this day the subject is still one of controversy. The question remains whether the bomb was thrown by the workers at the police or whether one of the police's own agent provocateurs dropped it in their haste to retreat from charging workers.

In what was to become one of the most infamous show trials in America in the 19th century, but certainly not to be the last of such trials against radical workers, the State of Illinois tried the anarchist workingmen for fighting for their rights as much as being the actual bomb throwers. Whether the anarchist workers were guilty or innocent was irrelevant. They were agitators, fomenting revolution and stirring up the working class, and they had to be taught a lesson.

Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engle and Adolph Fischer were found guilty and executed by the State of Illinois.

In Paris in 1889 the International Working Men's Association (the First International) declared May 1st an international working class holiday in commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs. The red flag became the symbol of the blood of working class martyrs in their battle for workers rights.

Mayday, which had been banned for being a holiday of the common people, had been reclaimed once again for the common people.

Forwarded to us: Monday Hot Flash - April 28, 2003

Update On American's Fiasco

Your Call Is Important To Us. Or, At Least It Used To Be: Two weeks ago, Don Carty was viewed as the Man With The Plan, a guy with a strong view of the future and one who could rally the troops. He was the Glorious Leader, saying the right things and leading his airline to the Economic Victory.

So much for that...

Now we find out that he's the Baghdad Bob of the airline set. In that regard, here's a hoot. When you dial Carty's AA employee hotline (1-800 222-2789), instead of the inspiring words of a confident CEO, a short and terse recording answers: "American Airlines has no comment."

Coincidentally, they have no Carty, either.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Become A Former AA Executive & Find Out

After the revelation of bonuses and protected pensions for executives, then-chairman Don Carty claimed that it was all necessary to retain top talent. He may have been right - especially when you see what American paid some executives just to walk out the door.

One executive who departed in September got the following, according to American's 10-K:

· Severance of just over a cool million - $1,040,000 - two times the guy's salary, paid in a lump sum, along with pay for his accrued vacation days in 2002 and 2003. Compare and contrast - some line mechanics could see their paychecks shrink by 25%. Some pilots will see 30% to 50% cuts in income. And with the reductions in force, a lot of other employees will get out of AA, too, just like this executive. Only difference is that when executives leave, they get big bucks. When the rank-and-file get laid-off, they get bupkus.

· He gets a pension protected from any bankruptcy filing. How comforting, especially when employees were being told that their benefits must be slashed to save the airline.

· Eligibility for more pay under American's "2002 Incentive Compensation Plan." Whatever that is.

· A "consulting" contract, paying the guy another $278,300 over the next 12 months, for services relating to "Advertising and Brand Awareness" - which could easily translate into "stay home." Of course, he could bill for any expenses he incurs in the process of "consulting" to American. Sure.

· This difficult consulting work could, of course, be stressful for the former VP, and could therefore have a detrimental effect on Brand Awareness programs. He must be in top form, mentally and physically. So, American agreed to pay for the use of "his clubs" - and we ain't talking about a set of Ping irons. No, we be talking 'bout fully-paid memberships for a full year to three institutions - The Sports Club, LaCima Club, and Las Vegas Southshore. Close as we can tell, the first one is a health club, the second a members-only business club in Dallas, and the third seems to be a posh golf resort in Nevada. American's flight attendants, with their paychecks whacked by concessions, will be concerned about making ends meet. Meanwhile, AA's paying this guy's dues so he can meet his buddies at the health club.

· Free travel on American for he and his wife. Not just with an A2 positive space pass. No, no. We're talking real positive space travel. See, he also got a UATP credit card on which he could just book the travel full-fare, with the bill paid by American. In short, he could bump paying passengers because, well, he would be a paying passenger, except American would be paying for it. Of course, the IRS would consider the value of such transportation as taxable income. But not to worry, AA will send a check at the end of the year to reimburse him for the amount of those taxes. But, unlike this ex-exec-turned-consultant, some AA employees won't have the bother of income taxes. See, when you get laid-off, the income stops.

