UNION BUSTING
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UNION BUSTING
Union busting has become a universal trend in the aviation industry. It is terrorism at its worst and is already posing a very dangerous threat to the working lives and security of crewmembers and a very imminent threat to human life and safety. Present examples include Cathay Pacific in it's war against pilots and the out and out murder of an Emery flight crew by CNF and the FAA.It must be exposed and stopped! Recommended reading on the subject: "CONFESSIONS OF A UNION BUSTER" by Martin Jay Levitt (ISBN 0-517-58330-5) 
null[*]UNION BUSTING
null[*]UNION BUSTING
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What twaddle! As has already been discussed on another thread Lan Chile B767/A340 - whilst the individual (acting individually or as part of a union) has the right to withdraw his/her labour, so does management have the right to replace that person in order to keep the business running.
As I said, it's amazing how unions (and unionists) constantly go on about their "rights" and do their utmost to destroy or restrict the rights of the company or anyone that they see as a 'scab' - such as depriving them of the right to work due to blacklisting.
Incidentally, solidarity4all, I'd strongly suggest you edit your post as the FAA and CNF would not take kindly to being called murderers. It's also more than a little extreme to say that union busting is "terrorism at its worst" - I'd say that applied to Pan Am 103 and its ilk.
By the way, didn't I read in Time that the book you refer to was funded by a union and therefore soundly discredited?
As I said, it's amazing how unions (and unionists) constantly go on about their "rights" and do their utmost to destroy or restrict the rights of the company or anyone that they see as a 'scab' - such as depriving them of the right to work due to blacklisting.
Incidentally, solidarity4all, I'd strongly suggest you edit your post as the FAA and CNF would not take kindly to being called murderers. It's also more than a little extreme to say that union busting is "terrorism at its worst" - I'd say that applied to Pan Am 103 and its ilk.
By the way, didn't I read in Time that the book you refer to was funded by a union and therefore soundly discredited?
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brokepilot - nope, but I do have a number of friends that flew for EAL and decided to ignore the IAM pickets and that obnoxious leader of theirs - Bryant. Their lives were made an absolute misery and why? They spoke out against the strike and against the IAM. The fact that ALPA MEC agreed with what they said and ordered everyone back to work didn't help them - but they had the last laugh, setting up a rather successful little airline - Miami Air.
As the old saying has it - the best revenge is to live well.
As the old saying has it - the best revenge is to live well.
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Many years ago a retiring industrial relations officer with BALPA told us - It should be the duty of everyone who works for a company to have two aims. First, to make their company the best and most profitable company in their industry (aviation). Second,to make sure you got your fair sure of those profits. However, taint no use going for the second before you ensure you've got the first.
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The Guvnor
The likes of you made my job a lot easier at both AC and CP. IAM, CAW, CUPE, CALPA, ACPA et al was all the more vulnerable with people like you in their ranks. You and your ilk was the chink in their armour, so-to-speak. CALPA, ACPA and IAM were rife with anti union fifth columnists. The tough unions were CUPE and CAW, in that order.
The likes of you made my job a lot easier at both AC and CP. IAM, CAW, CUPE, CALPA, ACPA et al was all the more vulnerable with people like you in their ranks. You and your ilk was the chink in their armour, so-to-speak. CALPA, ACPA and IAM were rife with anti union fifth columnists. The tough unions were CUPE and CAW, in that order.
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OK Guvnor, so LanChile hiring foreign scabs to keep their business running is different from BA hiring ATLAS to keep their freight business running then, is it?
Strokes and folks, I guess.
Strokes and folks, I guess.
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Eastern Airlines imploded because of scab labor. And those ex EAL scabs at Miami Air (and former Kiwi) can't get a real job anywhere. These slave laborers now work at less than 50% of their former EAL pay. Management and shareholders' dream come true.
At the risk of sounding very over-simplistic and abstract, despite my realization of the need for some sort of union representation (heck, someone tell me that lawyers and doctors don't have it-it started with medieval guilds), both managements and unions must respect each other, somehow, and make some compromises in demands. And I just hope we use professional negotiators next time.
I can name some US corporate sharks whose brutal actions built up union solidarity over here.
And Glueball-a former Kiwi pilot told me that their checkride training forms did not have the small pre-printed box to "check off" pilots' windshear training. Because 1) the Check Airmen put a small checkmark OUTSIDE the pre-printed squares on the training forms, which was usd for many training events and 2) Valuejet had just crashed at very high speed (with not cargo, but fare-paying passngers!) into the Everglade Swamp, so the FAA inspector (who had no prior airline experience) apparently focused upon this most trivial, miniscule documentation flaw, used for many pilot's forms at Kiwi, and shutdown the entire airline. If this cowardly act actually occurred as was known to Kiwi pilots, the FAA was now the big, brave hero in front of the tv cameras-just as cowardly as Red China's keeping our EP-3 crew hostage. A true public servant of the American public.
After all, the FAA, in order to then show the public some decisive action after the Valuejet crash (now skulking around in the US Congress before the hot lights of the media, with its tail between its legs) due to the uncomfortable exposure of how its oversight of and documented problems at Valuejet (now Airtran) had been allegedly buried deep inside of file cabinets...
