A message from YOUR Negotiating Committee
March 1, 2016
On Monday February 29th, the full negotiating committee met for the first time since Mike Bond’s last best and final turd was overwhelmingly flushed down the toilet. The purpose of this meeting was to organize the next steps and how to best proceed moving forward.
The meeting opened with a short recap of the various station protests that have happened over the lasttwo weeks. This topic was raised first as it is of paramount importance. This committee is only as strong as the support we are given by the membership. 93% of our membership voting NO was a huge message to the company, and it should be a sounding message to all of us. Our task is to keep that momentum moving in a positive direction. Our support at these rallies was generally good and many members turned out to protest, however, we are still very far from a 93% turn out at these rallies’.
Make no mistake about it: The Company declared war on this union and this membership with their close out proposal. The demands for concessions during a time of consistent record breaking profits shows a new level of contempt for those of us who keep this airline flying. The show of solidarity from our fellow Teamster members raised a great big middle finger at the company. We need to continue this and raise the other hand in defiance as well. We have just begun our struggle and will continue with an aggressive campaign against the company until they give us what we truly deserve: An Industry Leading Contract
We continued the first part of the day re-establishing our processes, strengthening our communications chain, and planning on how to best battle this company’s blatant lack of good faith bargaining with this membership. We spent some time strategizing our upcoming demonstrations. When you hear of future rallies, do your part and show up. Its fun to direct our years of pent up frustration with this Company right back where it belongs.
The rules of engagement in our battle for decency have changed. We ended this first day with a conversation on how these changes would affect how the committee will proceed. We spoke about different ideas and general housekeeping efforts, all with the idea of maintaining the momentum YOU created.
The second day started with a conversation on the different thoughts and opinions from across the system. There were a variety of reasons for the “no” vote. Thoroughly vetting and understanding these reasons is the best place to begin building a new proposal. It is important that we take the time to weigh in with as many opinions as possible. What might not seem important to one group at the moment may prove invaluable at a later date.
A Principal Officers meeting was held at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Headquarters in Washington D.C on February 17th to discuss how to go forward. A brief description of the outcome was given to the negotiating committee. This will be shared with the membership in the coming days.
A 93% NO vote from this membership was a shocking blow to the companies’ fictitious view of an industry leading agreement. But this was just the first step. The company minions are hitting the ground at all stations gathering intel to try to continue their delusional fantasy of forcing another substandard agreement upon this membership.
NOW is the time for us to end their fantasy
