Originally Posted by goingforgold
Northwest has out-manouvered AMFA, but I don't think it was that hard to do. The union leadership has really done a disservice to their members. I don't think this will be a model on how to break a union as AMFA is essentially breaking themselves. I better-run union making better choices would not be broken.
I have also heard that the workers will be unionized - just under a different union.
I would want to know from my leaders - what happened to the dues? Where is the strike fund?
I do hope that those who really want to continue to work for NW, and take pride in their work, will find the strength within themselves to cross the picket line. The strike was ill-conceived and will not likely result in any benefits to the workers. I really believe the union leadership made some poor choices leading up to this situation.
Everyone will have a hard time now that there is even one more difficulty in front of the airlines - Hurricane Katrina causing chaos, and fuel prices to rise even further.
The problem that no one in the union movement wants to talk about is that labor and trade unions--once necesssary, good and basically righteous, are no longer about worker protection and safety. They are about two things and two things ONLY: MONEY and POWER.
They are there to make sure that incompetent workers who have been there for years stay employed and are not fired as they should be. They are there to make sure the guy who has been there the longest--not the guy with the best work, the most productivity, the least amount of errors--gets the best shifts. They are there to make sure that it is as difficult as it can be to get rid of a bad apple. They are there to make sure that the employer is seen as the enemy, to make sure that you can do as little as possible for as much money as possible, that you can hurt or even destroy the employer which pays your bills and not lose the job that you hate so much, and recently, to further political causes.
Unions and their shills who say that they are about the worker are either blind or stupid or both. And what of the union dues? They are going to support the work-free lifestyle of union leadership. Again I ask, HEY STEVE MCFARLANE, HOW MUCH OF YOUR PAYCHECK WILL YOU GET THIS WEEK?? HEY O.V. DELLA-FEMININE, HOW MUCH OF YOUR PAYCHECK WILL YOU GET THIS WEEK??
Unions were good, now their time has passed and it's time for them to die out like the virus they have become. There was once a buggy whip in every home, they were good and useful, but like the union, long since past the end of their usefulness. They are a drag on the economy and perhaps most sadly, they take money from the people who earn it and waste it on sinecures and politics.
And why is it that every time I leave a union job for a nonunion job I get better pay, better assignments, better benefits and better working conditions?
And why is it that thes eunions, who claim to be all about the wokring people, resist any attemot for their own office workers to unionize?
AGAIN I say: Show me a worker who hates his job, hates his paycheck, hates his boss, hates his company, hates his assignment, hates his shift, hates what he does, complains constantly, has no problem going out of his way to hurt his company, is convinced that the company, no matter how big, exists entirely to hurt him PERSONALLY, comes in late, leaves early, can rattle off to you how many years, months, days, hours and minutes until he retires no matter if he's 18 or 60 years old, does as little as possible when he gets to work but will FIGHT TO THE DEATH TO KEEP THIS JOB THAT HE HATES SO MUCH...
and I will show you a UNION WORKER.
Funny, when I hate a job THAT much I quit.
--PP