[ 10 September 2001: Message edited by: Ignition Override ]
I can name some US corporate sharks whose brutal actions built up union solidarity over here.
And Glueball-a former Kiwi pilot told me that their checkride training forms did not have the small pre-printed box to "check off" pilots' windshear training. Because 1) the Check Airmen put a small checkmark OUTSIDE the pre-printed squares on the training forms, which was usd for many training events and 2) Valuejet had just crashed at very high speed (with not cargo, but fare-paying passngers!) into the Everglade Swamp, so the FAA inspector (who had no prior airline experience) apparently focused upon this most trivial, miniscule documentation flaw, used for many pilot's forms at Kiwi, and shutdown the entire airline. If this cowardly act actually occurred as was known to Kiwi pilots, the FAA was now the big, brave hero in front of the tv cameras-just as cowardly as Red China's keeping our EP-3 crew hostage. A true public servant of the American public.
After all, the FAA, in order to then show the public some decisive action after the Valuejet crash (now skulking around in the US Congress before the hot lights of the media, with its tail between its legs) due to the uncomfortable exposure of how its oversight of and documented problems at Valuejet (now Airtran) had been allegedly buried deep inside of file cabinets...
[ 10 September 2001: Message edited by: Ignition Override ]
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Glueball..lived through it...resigned/retired off the picket line at EAL...the airline imploded because frankie raped it bare..the IAM action and the sympathy strike by the pilots just accelerated the process...many scabs unfortunatly went on to bigger and better things with other major airlines including AA, UAL, and others...the CO scabs have been integrated into APLA.. because ALPA wants money...IFALPA is threatening future cx employees without offering any options, while greedily accepting upgrades within it's own ranks, Delta pilots were all to ready to accept upgrades/overtime flying at my/our expense...and the list goes on and on..it is indeed a sad situation that needs to be addressed properly by unions around the world..present tactics fail them...
[ 10 September 2001: Message edited by: Mapshift ]
[ 10 September 2001: Message edited by: Mapshift ]
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Mapshift,
And these are the bully-boy unions that strike fear into the hearts of the rich capitalist exploiter Guvnor and his opressive cronies?
Can you imagine what they could achieve if they buried the shaft and developed and adhered to a general code of ethics?
Guvnor's friend,
Brother RightsFlyer
And these are the bully-boy unions that strike fear into the hearts of the rich capitalist exploiter Guvnor and his opressive cronies?
Can you imagine what they could achieve if they buried the shaft and developed and adhered to a general code of ethics?
Guvnor's friend,
Brother RightsFlyer
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Brother RightsFlyer - I have no axe to grind against unions per se - in their place they do an excellent job for people that need their help and assistance.
What I am very strenuously opposed to are the bully-boy tactics employed by them; and in particular as I have already said their emphasis on the "rights" of their members whilst at the same time denying those rights to others.
This debate also opens up another question.
Are pilots true professionals - in which case they don't need unions (though it could be argued that the Bar Association and the BMA are the lawyers' and doctors' 'unions' respectively) - or are they really just highly paid blue collar workers (in effect, aerial bus or truck drivers)?
As someone pointed out on another thread, the US airline with the best industrial relations (and indeed profitability) record is Southwest - which is unionised. It comes down to the relationship between management and staff - is there a "them and us" attitude? If so, you've got problems. Or is it a "we're all in this together and not only are we going to make it work but we're going to have a damn good time doing it" attitude? Then you've got a success story!
I've long supported the Southwest way of doing things - open door management; management doing line jobs to keep their ear close to the ground and seeing what problems or shortcust (if any) can be found; involving not just the employee but their whole family in order to both create a support mechanism and to ensure that resentment from spouses about spanding time away is minimised; employee share ownership and profit sharing; providing the best staff benefits in the most cost effective manner etc etc.
There's no doubt that it can be done.
What I am very strenuously opposed to are the bully-boy tactics employed by them; and in particular as I have already said their emphasis on the "rights" of their members whilst at the same time denying those rights to others.
This debate also opens up another question.
Are pilots true professionals - in which case they don't need unions (though it could be argued that the Bar Association and the BMA are the lawyers' and doctors' 'unions' respectively) - or are they really just highly paid blue collar workers (in effect, aerial bus or truck drivers)?
As someone pointed out on another thread, the US airline with the best industrial relations (and indeed profitability) record is Southwest - which is unionised. It comes down to the relationship between management and staff - is there a "them and us" attitude? If so, you've got problems. Or is it a "we're all in this together and not only are we going to make it work but we're going to have a damn good time doing it" attitude? Then you've got a success story!
I've long supported the Southwest way of doing things - open door management; management doing line jobs to keep their ear close to the ground and seeing what problems or shortcust (if any) can be found; involving not just the employee but their whole family in order to both create a support mechanism and to ensure that resentment from spouses about spanding time away is minimised; employee share ownership and profit sharing; providing the best staff benefits in the most cost effective manner etc etc.
There's no doubt that it can be done.