· American is paying for a car for the guy during this rough year of consulting on Brand Awareness. One can bet that it isn't a Ford Focus. To facilitate his important consulting duties, he's been granted parking privileges at DFW headquarters "consistent with those provided elected Officers of the Company." Parking in the rank-and-file employee lot can result in door dings, you know. Or maybe sugar in the tank. (Again, compare and contrast - at Continental, "executive parking privileges" are open to all management staff - they pay for it themselves.)

· Parking seems to be a big thing with this ex-VP. In case a Brand Awareness emergency arises while he's on the links at the Southshore, he can rush back to DFW Headquarters without worrying about a parking spot at LAS. That's because American is paying for a parking permit for him at McCarran International Airport. The agreement seems to indicate this is permanent.

· American is requiring that the former VP return his company cell phone. But not for another year.

· Good health is important to dreaming up Brand Awareness programs. So AA's paying for a year and a half of full medical insurance for he and his wife.

· A honorary lifetime membership to the Admiral's Club. While he's traveling free on American's dime, he can relax in a private, quiet setting between flights. Thinking about Brand Awareness does not allow distractions. Oh, and of course, AA employees are NOT allowed to be members of the Admirals Club.

By the way, at the time this VP was ushered out the door with all his cash, prizes, and lovely parting gifts, American Airlines was losing around $10 million a day. Every day.

Two weeks ago, it appeared that American had the leadership to move it into the future. By cutting deals like this, it's pretty clear that behind the scenes, AA's senior management was more concerned with moving themselves into the future. And, don't forget, the AA Board of Directors, as well as the newly-appointed CEO, were in on the deal. Add that to the fact that the SEC filing that revealed this stuff was delayed by management until just after unions agreed to concessions, and something suddenly smells rotten in CenterPort.

American has great employees, and eventually trust can be restored in their leaders. But it may take years. This new CEO had better start by renouncing the Don Carty program of which he was an active participant.

In any case, it's pretty obvious that the last thing AA needs is another consultant to expand its image. The revelations of the last two weeks have made American Airlines awash in Brand Awareness.

     Where are the people with the explanations? All of us have questions, and OUR LOCAL Presidents DO NOT have the answers! WHY? Simple, they ARE NOT in charge!
     What CONTRACT ARE WE UNDER? The twu says the 2001, and the Company says the new T/A. Who's right? Of course, more lawyers and such will be needed to SORT OUT another twu mess.
     Automotive and Facilities Mechanics, who is representing you? Are the people at the table at all interested in YOUR futures? If you look around at the people representing you, you can clearly see they don't even know what you do, let alone have the ability to represent you! We are fighting for you, even though we are not even in the same Local! By the way, who, but the twu, would put the SAME CRAFT and CLASS, in two 2 different locals? The government sees us as ONE Craft and Class, yet the twu continues to use the divide and conquer technique it has been using for years to control the membership. It's the same dog and pony show at the top of both the company and the twu. We, the Organizing Committee, are VERY interested in working WITH YOU. We know what you do, and your value to the Company. Your wages are in the same Contract Book as ours! Your job descriptions are in the same book too!
     Let's work together to make the AMFA our representative at the bargaining table and stop letting the twu international run, and generally ruin, our Craft and Class!

As of this afternoon, the 21st of April, Jim Little has decided, with the International twu, that they are going to have a re-vote of the CURRENT T/A, and this is the best part, NOW they're going to FOLLOW THEIR RULES FOR BALLOTING! Were we consulted on this 'decision'? Of course not! Were our LOCAL Presidents called in to discuss this issue, absolutely NOT! In Jim 'Chicken' Littles' own words, and we quote here, "after consultation with President Sonny Hall and the TWU International Administrative Committee, TWU has decided to resubmit the proposed agreements to membership vote." Notice he does not say he decided this after reading the VOLUMES of e-mail he has received from the membership, nor does he reference the ELECTED LOCAL OFFICERS input.
Why didn't Jim 'Chicken' Little just tell the company how we, the membership felt. You know, START OVER! It is our opinion this T/A was a SCAM by the Company, and the 3 Unions bit, hook, line and SINKER (The sinking being our wages)! Executive Country Club memberships, secret pension deals, free parking at the airports, free use of vehicles, double or triple time credit for retirement (But we, the workers, lose retirement credit time when injured ON THE JOB!) exorbitant bonuses even though we are losing money, and who knows what else, but we, the workers, need to tighten our belts to save the Company!

