PAGE 14 | December 16, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
...AFA’s Sara Nelson
From Page 2
nonunion and very much antiu-
nion. So while we certainly sup-
port all the flight attendants
there, it’s good to send a mes-
sage to management that you
want to fly with union members.
Union members are able to
speak up at work when they see
something they think isn’t safe
or isn’t right for passengers.
The airline industry has been
consolidating in the last few
decades, and today four air-
lines control 69 percent of to-
tal market share. What does
that mean for workers, and
for passengers? Ironically, air-
lines have consolidated to cut
capacity and be able to generate
larger profit margins, but they
have fought against sharing
those profits with the workers.
We’ve pushed back, and re-
cently won contracts that have
pushed careers forward. But
Delta used consolidation to get
rid of a major flight attendant
contract — the contract for the
flight attendants at Northwest.
They ran a huge antiunion cam-
paign and just barely turned out
a vote that denied the flight at-
tendants
representation.
Overnight they threw out 60
years of bargaining at Northwest
Airlines.
AFA has a trademarked strike
tactic - CHAOS - Create
Havoc Around Our System™
in which flight attendants en-
gage in intermittent strikes.
Why hasn’t it been used lately,
and what would cause you to
bring it back? Under the Rail-
way Labor Act, we have to go
through a very laborious process
to get to the point of having the
right to strike. It’s not like con-
tracts that expire under the
NLRA [National Labor Rela-
tions Act is the law that spells
out union rights for most private
sector workers.] Railway Labor
Act contracts become “amend-
able,” but they do not expire,
and you have to go through an
entire process that includes ap-
proval by the government to be
able to set a strike deadline. So
why hasn’t CHAOS been used?
Essentially because we haven’t
hit the legal end process to be
able to use it. That doesn’t mean
we haven’t threatened it. We’ve
run strike votes and prepared the
strike and used the threat of a
strike and the power of solidar-
ity that you can exhibit through
informational picketing in order
to get contracts. It’s just been
quite some time since any air-
line group has been given the le-
gal right to strike.
What’s the main difference
between airline unions and
the kind of unions most of our
readers would be familiar
with, like public sector, build-
ing trades, manufacturing and
grocery unions? In the past 20
years, contract bargaining has
gone from an average of a year
and a half time in length to five
years. Obviously that’s just un-
heard of in most industries, but
that has become the new norm
in the airline industry. Unions
are pushing back against that.
Part of it has just been that man-
agement has figured out that if
they delay at the table, there’s no
hard deadline.
To what extent are airline
unions unified, or not? For ex-
ample, flight attendants are
represented by three unions
— TWU, APFA, and AFA.
We believe very strongly that
we need to unite. We have a
public call for APFA [the flight
attendants union at American
Airlines] to merge with AFA, to
build power for flight attendants
there. We don’t believe that
there should be any groups that
are out there standing alone or
being in a position where they
could be co-opted by company
management. And so we have
made a very public call for our
unions to merge. We think that’s
the only way forward. In terms
of how are aviation unions
working together today, I think
that aviation unions are more
united than they have ever been,
and that has been because we
have been taking on global at-
tacks on our jobs and our rights.
To
al our Brothers
B Brothe and
an Si
Sist
Siste
Sisters
T o all
We e extend
We
ext
exte
exten
our B Best
Be Wishes
Wishe
W
Wish
Fo a joyous
For
joyou
joyo Holiday
Holi
Holid
Ho
Se
Seaso
Season
S
Ma th
May
the New
N
Ne Year
Ye
Y bring
brin
b
Peace,
e
P Prosperity
Pros
Prospe
Prosperit
an
and Good
Go
G
wil
will
w
P Peace
CEM
CEMEN
CEME
CEMENT
M
MA
MAS
MASONS
L LOCAL
LO
LOCA
555
M erry C hristmas!
from the officers and staff of
R OOFERS AND W ATERPROOFERS L OCAL 49
Ray Carpenter
Vice President-Executive Board
Darrell Hopkins, Sr.
Recording Secretary
Samantha Henson
Office Manager
Russ Garnett
Business Manager/
Financial Secretary
Travis Hopkins
President/Field Representative
James Hale
Warden-Executive Board
Executive Board
James Breneman
James Dittemore
Sean Maybee, Jason Barthel