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UA MEC RETALIATES!
"The United 3"
 On September 14, 2012, Greg
Davidowitch, President of United Master Executive Council (UA MEC) filed charges
against THREE s-UA flight attendants for violation of Article X of the AFA-CWA
Constitution and Bylaws. In charging
the "United 3" with violations of AFA C&B Article X, the UA MEC president
would have you believe that expressing an opposing viewpoint is a crime against
the Union. His "Kangaroo Court" that is to follow may agree, but the court of
public opinion will not be swayed! Instead of "reaching across the aisle" to
compromise and incorporate the literally thousands of FACC supporters and
subscribers who are devoted to union democracy and reform, the UA MEC has chosen
to wage war on its membership by "prosecuting" and punishing the "United 3" with
expulsion from the Union."
The Six
Charges under Article X include:
- Article
X.A.1.a - Willful violation of the Constitution and Bylaws. Please
Define "Willful"!
- Article X.A.1.f - Entering
into an employment agreement, or contract which might injure the union. WILD and REFUTABLE allegations.
RETALIATION.
- Article X.A.1.g - Improperly
disclosing confidential matter of the union. Who, What,
Where, When and WHY?
- Article X.A.1.i - Acting in
any manner to circumvent, defeat, or interfere between the union and an employer
or with collective bargaining agreements. Freedom of Speech
is protected by the First Amendment Right in the Constituion of the United
States.
- Article X.A.1.j - Doing any
act contrary to the best interests of the union or its members. What happens to a union who acts contrary to the best interests of
its members?
- Article X.A.1.l - Acting in
any manner "disloyal" to the union. How about a union
"DISLOYAL" to the
membership?
"Any member, regardless of membership status, may be
fined, suspended, expelled or otherwise disciplined for any of the above
acts"!
Article X of AFA-CWA Constitution and Bylaws:
http://cb.afa-bod.org/articles/article-x-hearing-and-appeal-procedures/
UA MEC'S NIGHTMARE!
"WE ARE OUR OWN WORST
ENEMY"
UA MEC President Greg Davidowitch, with
the approval of AFA International, has decided to continue what he does best and
continue to create drama and chaos by attacking their own members at s-UA.
Charges were filed against the "UNITED 3" just as the Joint Negotiations
Committee is preparing to present an opening letter to the Company, potentially
jeopardizing much needed goodwill amongst UA, CAL, and CMI negotiators. It
also informs the Company and the general membership that AFA will sacrifice
ANYTHING and have NO scruples when their leadership and/or tenure is threatened.
CRIME OF "FREE
SPEECH"
AGAINST THE UNITED 3
"The big crime that
these flight attendants committed? Nothing more and nothing less than exercising
their rights to free speech and free association. Because these flight
attendants have chosen to stand up to AFA's corruption and incompetence, AFA has
filed charges against them under Article X of the AFA-CWA Constitution. Sound
familiar? It wasn't so long ago, that (DELTA) endured the protracted AFA
campaign that failed to lay out one single idea, one solid platform item, but
sought instead to divide the flight attendants and attack those who didn't
conform to their dogmatic ideology. That ideology and those tactics are still
alive and well at AFA. And the United flight attendants continue to suffer
missed opportunity, failed unity and utter dis-Respect from their own union"
http://joseaibarra.blogspot.com/
AFA s-UA LECP in DENVER
"FLIP FLOPS"
Article X.A.1.f -
Entering into an employment agreement, or contract which might injure the union.
AFA charged that
the accused were organizers for the IAM during the representation election.
Of course, AFA also paid organizers who were
Alaska Air, s-UA, and s-CO flight attendants. These organizers who campaigned
for AFA were compensated for their organizing efforts during the representation
election campaign. The election ended on June
29, 2011, when AFA won the election at the new United Airlines.
In
responding to the "double standard" claim made by the membership against the AFA
charges, Ken Kyle, s-UA LECP DEN stated that "receiving
salaries" to do the work of the union one belongs
to is very different than "receiving salaries" for actively working against the
union that the person belongs
to"....
REALLY,
KEN?