If you need to know how we feel at AA, feel free to go here and listen the Crooner himself, Bing Crosby, sing a song a LONG TIME AGO about how we are all feeling now, just change the words BROTHER and BUDDY to DONNY (CARTY).

Dear Fellow Mechanic and Related Unionists,

American Airlines Inc. has recently disclosed information regarding the existence of special retirement and bonus programs for top executives of AA. The retirement plan is a supplement to an already existing management retirement plan. Mr. Don Carty has sent a letter of apology to the APA, twu, and APFA. His deception is ongoing. Please go to the following links for the true nature of Mr. Carty's ongoing deceptions aimed at saddling us, the workers, with massive concessions, while he enriches himself and his cronies.

What makes the latest round of deceptions even more troubling is the fact they are incorporated/hidden by Mr. Carty in letters of apology to our union's leader, Mr. Jim Little. In the event Mr. Little does not understand the nature of Mr. Carty's latest deception/lies lets inform him about it. Here are two different documents on one page that clearly define a small part of the problem, both regarding the previous VP of Marketing. We will be posting more links and documents in the coming days.

We believe Mr. Little needs to follow the lead of the flight attendants at the APFA and look to hold a re-vote of the tentative agreement. However, Mr. Little is busy attempting to legislate on our behalf rather than negotiate. We do not believe his attempts to legislate against corporate greed will have the same effect as re-voting on the tentative agreement will. The re-vote will send a message to all involved parties that we are disgusted with the Dog and Pony show from our company and union!

Please read the attached links and determine for yourselves the true nature of Mr. Carty's and AA's action and then inform your Bargaining Agent, the twu, of your wishes regarding a re-vote. Perhaps then we can see the true nature of Mr. Little's actions as he attempts to pave the way for the company to ratify this tentative agreement while lying to the membership and our negotiators.

If you have determined, as many in our group already have, that the AA/twu Dog and Pony show leading up to the worst set of Contract Concessions in the History of American Labor is nothing but a sham, please e-mail the following company/twu officials and register your disgust as we have and will continue to do.

Email Greg Hall: Greg.hall@aa.com - quit AA and went to UAL
Email Jim Little: Jlittle@twuatd.org - doesn't want to hear from the membership - stopped receiving e-mail
Email Gary Yingst: gyingst@twuatd.org - doesn't want to hear from the membership - stopped receiving e-mail
Email Bob Gless: rgless@twuatd.org - doesn't want to hear from the membership - stopped receiving e-mail

WE DEMAND A RE-VOTE ON THIS ISSUE!, without; of course, a rigged ballot process. Secret Ballots sent out by our Local Election Committees is the only way to ratify an agreement according to the twu's own rules! Stop the lawlessness, Mr. Little! Stop being a Company Agent!

