Despite the hysterical rhetoric of the past several years,
wherein the CWA, most shrilly amongst all the labor organizations in the United
States, decried the declining lack of union membership as the chief reason for
the gutting of the nation’s middle class, and its attendant erosion of wealth
in pursuit of the ill-defined “American dream,” the CWA itself has seemingly
reversed that trend in one fell sweep and has positioned itself to be in the
vanguard of organized labor’s resurgence in the American economic landscape.
Indeed, the AFA’s constant assertion
that they were "part of the 700,000-member strong Communications Workers of America
(CWA)” was always suspect since as
recently as FY2012-2013, total reported membership at the CWA was 475,144. If the 40,963 agency fee payers – Ellis
objectors – who are forced to pay a service charge as a condition of their
employment are counted in the total, the number still only rises to
516,077. But, by the report’s own
admission, and the Department of Labor’s standards, ”Agency Fee Payers are not considered members of the labor
organization,” so, in the interest of
honest and complete disclosure, 475,114 members is the most the CWA could lay
claim to – nowhere near the 700,000 figure the AFA flight attendant sector boasted.
But what a difference a
year makes, and, in spite of the barrage of dire reports about declining union
membership splashed across expensive CWA newsletters, suddenly 475,114 members
in FY2012-2013 is 623,020 in FY2013-2014, 666,373 (nearly the 700,000 the
flight attendant sector claims), if agency fee payers, who are not considered
members of the labor organization, are counted.
That, of course, is beside the point – the CWA flight attendants finally
have their numbers. And that, in a
nutshell, is CWA flight attendant accounting at its best – never mind the
truth, bend the numbers until they match the reality the exists in the tortured
minds of AFA leadership.
Where is the credit, then,
to be given for this miraculous 31% jump
in union membership, at a time when the CWA, by its own repeated admission,
sees union participation in this country in dangerous freefall? Have the CWA-AFA flight attendants finally gotten
Delta Airlines, after four attempts and millions of dollars of United Airlines
dues money wasted in pursuit of the elusive white whale, while United
attendants themselves still languish under the 1996 terms of Kevin Lump-sum’s
enduring legacy of arrogance and contractual incompetence and idiocy? Was there a surreptitious merger or
integration with another labor union that flew under the radar, so as not to
further ruffle the feathers and damage the fragile egos of the AFA flight attendant
sector of the CWA, who still seem to think they are not only autonomous within
the governance of the CWA, but indeed above many of the labor laws that only
apply to other groups?
No, in much the same way
that the CWA-AFA flight attendant sector still tries to lay claim to nineteen
represented carriers and 60,000 members, the CWA itself has taken to including
numbers that heretofore were unreported on annual LM-2 reports to further
bolster their sagging fortunes and bruised egos. Schedule 13 of each LM-2 report discloses
membership status, and until this year that number was reported as regular
members and agency fee payers. But this
year, the CWA has decided it is time to begin including RETIREES in the total membership
figures, thereby burnishing what in reality is a substantial loss of
numbers. Masking truth does nothing to
begin to resolve the issues that truly do need to be faced – rather it only
serves to justify the six figure salaries and insurance and retirement benefits
paid out to the faux executives in union management as well as union employees
and retirees – benefits that in most cases far outstrip anything they are
capable of negotiating on behalf of the employees they are PAID to represent.
The real numbers can be
found in the membership status section, schedule 13 of the report, and the only
number that truly matters is the number of regular members – those members that
are considered full members of the union, paying dues for “protection” and
contract enforcement and voting on tentative agreements whenever the elephantine
collective bargaining process gets around to producing one. So while the CWA parent union has patted
itself on the back and reported a whopping 31% percent increase, the real fact
of the matter is a somber FIFTEEN PERCENT
DECLINE in regular membership, from
475,114 in FY2012-2013 to 404,289 in FY2013-2014.
Another 52,240 retirees,
designated as voting eligible, that are not part of the FY2012-2013 report are
included in this year’s count along with no fewer than 166,491 retirees
designated as non-voting, for a grand, if utterly misleading total of 623,020
CWA members. Incidentally, when the
retirees are designated as voting members of the union, it does not refer to
the same voting rights as currently employed members. Rather, retirees are part of councils that
convene and have a voice at the biannual CWA conventions where officers and
agenda items are voted upon.
They are not directly
involved with the daily activities of contract enforcement nor live under the
terms of collective bargaining agreements BECAUSE
THEY ARE RETIRED! The fact that they are
included here as members, as a way for the CWA to claim more active, working
members than they really have serves only to mask the very real and steadily
dwindling influence of the parent union, upon whose vast economic and political
resources the flight attendants were told they could rely as a result of the
2003 merger with the CWA – a paternalistic relationship that the AFA flight
attendant sector goes to great length to deny exists on a daily basis, often going
so far as to intimate they are still an independent and autonomous group within
the CWA sector structure.
Of course, to those who
have been watching the CWA flight attendant sector conduct business as it has
for the past forty years, such obfuscation is nothing new and the fact they
have linked their fortunes to those of a larger organization that willfully
engages in similarly deceptive practices should be no surprise. Despite union management’s best efforts to
the contrary numbers do not lie, and the fact that the CWA flight attendants
have finally decided to comply with federal labor law and file individual
financial statements for each and every LEC and MEC under the CWA umbrella,
WORKING flight attendants can once again examine each statement in detail and
hold the few elected, but mostly appointed officers and “leaders” accountable
for the hard earned money they steal as recompense for the “protection” they
ostensibly provide.
(It is only since the FACC has been asking why
the CWA flight attendant sector, in apparent violation of Department of Labor
regulations, has never reported each council’s individual finances that the
sector has begun reporting their finances separately from the parent union –
something that it should have been doing all along rather than hiding their
finances within the opacity of the CWA parent financial statement).
But misleading membership
numbers at the parent union level are only the beginning – much more waits to
be revealed at the sector, MEC and local council levels across every airline
held captive by the CWA-AFA - not the least of which is the egregious sums of money
joint negotiating committee members at United Airlines have seen fit to take while
contract talks languish in a limbo of excuse-making and blame, despite the
corporate double speak gibberish of new beginnings, fresh directions, IBBs, and
SMEs.
Of course, as the CAL and
CMI MECs ramp up talks to nail down improvements and continued protections in
their IAM negotiated CBAs, as is THEIR RIGHT AND THEIR RESPONSIBILITY, the
posturing and hysterical rhetoric from the UAL MEC will reach new and dizzying
heights of nonsense, so now is the perfect time to show every WORKING flight
attendant exactly what this theatre costs.
After all, October 2014
marks the fourth anniversary of the legal, financial, and regulatory close of
the United/Continental merger – halfway to the eight years it took the CWA-AFA to
fumble their way to a joint contract for America West and US Airways. This circus is just getting started!
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