Concurrent with the quasi-conclusion of the July 2014 LEC
election cycle are three anniversaries of note. April 2014 marked the four year anniversary
that the s-UAL work force was offered a CAL style contract in April 2010, with
wages commensurate with CAL attendants in exchange for the flexibilities and
efficiencies inherent in the IAM-negotiated CAL contract that is in effect
today. True to their arrogant
condescension, the Davidowitch-led, (at the time), UAL MEC refused to allow s-UAL attendants
the dignity of choice and put the question to a membership for a vote, thereby
withholding MILLIONS of dollars in potential income from s-UAL attendants and
taking the first decisive steps in the delay and obstructionism that continues
to economically impact the UAL work force as it has since 1973.
October will mark the fourth anniversary since the legal
close of the merger, when the financial and regulatory authorities recognized
United Continental Holdings as a single corporate entity with two distinct
subsidiaries. October 2014 will pass
with a joint contract for United flight attendants nowhere on the horizon, but
they can take solace in the fact that they will be halfway down the EIGHT YEAR
road it took for the AFA to negotiate a joint contract with America West and US
Airways attendants. But by 2018, there
will be no pending merger to force the AFA’s hand as there was with the
American Airlines deal – the AFA will be free to continue their intentionally
laborious, and unintentionally hilarious, antics for well into the future,
under the pretense of some vaguely defined ideal constantly referred to as “best
of both,” and “industry leading.” If nothing else, let’s hope sometime
in the next decade they will at least hire a new copy editor who can spin those
time worn clichés differently, so at least the spin will be different if not
the underlying “process.”
And most regrettably, last June 29th marked the third tragic anniversary of the AFA’s
“representation” vote victory, where principally s-UAL flight attendants joined
forces with union management to once again vote in favor of the AFA’s business
interests and against their own fiscal self interest. More appallingly than the victory of
emotional hysteria over reason – how else to explain s-UAL attendants turning
down what was at the time a FOURTEEN DOLLAR per hour raise – is the fact that
more than 2,000 flight attendants
couldn’t be bothered to participate in what was the single most important
decision of their careers. When added to
the more than 9,000 people who wanted nothing to do with the AFA, the lack of
participation of nearly ten percent of the combined work force succinctly
explains why flight attendants at the new United Airlines are split right down
the middle.