     Does anyone else find it odd that only days and weeks ago, Jim Little was crying the AA and airline industry 'sky is falling' in classic Chicken Little rhetoric, and yet he is 'shocked' and now 'fighting' for the twu membership? Days ago, Jim Little says this T/A is MUCH better than bankruptcy, and yet today, after being 'shocked' by corporate executive greed, as though he had never thought such dastardly deeds could be perpetrated by Executives at AA, he would rather go into Bankruptcy than deal with them until they change! We had members telling him months ago, (One, in a classic AA POWERPOINT presentation that was placed on this site!) that the twu had to put MASSIVE restrictions on the Executive earning ability and restrict their exit protections. He indicated this was NOT possible and NONE of it made the Tentative Agreement, yet now, he expects major changes in Executive Attitude before he will consider signing his almighty T/A that screws us, the working men and women of AA, while he certainly doesn't take a pay and benefit hit! Why it is now possible to DEMAND changes in Company attitude, but when his OWN membership demands it, it isn't possible? This is just another twu dog and pony show, and we need to say to him, we're on to you Jim, while this may prove to help the AMT, remember, it also could be spun by the twu as, see, we're fighting for you, the membership. We say BULL, we, the membership, warned Jim Little long ago and he did not heed our warnings! This T/A was bad from the beginning, and is STILL BAD for the working man. Even Jim 'Chicken' Little stated it sets Labor back! What kind of Union LEADER recommends a T/A that sets Labor back?
     We, the Organizing Committee, are very happy this T/A is being contested because it HURTS the working men and women and it also demonstrates that with the twu international is in charge! Not us, the membership. When we lose money, the twu international officers don't, so they don't care if they do well at the bargaining table! The twu has had to file a suit in Federal Court to get a fair hearing with the twu, just look at all the work Local 562 in NYC is doing to fight the massive amount of fraudulent balloting issues in this recent fiasco! No ballot received, PIN not accepted, receiving other peoples ballots, etc, yet Jim 'Chicken' Little didn't stop the Balloting then and there as he should have, he waited until he saw the results! Why was the Tech Services department, which has a separate Contract, a clear NO vote, yet ALL twu groups voted yes? Why does the bad Title I/II, because some created separate locals, T/A have 1/2 pay for the first 2 days of EACH SICK incident, yet the all of the other twu T/As don't? We call that the twu punishes those who don't play the twu game by the twu rules!
     We, the Organizing Committee, will take this stay of a HORRIBLE T/A any way we can get it, but we certainly cannot and will not give credit to Jim 'Chicken' Little for saving us from this horrible T/A when he was the most vocal proponent for it only days ago!

     It has come to the attention of the AMFA@AA Organizing Committee that some in the twu are of the opinion that the AMFA drive is only about the Line stations. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unlike the twu, we are not interested in running the Company, only in protecting our right as Skilled Craftsmen to fair compensation and benefits for the valuable services we provide to the company.
     We, the Organizing Committee, are on the side of Skilled Labor, we are the wage earners, and our goal is to PROTECT the Skilled Workers both in the Overhaul Bases on the Line!
     The below statement was requested to be placed on this site, and the Organizing Committee decided to post it so ALL could see the information and act as they felt appropriate, without endorsement one way or another. Whether you voted yes or no is irrelevant, the number of ballot and voting irregularities needs to be brought out in the open, and since the twu clearly would not present you with the information, we decided to provide you with it and allow YOU to act as you see fit.
     We, the Organizing Committee, are committed to obtaining AMFA Union Representation which is based on ACTIVE, OPEN and FAIR debate, not secrets, deceptions, and mistakes NOT swept under the table.
AMFA @ AA Organizing Committee

This message was sent to the Organizing Committee by a concerned and involved member and we felt the widest possible group of AMTs should see this and have the ability to respond quickly. A twu Local has filed notice of suit in Federal Court with the intent to expose any and all irregularities and determine the extent of the irregularities for the Court to determine whether a valid vote was performed or if a re-vote may be required.

FELLOW AMTs
PLEASE forward this to EVERYONE you know in maintenance in EVERY STATION.
I need scans or copies of any and ALL PIN sheets sent from AAA. Also, I need statements from ANYONE who either could not vote or who had difficulty voting!
If you received someone else’s ballot by error, or someone else received yours, send me a WRITTEN statement or e-mail or give it to me at work.
I need this in writing ASAP!
We have a group going to Federal Court later this month to try to throw out the vote count because of the problems we had.
I WORK ORD MID-CREW! 12:00-20:00.
Drop it off, send it to me via e-mail, I don’t care, just get it to me as fast as possible!
Work # is 773-686-XXXX - number removed as it is a Company phone
Cell # is 847-736-6094
dittmer@dellepro.com