In what can only be described as one of the most
unintentionally hilarious examples yet of the boorish, petulant, adolescent
idiocy that characterizes most AFA supporters on social media comes a fraudulent web page meant
to mock the FACC’s attempts to effect TRUE reform within the rapidly
fossilizing entity that is the flight attendant sector of the CWA. One need look no further than this collection
of myopic, self-aggrandizing shysters and their most ardent adherents to
understand why the labor movement has faltered so badly in this country, and
why s-United attendants have been so grossly under served since 1973.
Without a legacy of accomplishments upon which to stand,
chief of which should have been a series of robust, SHORT-TERM contracts that
emphasized flight attendants’ earnings potential while allowing the flexibility
that comes from individual choice rather than the corporate dictates of a union
management bent of growing their business at all costs, the AFA flight
attendant supporters must mock and distract from the litany of failure that clings to
everything they do like the chains on Marley’s ghost.
Some of the most contentious legal issues facing flight
attendants during the last sixty years when the AFA claims to have been “transforming
the flight attendant profession” have actually been initiated by
individual flight attendants. It was
only after the fight was enjoined that the AFA rushed to jump on the band wagon
and then loudly proclaim their triumph, when in fact without an individual
flight attendant’s persistence, change might have been longer in coming, if at
all. The AFA flight attendants have
proven again and again to lack the financial wherewithal and legal acumen to
pursue the legal issues that should have been the purview of a “union”
proactively addressing these matters, and not merely trumpeting their own horn
after the fact.
The McDonald flight attendants are so named because of a
single flight attendant who sued for redress over the discriminatory policies
of the industry when only single, childless women were allowed to be flight
attendants. The “union” did not initiate
or lead the fight - they merely usurped it for undeserved credit. Likewise, the prohibition against men being
flight attendants and the weight program were done away with as a result of changing
societal mores and the ensuing legislation that resulted. The AFA flight attendants simply rode the
coattails of larger social change and then claimed credit for that in which
they did little more than act as cheerleaders.
More recently, the AFA flight attendants stood on the
sidelines as a lone flight attendant, at her own expense, took on non-union Sky
West Airlines on the subject of lengthy duty times which result in a large of
amount of flight attendants’ time at work being essentially unpaid in violation
of minimum wage laws. Compass Airlines
flight attendants, prior to their being “organized” by AFA zealots, had mounted
a similar legal effort that was subsequently co-opted and quietly ended by the
AFA-CWA legal department, since the governing policy of the “union” is that the
$1.50 or $2.00 per hour in per diem is adequate compensation for flight
attendants at work, performing job duties in uniform, but receiving no wage.
And most stunningly is the settlement recently reached on
behalf of California based employees that provided compensation as redress for
paychecks being issued without a printed record of hours worked in compliance
with California labor law. This was a
lawsuit brought to court through the initiative and expense of ONE flight attendant,
yet once the checks were issued, the AFA acted as if they had been at the
forefront of the issue, when in fact the flight attendant legal department had
neither the money nor the legal knowledge to bring the case to court. In fact, no local officer based in California
was aware of the violation of the labor law until it was brought to their
attention by this case. Had it been left
up to the “union,” this would never have been a legal issue, and now they try to
claim credit for correcting a situation of which they were completely ignorant.
Yet these are the same “leaders” that mouth breathing,
semi-literate cretins on social media continue to make excuses for and exhort others to do the
same with time worn, mind numbing clichés like “staying the course,” “being
patient,” and “supporting the JNC.” While we are grateful for the
accurate, illustrated depiction of the UAL MEC and s-UAL joint negotiation
committee at work as the frontispiece of this telling “article,” it is they,
not us and not any WORKING flight attendants at the new United Airlines, who
owes an apology.
THEY owe an apology to the WORKING flight attendants at
every airline in this country, but most especially to the cabin staff at United
Airlines, where the ongoing debacle loosely called “joint contract
negotiations” is following precisely the same well trod path to success that
America West and US Airways flight attendants enjoyed over EIGHT YEARS of
negotiations. But more than that, they owe an apology for forty years of
malfeasance that has festered in the midst of the flight attendant profession
since a group of flight attendants decided theirs was a higher calling and that
mere work in the airplane aisle was beneath their dignity.
And should anyone doubt the total lack of cohesion and
direction that characterizes current UAL MEC and international “leadership,”
one need only consider the phrase, “when in doubt, stay the course.”
This line of reasoning, as it relates to s-UAL attendants, still working under
a $1,200 to $1,500 per month penalty thanks to the UAL MEC for as yet
unspecified “benefits” and “protections,” would dictate, when speeding toward a
cliff and unsure whether to brake, swerve, or leap from the car, simply
remaining buckled in, mouth agape, and in a fit of frozen panic, until the car
plunges over the precipice.
That is precisely what is being advised by the UAL MEC and
the ersatz writers of their fraudulent, dull-witted drivel – to sit idly while
impending disaster rushes closer. The
recent announcement of international bases for s-CAL in Los Angeles and
Washington DC – with San Francisco soon to follow – speaks volumes to the long
term view company management takes of their work force management, while union
management at the UAL MEC and international level, play petty games to protect
their own fragile egos while the ground shifts beneath them.
The FACC and like-minded flight attendants bent of REFORM
are not “in doubt,” and to continue to plead for people to “stay
the course,” after an entire generation of flight attendants knows what
staying the course looks like is laughable and pathetic. REFORM is coming, beginning with putting, for
the first time, the reins of power in the hands of WORKING flight attendants
who will be able to vote for MEC and international officers, but there are
always going to be those among us who are comfortable with not thinking too
much, and simply believing and doing what they are told. These are the first ones to festoon their
baggage with silly ribbons, buttons, pins, and slogans which do nothing but
highlight their own gullibility.
You may choose to stay the course of delay, lies, corruption
and incompetence, but the REFORM movement has chosen a new path.
