"Mechanics' victgory at United Airlines and lessons for labor," by Malik Miah

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mechanics' victory at United Airlines and some lessons for labor

By Malik Miah

In a stunning victory July 14 for mechanics and related employees at
United Airlines, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA)
replaced the International Association of Machinists (IAM) as their
union. The victory came after a rank and file grassroots campaign that
included hand billing, tabling and responding to the failed policies
of the incumbent union. United Airlines is the world's second largest
carrier.

AMFA now represents more mechanics in the airline industry than any
other union. Represented airlines include Northwest Airlines, Alaska
Airlines and in January AMFA won certification at Southwest Airlines.
With mechanics at United Airlines, AMFA represents over 20,000 active
mechanics' and related workers and is in the middle of volunteer
organizing campaigns at American (the worldÕs largest carrier), Delta,
US Airways and American West.

The vote at United was not close. Of the 13,144 eligible voters as
determined by the National Mediation Board (NMB), 5,234 (63.5 percent)
voted for AMFA and only 2,992 (34 percent) for the IAM, which has been
at the airline since 1945. The eligibility list included thousands of
laid off employees and non-union salaried employees added to the list
two years ago with the IAMÕs support.

A Reactionary Step?

Many longtime union militants and reform activists have wondered aloud
if this change of unions represents a victory and an advance for
airline labor. Some believe a craft union like AMFA replacing an
established union such as the IAM is reactionary and should not be
supported in principle. A corrupt and undemocratic "industrial" union,
the argument goes, is still better for the rank and file than a
democratic craft union.

But the craft union/industrial union issue was hardly involved in the
mechanics' revolt against the IAM and the decision to join AMFA.  It
was the experience the mechanics have had with the IAM, and the
positive record of AMFA.

The erosion of the IAM began before 1994 but accelerated with the
Employee Stock Ownership (ESOP) scheme at United the IAM forced down
our throats in the contract that year.  It was then that the IAM began
its final transformation from a weak union into a union that thought
it could play on both sides of the bargaining table representing
workers and "employee-owners" of the company.

The ESOP was the biggest concessionary contract ever made in the
history of aviation. We took a pay cut and agreed to a reduced wages
and benefits until 2000, when the contract was open for renegotiation.
As a result, wages at United fell drastically behind those at other
airlines over this period.  In return, we got United stock, but of a
special kind.  It couldn't be sold, and could only be only redeemed
when an employee left United.  So, it was a retirement scheme.
Workers who retired when the stock was high in the bubble of the 1990s
regained some of what they had lost in 1994.  But the stock sank lower
and lower until it is almost worthless today, as United is under
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  The IAM continues to defend its
decision to endorse ESOP.

The worst feature of ESOP was the propaganda from the IAM and the
company that since we were now "employee owners," the interests of the
workers and the company were identical.  The ESOP was a cancerous
tumor.  IAM leaders began inviting top company officials to union
functions, including membership meetings.  Managers had favorable
articles and lengthy comments published in the IAM newspapers. Worker
solidarity was eroded.  As part of the deal, the IAM got to appoint
one member of the UAL Board of Directors. The IAM representative voted
with management on every important anti-worker decision made by the
Board. Never once did the representative present a proposal to the
membership (even as a straw poll) for our approval or rejection.

Decisions were made behind the members' backs, who had to follow the
rumor mills and company propaganda to vainly try to learn our fate.
The incumbent IAM officials saw the members more and more as problems
for their scheme to work with management against our interests. They
became close partners with top management as more concessions were
wrung from us.  The contract language became almost meaningless as
management imposed its will with tacit support from the IAM.  United
"outsourced" more and more of our work with little resistance from the
IAM. Only rank and file militant action through votes against bad
deals and rumbling on the shop floor and by line mechanics convinced
top management that the IAM officials weren't truly speaking for
mechanics and related.

When the negotiations began in 2000, as the "investment period" (our
final payment of concessions) of the ESOP came to a close, the IAM
refused to tell the membership what was going on.  When pilots
launched a campaign to win big wage increases to catch up to what was
given up during the ESOP, the IAM officials refused to support what
became known as "the summer of hell." When mechanics in Los Angeles
began to press our case for a new contract during this period, the IAM
blamed "outsiders" for their agitation and did nothing when the
company moved to fire the mechanics. The company took this inaction
(correctly seen as a betrayal) as a sign of weakness and got a
temporary court injunction against any future independent actions by
mechanics to win a new contract.

Negotiations dragged on and we were still under the 1994 contract.
September 11, 2001, set us back further even though mechanics at
Northwest Airlines (NWA) under AMFA representation were able to win
the best contract in the industry.

In 2002 we did finally get a temporary wage increase up to the levels
of the other airlines (coming after the NWA advance) for some months,
but the IAM had openly agreed with the company that if bankruptcy
threatened, the union would negotiate new concessions, which is what
happened.