First of all, NONE of the "United 3" are receiving salaries other
than as employees of United Airlines. AFA
PAID flight attendants at s-UA as well as other airline employees to help
ORGANIZE non-AFA carriers during the representation elections at:
- Frontier
- Lynx
- Ryan
- Compass
- Northwest
- ExpressJets
- GoJets
- Allegiant
- Pinnacle
Northwest was PFAA and Pinnacle was USW. AFA paid Frank Brown to
organize at CAL and rewarded him by appointing him CAL MEC President for
helping AFA win the representation election. Frank Brown was then voted out by
the current CAL MEC President Marcus Valentino. Yet, Ken states that it is
"not a double standard"...for AFA to pay FLIGHT
ATTENDANTS from other carriers to help win elections and act as organizers for
the AFA. He chastises flight attendants who question these charges and
allegations by stating that "some making comments do not
know the law or Union policy".
Ken Kyle might want to brush up
on his own history and the law or Union policy. In fact, Ken Kyle was the
interim UFAU (United Flight Attendants Union) Vice President in an effort to
organize an INDEPENDENT UNION for United Airlines flight attendants in 2004 and
2005. Does anyone remember Ken
Kyle being brought up on charges of violating Article X.A.1.f under the AFA
Constitution and By-Laws for being "disloyal to the
union"?
UA MEC'S KANGAROO COURT!
According to the AFA
Constitution & Bylaws, the charges will first be reviewed by the members of
the Hearing Board and they will determine if there is "cause" to hear the
charges at a formal hearing. That decision will be rendered within 15 days of
the charges being made. That hearing date is scheduled for October
9th.The Hearing Board shall be
composed of three (3) regular and two (2) alternate members who shall be active
members in good standing appointed jointly by the International President and
the International Secretary-Treasurer with the approval of the Executive Board
from a list of candidates furnished by each Master Executive Council.
The
Hearing Board members being considered are Joe Oxendine, American Eagle MIA
Local Council President, L.C. Acor, PSA CLT MEC/LEC President, and a possible
alternate assigned to the case is Mike Flores, USAir, former MEC President
(recalled earlier this year by the USAir MEC).
The charged members are
prohibited from having legal counsel present at the hearing.
- TO BE CONTINUED
-
Forward this message to a friend
UA MEC "TRICKERY"
 SEMINAR
"FLOPS"
On September 27, 2012, AFA announced that they would
be holding four hour Membership Engagement Seminars through December in
domiciles across the country. The AFA boldly claims that the membership can
learn about the "work of the Union at every level and build
power through mobilization and collective action". AFA also says, "Our union is
member-driven and that means we are more successful when members are informed,
engaged and involved"......
The
seminar that was held in San Francisco on October 3rd had less than a dozen in
attendance including Sara Nelson. The seminar
lobbied for California's Proposition 32 measure which will be on the ballot in
November. According to Sara Nelson, unionists must vote NO so that the unions
will have a "voice" and not be silenced by big corporations. This concern is
apparently one sided as AFA attempts to silence and level charges against the
"United 3".
What is NOT obvious is that the California Prop 32 has less
to do with "voice" but more about "finance". We know that money can talk, but
Prop 32 is specific to automatic payroll deductions of monies used for political
contributions. If passed, it will:
- Ban both corporate and union contributions to
state and local candidates
- Ban contributions by government contractors to
the politicians who control contracts awarded to them
- Ban automatic deductions by corporations,
unions, and government of employees’ wages to be used for
politics
AFA NEEDS
MONEY
AFA is not interested
in membership engagement. It is all about "raising money" for the cash strapped
AFA. Let's take a look at why they made need more money:
- Video messages to the membership from Davidowitch’s
MEC were produced by Big Shoulders Digital Video at a cost to United flight
attendants of $27,983.
- Fees from a Portland, Oregon based company, CC
Complete Inc., amounted to $145,635, for the cost of balloting for the recently
ratified s-UA 2016 contract extension. It also includes the cost associated
with putting together, distributing and tabulating the so-called s-UA “joint
contract” survey.
- A brief description from CC Complete’s own website
that describes their Survey Point product should raise concern:
“Survey Point puts you in control.
