Posted on 10/16/2005 11:20:23 PM PDT by indianrightwinger
Mechanics Union At Northwest To Allow a Vote By SUSAN CAREY Staff Reporter October 17, 2005; Page A9
The union representing striking Northwest Airlines mechanics on Friday said it decided to let its members vote on the airline's current contract offer, which would let only about 500 of the 4,400 union members return to work.
If the terms are accepted in a two-week membership ratification process, the rest would receive four weeks of severance pay.
The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association members struck on Aug. 20 after rejecting a contract offer that would have preserved 2,750 union jobs and given up to 26 weeks of severance to the others. Northwest promptly brought in 1,200 replacement technicians under less generous terms and managed to fly through the job action. The company also outsourced a number of jobs -- including heavy maintenance, aircraft cleaning and custodian positions -- to third-party vendors, reducing the overall number of positions it needs to fill.
Last month, AMFA negotiators rejected a proposal that would have kept 1,080 jobs and given up to 16 weeks of severance pay to those who would be furloughed. Since then, Northwest has permanently hired more than 500 of the replacement mechanics and is on track to reduce its mechanic costs by more than $200 million a year. The airline, the nation's fourth-largest by traffic, later amended the terms of employment for the work group, taking away layoff protection, trimming seniority retention and deciding that the new hires don't have to join the union or pay union dues.
"This is not a sellout by AMFA or your negotiating committee," the union said in a message to the strikers on Friday. "This is a chance to vote your destiny...When you look at the details, you will be hard-pressed to find anything 'good.' "
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
LOL.
They started with 4,400 union extortionists employed, but staring into the abyss and not believing their own eyes.
8/20 offer: 2,750 jobs, 26 weeks severance for 1,650.
9/?? offer: 1080 jobs, 16 weeks severance for 3,320.
10/17 offer: 500 jobs, 4 weeks severance for 3,900.
The current half-life of a union job and the duration of a severance package at Northworst seems to be less than 30 days.
Wait another month and there probably won't be any of either. It took 'em 4 or 5 decades, but they have finally killed their golden goose. Perhaps they can all spend their newly found leisure time commiserating with the auto, steel and textile workers about the long-term perils of extorting wages and benefits which are above free-market levels.
Yeah. Waste them. Waste those proles who have the nerve to found and join a union. Ruin them. Sounds a lot like the Islamic agenda. Burn everything to ground level and start over again
Level everything and everyone except for a few geniuses at the top, like you and Muhammad
Waste? Ruin? Burn? Islamic agenda?
Those aren't my words, they're yours.
What's your problem, Dennis? You sound unhappy about something. Union-blues got you down?
LOL.
Unions must die.
Die, unions, die.
DIE, DIE, DIE!
Unions are great, just ask any union boss. They're all for the members and their welfare, as long as there's a bonus,a lucrative investment scam or a kickback to be made.
Remove the chance for the union boss to make additionl bucks off the backs of the membership and they will revert to exactly the same ilk as their supposed enemies, the robber barons of the modern age.
I've never belonged to a union. When the steel mill that two of my brothers worked at shut down, the Steelworkers didn't have a thing for them, except a plea for them to continue paying dues without the jobs that the union didn't protect.
Oh, and the local union leadership was still drawing pay from the international. Lost all of the little respect I had for the unions at that point.
When is the last time you were in a union shop and saw people getting paid an hourly wage for 15 minutes worth of work?
Have the rank and file even had a chance to vote on this contract, ever? From the article it says negotiators rejected...
If not, there ought to be a law that says the rank and file have a chance to vote before going out on strike. Also, at some point during a strike the rank and file should be able to demand a vote.
There are definitely thugs in this story, but in my mind it's just union bigwigs and fatcats.
Don't misunderstand me - I've seen the lazy workmanship and entitled attitude of many union rank and file, but it just goes against my nature to rejoice in the loss of some many's livlihood, no matter how many of them may have been lazy slobs.
Unions are organized crime
Yup.
They voted to set negotiating deadlines and authorized a strike thereafter.
Northwest mechanics vote to authorize strike
By Associated Press
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - Northwest Airlines' mechanics, cleaners and custodians voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike against the nation's fourth-largest airline, union leaders said Saturday.
Members of the Airline Mechanics Fraternal Association voted 96 percent in favor of authorizing job actions, including a full-scale strike, the union said.
"This group is prepared to go on strike and to fight for what they know are their economic rights," said Steve MacFarlane, president of AMFA Local 33.
He refused to disclose the vote totals and results on two other ballot questions concerning the scale of the possible strike.
"We would just as soon leave Northwest Airlines guessing as to what we're going to do on March 11," MacFarlane said.
< snip >
No offer the union wanted to put to a ratification vote was made by the dealine, so the strike was on.
These idiots had their chance to consider their folly.
Of course, the ultimate vote is crossing the picket line of fools who are watching their jobs vaporize while chanting goofy feel-good slogans.
Some were smart enough to do it, most weren't.
Strike or no strike, Northwest was doomed. Union wages were only a part, pitiful management is what will have killed it in the end.
He won't reply. It's the liberal-socialist name-call and run strategy. Don't denigrate them....it's all they got!
Sure he will. Bet on it.
He's a little cranky because I kicked his ignorant behind on another thread.
He'll be back for more.
It is very likely that UAW at GM will be next.
It will be interesting to see which of the two parties learns more from the progression of events at Northwest. My guess is that, as Dumb as the management at GM has been over union issues, the UAW will get the Darwin award this time and will be virtually extinct in 5 years.
Your program: The proles get ground down and you are an untouchable. Because you are so much smarter. Though not smart enough to see that gubbermint unions are the real enemy. My, my, you should see the unfunded pension liabilities of various states and cities.
Because isn't that what we're really talking about here? How Toyota and Honda plants here can compete so much better against Ford and GM and Delphi that are burdened down with legacy pensions, that I admit are out of line. That belong to a bygone era
I have never been a union member. Though I have relatives in teacher's unions, thus am quite familiar with government unions and how they get their sweetheart contracts under Democrats. Though the idiot republicans who have run San Diego since forever also gave away the store to unions. So that San Diego is on the hook for billions in unfunded pension liabilities. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-10-24-sandiego-_x.htm
Right. You're still in denial how Wall Streeters are involved all the time in insider trading. All the time and with no prosecutions. I was wrong about Refco which was a strange duck exception to the rule. If Thomas Lee & Co. got left holding the bag, anyone could have.
Too frequently, this is true.
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