The final nail in the IAM's coffin occurred April 29 when under the
gun of the bankruptcy court, a new concession contract endorsed by the
IAM was passed containing more give aways to the company of nearly
$800 million per year until 2009 as part of UAL's restructuring. The
next day, after the pact approved, the certification election was
announced. AMFA had submitted cards for 63 percent of the eligible
voters after mechanics had said enough is enough.

The AMFA alternative

What is the AMFA alternative to the practice of the IAM?  AMFA seeks
to organize and represent all mechanics/technicians at the major and
regional airlines, and fixed based operators.  AMFA, formed in 1962
and winning its first contract in 1964, is not affiliated to the
AFL-CIO. National Director O.V. Delle-Femine, then a licensed Airframe
and Powerplant mechanic at American Airlines, launched AMFA after he
ran up against the Transport Workers Union  (TWU) officialsÕ refusal
to protect the interest of mechanics. His vision of a democratic craft
union was never seen as anti-AFL-CIO or anti-other-airline-workers. As
he has explained repeatedly, AMFA is simply "pro-mechanic."

AMFA is a craft union with a philosophy of bottom-up unionism. Its
motto of "put accountability and democracy back into unionism" is
what's missing in the AFL-CIO. We won at United because rank and file
mechanics rejected the elitism of the IAM officialdom and the lack of
genuine democracy. It had little to do with craft versus industrial
style unionism [as] many on the left and reform wing of the
established unions falsely believe.

The IAM's policies of concession bargaining, talking militant while
making deals behind the backs of the membership, is the fundamental
reason why AMFA is now the collective bargaining agent at United,
Southwest (the most profitable carrier and where the Teamsters
apparatus AMFA overthrew is even more powerful than the IAM's), and
six other airlines. AMFA is one of the few unions gaining members and
it is doing so against attacks by managements and the AFL-CIO
officials.

"Strength in numbers" is a correct idea for unionism. But for the
officials of the IAM it was pure demagogy. For AMFA it is aimed at
uniting mechanics at all the airlines under one powerful craft union.
It is then possible to form alliances with other airline employees to
take on the bosses.  AMFA at Northwest, for example, has given
solidarity with the flight attendants and other employees when in
conflict with management.

AMFA is not a dues collecting machine but a professional union that
knows which side of the table it sits on and how best to represents
its members.

AMFA represents the best tradition of militant independent unionism.
It rejects secret negotiations and signing any "letters of
confidentiality" with management.

During contract negotiations, AMFA mandates "open negotiations" where
it moves negotiations from station to station and employee group to
employee group where 25 rank and file observers watch the negotiators
and report back to the floor.  The negotiators are elected, not
appointed. This keeps the union and company representatives "honest."

Alliances of all employees for the common good is also a stand of
AMFA, which is why the AMFA Constitution states it will honor union
picket lines and show solidarity with other workers in conflicts with
their employers.

At the first meeting between leaders of AMFA and officers at UAL (the
parent company of United) World Headquarters after the July 14
victory, management tried to get AMFA to sign a letter of
confidentiality to look at certain financial data. AMFA leaders said
whatever they saw the members would see too. They pushed the
confidential material back across the table.

In other discussions with members and management, AMFA said it would
press firmly the enforcement of contract language even though AMFA did
not negotiate the contract, while pushing the envelope where we can.

At Northwest Airlines, AMFA is refusing to accept any wage
concessions. AMFA states that the wages and benefits should be
protected even as airlines downsize so when the upturn begins workers
coming off layoff will get the same wages they had before. IAM
negotiated wage givebacks have not prevented layoffs at United, for
example.

Today mechanics at NWA continue to make on average $5 per hour more
than mechanics at United and American.  At American, big concessions
were recently wrung from the Transport Workers Union, another AFL-CIO
affiliated union. If give backs are accepted by membership vote, AMFA
will only give short-term loans, not permanent cuts. And the members
discuss and vote on the final language, not a summary.

AMFA does not promise a quick reversal of the setbacks mechanics have
suffered at United. It cannot. The bankruptcy court judge still sits
at the table so long as United is in Chapter 11. AMFA seeks a seat on
the Creditors Committee, which will have the final approval of a
reorganization plan. A fight over that plan is possible that can
impact the contract. Mechanics and others have already suffered big
wage cuts and fear more changes to the pension plans and health
benefits.

One of the charges made by the IAM was that AMFA would only care about
the mechanics and not other workers now in AMFA.  AMFA's decision to
reach out to all related workers in the Class and Craft as decided by
the government-appointed National Mediation Board rebutted the claims
by the IAM tops.  In fact, most of my time as a full-time AMFA area
representative in the first two weeks after the victory was helping
cleaners facing lay off. (Cleaners were in the same bargaining unit as
mechanics, and it was among workers in this bargaining unit that the
election of AMFA was held.)

