I was at first willing to give the AOA the benefit of the doubt. Now, there is little doubt to me that the GC and its leader are completely out of their tree.
I am a member, and I desperately want the AOA to be effective but I am just stunned at the lack of progress on issues like these:
- SO "assessment" sham;
- bypass of Boeing SOs by DEFOs;
- imposition of COS 08;
- lack of any wage adjustment to reflect cost of living increases, industry improvements, home country exchange rates, etc.;
- freighter flying
- likely imposition of 3-man ULR; etc.
I have heard from GC members themselves about ST's unwillingness to be "confrontational."
Any student of labour relations would know that the labour-management relationship must be confrontational to an extent. Both parties have vastly differing objectives. In my opinion, you can't blame management for wanting to continuously improve the bottom line. That is what they were hired to do and one would expect nothing less. I am glad that I work for a company that is focussed on profitability. However, it is the union's job to work to ensure that our conditions of service are not eroded in this process. A certain amount of friction is normal, and I am sure that CX management understands this concept. In fact, I'm sure that they, savvy as they are in the ways of industrial relations, must be relishing the current absurd situation, where they can impose any reduction on conditions of service on us knowing that the extent of the union's actions will be a letter to its members justifying the move.
So what happens now? I’m afraid that continued inaction by the union can only result in a further erosion in its numbers... Conversely, perhaps a little action might actually strengthen the union….?
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