Stewards,
A football player visiting from the University of New Mexico last Thursday was taken into custody at SFO after refusing to pull up his sagging pants. According to news sources, "There was a passenger on the aircraft that had boarded with his pants down around his knees showing his underwear." SF Police Sgt. Michael Rodriguez, "One of the flight attendants on that aircraft was offended by the fact that she could see the outline of his private area."
The US Airways flight attendant asked the passenger to pull up his pants but he refused, then the plane's Captain got involved, and finally the police. In the process of removing him from the aircraft a scuffle with police ensued, and the matter was escalated. I don’t know about you, but I already have a hard enough time blocking out the thoughts of what I know about the seats without having to imagine passengers rubbing their Calvin Klein’s all over them. Some people just will not do what is best for them, even when it is the simple act of pulling up their pants. Moving on….
The big move now is in getting back to the table as soon as possible. The unfortunate news flash for some is we find ourselves in a merger situation and the mechanics from the other airline have an active rewarding contract that continues until December 31, 2012. For many of us it is a no brainer that the company saves money each and every day we are without improvements to our own contract. The others need to get a clue.
United, as was expected, is doing everything possible to take advantage of this “green time” and will not enter talks until they absolutely have too. With this in mind, UAL exercised their lawful right to invoke mediation. This move seriously stalls our negotiating process and was the main reason we side stepped mediation as long as we did. Regardless of how you voted, the fact remains we were able to return a tentative agreement to the membership well in advance of any of the other group at UAL that have been stuck in mediation for nearly two years.
In an effort to help eat up time on the CAL agreement, the company has also petitioned that when we do meet in mediation, we proceed directly to formal discussions to combine the two agreements. United’s open agreement and Continentals active. To do what the company wants is known as the amalgamation process. The two contracts differ greatly, and under this scenario of amalgamation talks, we would be forced to create a combined committee of UAL and CAL Mechanics. We would then have to come to an agreement within ourselves, and finally sit down with the company and start again with page one for a brand new contract. Our guess is the company will use CAL language as the maximum ceiling for those negotiations and the prediction here is for a very lengthy process.
Our rejection of the contract puts us squarely in to the grasp of the Company as explained by a Reuters news article released yesterday. This article ran with the sub title; U.S. airlines, determined to keep their grip on recovery, will at best allow unions in contract negotiations to take back only part of what they gave up in concessions during restructuring. The basis of the piece as the article states, “carriers are relentless about cost control, capacity reduction, and liquidity.” They are tightening their rule to see that it does not get away. You can read the article for yourself by going to Reuters.com or http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/17/uk-airlines-labor-idUSLNE75G03Q20110617
What now? The IBT leadership has always acted in the unselfish and best interest of our members and we will continue to do so. The Union has opposed the Company’s request that the UAL mediation take place on an amalgamated foundation, and has argued that the agency must proceed with mediation on a single contract basis involving only the UAL mechanics. We are also urging the company, and the NMB to address only those differences that we believe resulted in a failed contract. Our hope is to enter into an agreement providing reasonable and interim improvements before the expected lengthy amalgamation process really has to begin.
Our Achilles heel is in the members among our ranks who support and act on behalf of the other two failed groups who will not let go of the past and who will do anything to acquire personal gains. The distorted and misinformation being put out by them does nothing other than spread fear and doubt in the minds of those members who refuse to take a more careful approach and interest in their own future. Any member who spent just a little bit of time comparing our old contract with the new, as it applies in today’s reality in the economic market, would have seen the extreme risks in voting this down. Unfortunately, you have groups and individuals like Joe Prisco with the mechanics for change, and GT Davis who at every turn deceive and mislead our group. Why?
I wrote a while back about the dangers of selfishly and irresponsibly posting premature reports, and adding personal judgment to this information. I generically accused that person of being a dumb ass. I need to apologize to the generality of my remark; I learned from Denver Mechanics that the dumbass I described in my editorial was none other than GT Davis. It is my thought that GT conspired with one of the former negotiators (Ramon) from Denver to see this contract, and Union fail at any and all cost. Even if it meant putting members once again on the shelf, and stalling a much needed raise in pay.
We all need to remember that bigots like GT have interest only in disrupting and causing unbalance to any organization. He did the same to the last two groups, and will continue with this one without ever standing up and taking responsibility for his actions. It is a fool that follows his cue, and who will not exercise free thought and simple reasoning.
This was not supposed to end with GT, but quite frankly I am done puking in a bag. I am tired of being sick about the ignorance of some of our membership and the agony they create. It is time to fight back and hold those who cause dissention and hatred in our jobs accountable for their trickery. GT, pull your pants up, quite playing your game at self importance, and let us get back to work. We have all spent way too much time on you and your antics. Your attempt at self amusement is hurting all UAL Mechanics.
~Dave Saucedo – Chief Steward, Seattle MM