Performing your own data analysis allows you to focus on building corporate
intelligence by extracting relevant information rather than wading through
stacks of unnecessary reports. By retaining control of the authoring,
administration, and analysis of your surveys you also gain the flexibility to
contract with a polling expert for advice on question construction or number
crunching.” http://www.cccomplete.com/#
AND MORE $$$$ FOR DELTA
AFA/TWU has also just
asked the AFL-CIO to grant ADFA (Association of Delta Flight Attendants)
exclusive rights to organize Delta fa's. AFA went so far as to create ADFA as a
new identity just for Delta in an attempt to alter AFA's somewhat lackluster
image. This new marketing scheme assumes that Delta flight attendants can't
tell the difference and figure out that it is the very same AFA they kept off
their property three different times.
AFL-CIO will appoint a "referee" to
rule on whether AFA/TWU will have exclusive rights to organize Delta. ADFA
Committee members met in Detroit early September with some Delta Flight
Attendants and discussed how ADFA would be structured and planned for the next
step towards taking collective action (organizing). That means AFA needs PEOPLE
to help organize Delta and MONEY! The last three failed efforts to organize
Delta cost AFA close to 14 millions dollars (dues money and borrowed from CWA).
THE REAL REASON BEHIND
THE MEMBERSHIP ENGAGEMENT SEMINAR!!!
US
AIR'S VOTE OF "NO CONFIDENCE"
On September
27, 2012, for the second time this year, flight attendants
at US Airways (LCC) rejected a tentative contract agreement by just 48 votes.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) said Thursday that 51% of
voters rejected the proposed contract as 5,527, or 85% of the bargaining unit,
voted. The vote was 2,811 against and 2,761 in favor. US Airways has
approximately 6,700 total members. The existing contract offers salaries far
below the levels available in the existing industry.
SEVEN years after
the 2005 merger between US Airways and America West, flight attendants still
work under DIFFERENT contracts. The tentative agreement would have resulted in a
single contract with higher wages for both groups and would have extended strong
job protections, which had been limited to the former US Airways flight
attendants, to the entire group. Voters turned down the first tentative
agreement in March 2012. Mike Flores, the former AFA MEC President, who had
strongly backed it, was ousted by the union's executive council (MEC). The
version offered in the September voting differed little from the earlier
version, but had unanimous backing of all the AFA leaders.
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11721056/1/us-airways-flight-attendants-again-reject-contract-offer.html
FIGHTING FOR UNION DEMOCRACY!
"The organized labor movement is
one of the great forces for democracy and social justice in America. If that was
the whole story, it would hardly need repetition, for it has been the frequent
theme of talented writers. But the anomaly persists: this great pillar of
democracy is itself nibbled away by the mice of
bureaucracy."
"In this, labor
organizations resemble all the other great institutions of democracy, even
democratic government itself. To paraphrase Emerson: "Bureaucracy is in the
saddle and is riding mankind." By battling for democracy inside their
unions, union reformers strive to keep the labor movement on course, true to its
own ideals. And, precisely because that labor movement is so indispensable a
nutrient for the nation's democracy, the quest for democracy in unions is one
facet of the broader striving for social justice in the nation."
Rebels, Reformers, and Racketeers: How
Insurgents Transformed the Labor MovementBy Herman Benson
MEMBERSHIP FOR CHANGE!
FACC
DEMANDS
- TERM LIMITS (for LEC, MEC, and Afa
International). Davidowitch has been the s-UA MEC President since 2002 and his
third term runs through 2014.
- DIRECT MEMBERSHIP VOTE (amend the
Constitution and By-Laws as was proposed by the s-CAL MEC at the BOD meeting in
2011 and allow flight attendants to vote for ALL MEC
officers).
- STOP FLIGHT ATTENDANT PERSECUTION!! (our union filing
charges against dissenting opinions and reform movement candidates must stop!).
"In our labor movement, there are thousands of active, loyal
unionists, and potentially many thousands more, independent-minded, conscious of
their rights as Americans, insistent on dignified treatment in their union and
on the job. Union democracy is one means of releasing that spirit as an
energizing force to help overcome “apathy” in the labor movement". By Herman
Benson
JOIN THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT COALITION FOR CHANGE AND
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD IN 2012!
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