The AFL-CIO and the IAM consider AMFA outside the labor movement, a
company union, and has recently threatened to file a suit to stop AMFA
National from providing an Internet link to the AFL-CIO website.
During our organizing campaign at United, the local Central Labor
Councils came to the maintenance base to slander AMFA and give support
to the IAM.  When AMFA has been in a struggle with a company, the IAM
refuses to support it.  But AMFA supports the IAM whenever it is in a
struggle.

Labor solidarity should include the principle of the democratic right
of the rank and file to choose its own representative. UnitedÕs
mechanics gave their response to this heavy-handed interference by the
AFL-CIO in our two to one vote for AMFA.

Labor militants seeking change in their unions should ask themselves:
Is AMFAÕs policy of rank and file-based volunteer organizing (AMFA
does not use outside organizers) not the way forward for the labor
movement as a whole? Clearly, the bureaucratic and self-defeating
policy of the IAM and the  AFL-CIO (what I call narrow-minded
arrogance) is a key factor why the labor unions are in decline and
represent only 13 percent of American workers.


Wouldn't Reform Have Been a Better Tactic?

As the situation under the IAM worsened in the 1990s, the question for
some of us, me included, was this: Could a genuine revolt against the
bureaucracy occur among all those at United covered by the IAM --
mechanics, cleaners, ramp and stores employees?

Facts are stubborn things. During the 1990s, the only section of the
IAM willing to fight the concessions consistently and take on the
officialdom was the mechanics. The mechanics had voted in our majority
against the ESOP but it passed because the other IAM members were
taken in by the officialsÕ propaganda and voted for it. Every major
advance won by workers at United was won by rank and file mechanics
that rejected the IAM leaders proposals.

There are some minor rumblings among other IAM represented employees
against the misguided policies of the IAM tops. But to date no
organized groups are forming to challenge the officials.

Reform was not a viable tactic. The existence of AMFA offered an
alternative, at least for the mechanics and related.  We could
decertify the IAM and vote in AMFA.  Not to take this opportunity
would have meant waiting for the other IAM workers to begin to fight
the company and the union bureaucracy, a process, which could take
years.  It would demoralize the mechanics who were ready to fight now.
Decertification as a tactic of change was the most effective
alternative to slow death within the IAM for mechanics.

Not to have taken the road of decertifying the IAM and electing AMFA
would not have furthered reform of the IAM, but set it back by
demoralizing the most militant section, the mechanics.  Now, AMFA is
the vanguard of workers at United, including those still in the IAM,
who can be inspired by its example.

It was its ESOP concessionary policy that turned many longtime reform
activists in the IAM to support the decertification effort by AMFA.
AMFA, which had supporters on the property since the 1960s and had
four previous attempts to replace the IAM, became the viable
alternative to save unionism at United for mechanics.

AMFA's critique of the IAM and its opposite orientation in action, and
the fact that the most militant mechanics were AMFA supporters, won me
and other reluctant pro-industrial style union supporters over to the
need to break up the IAM and turn the mechanics section into the
leading group of workers fighting for all employees at United.

AMFA Points the Way for Labor

Changing unions was the first step to revealing the fighting spirit of
the mechanics. Without that change, there would be no future at United
for mechanics and related. The response to date from the floor has
been positive and sends a signal to management that mechanics expect
to be treated with respect and will stand up for our rights.

The aims of AMFA in this context are to first close the barn door to
more concessions and stop the erosion of the contract. Too much work
has already been lost; nearly half the mechanics are out of work since
the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

Based on AMFA's democratic principles and it'or,s philosophy of
treating members with respect based on our knowledge, skill and
integrity, the mechanicsÕ and related are starting to regain some
confidence and are more ready than ever to stand up and fight for a
better future at the airline.

And in doing so we can show what other workers, including the ramp and
stores workers still in the IAM must do to protect their interests in
a climate of a jobless economic recovery and a restructuring airline
industry taking place worldwide.

The future for airline labor is tied to unionism that is based on
democracy, militancy and broad unity in action among the various
unions and employee groups that exist so long as the reactionary
Railway Labor Act and other anti-labor laws are still on the books.

I think this experience has lessons for the labor movement as a whole.
The "house of labor" framework of the AFL-CIO, where the existing
unions are sacrosanct, must be broken through. The labor movement of
the 21st century to survive must recognize that the old unions Ð both
craft and industrial type Ð have increasingly been drawn into
defending the capitalist state and its policies, as well as
cooperation schemes with the companies and the resulting concessions.
The stultifying bureaucracies in these unions have to be overthrown.
Tactics in each union will vary, but can include decertification, as
we have shown.

It is a radical approach. But it is based on recognition that the
unions must be rebuilt to protect and advance the interests of working
people.

A democratic and militant union like AMFA, whether it is of the craft
or industrial type, can show all workers how to fight back and protect
their interests.

Malik Miah is a member of AMFA Local 9 Transition Committee and
Interim Area Representative for the Components Shops in San Francisco.
Local 9 has 4,600 members, now the largest in the union.