Dear Readers:
This is an email I received back in 2001 prior to 9/11 and was posted on another bulletin board back then. Some of the issues have changed but I believe it is well written by a mechanic and thought provoking.
Though I do not call for any illegal action I would ask that you take action by contacting the leadership of this country to promote change to take place.
Why should the majority of Americans who have no pension plans be made to pay (PBGC) for the minority who do because of bad management in this industry and this country that have robbed the general public? Contact your representatives and question them.
In Unity,
Kevin Griffin
03/22/01
“And Justice For All”
A promise made and then broken is worse than one that was not made at all.
When we grew up in this country we were taught that by being faithful and loyal to our system of government we would enjoy Freedom and the highest standard of living in the world. As we sat in our Social Studies or history classes we were taught how the great advances of the industrial revolution provided excess production and that the largesse of people such as Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller benefited the poor. Never in these classrooms were we taught how many of these ‘Robber Barons” of the Gilded Age started their fortunes by not only ducking conscription during the Civil War and by selling defective or substandard war materials to the Union Army. We are not taught about how they slaughtered their workers when they sought pay increases and decent working conditions. We are not taught of the payoffs to corrupt politicians and Judges. No memorials were erected in Washington commemorating the slaughtered women and children of Ludlow. No statues were made of Mother Jones.
There is a deliberate reason for this very censored curriculum. Our history glorifies individuals that made it rich. Our History tells us that our rules are fair and equitable to all and that such success is attainable to all of us. All we must do is work hard and be faithful to our system. History as it is taught to us is meant to condition our behavior for the rest of our lives. We are to accept was is as the inevitable. Not to resist. If we are not rich then it is our fault. We have no right to rebel because we are all given an equal chance.
Are the rules equal? Are they fair? Do they apply equally to all? Our conditioning would have us respond, “Yes, Yes and Yes”. Then stand up and salute our flag. Reality would tell us “No, No and No’. The early conditioning that we received in childhood has a powerful effect. Even though we see the truth, sometimes it is so painful that we don’t want to admit what all of our other senses are telling us. We see the truth but believe the lies because its easier than confronting the truth.
How did I come to these conclusions? Through two decades of degradation as an airline mechanic. I feel that I had reasonable expectations when I chose my career. I felt that if I worked hard, and did a good job, my employer would be willing to provide me with a wage that would compare in value with the service I provided. Call me naive. Things didn’t quite work out that way. I then sought out answers as to why things did not work out like I planed. The way that I was taught they would. The mainstream media did not provide me with answers. My education did not help either; in fact it only confused and frustrated me. So I started to read. Books like the Politics of Rich and Poor were very enlightening and gave me a deeper understanding how our economy works. Hard Landing showed me sides of the Airline Industry that I never saw. A Peoples History of the United States showed me that I was more familiar with the history of the Rockefellers than my own class.
Various books on labor history showed me how hard previous generations fought for what we are giving away without a fight. It taught me that our standard of living did not increase as the inevitable result of increased productivity but because people fought to get a share of what their labor produced. I learned that such demands were met with brutal repression. I learned how our government and our laws were not there to protect the people from oppressors but to protect oppressors from the people. In order to maintain the peace the illusion of fairness was essential and elaborate. I also learned that as long as workers tried to navigate through the labyrinth of our legal system they were destined to failure because the masters of the maze would simply change the barriers as they went. Their only chance at success lied with them being willing to crash through the barriers and refuse to play by the rules as set by the masters or their consorts.
Airline workers live under the oppressive Railway Labor Act. The rules of the act are written to give the appearance that it treats workers and companies in a fair manner but in reality it is nothing more than a structure the oppresses the workers in this industry. While workers are bound to strict compliance with the contracts, under severe penalties for violations, companies are allowed to violate at will. Only after a lengthy often delayed legal process are companies usually forced to comply. Usually by then their real objective has been already been achieved. A perfect example of this was American Airlines purchase of Reno Air and the refusal by the company to live up to its agreement with Americans pilots. It was obvious that the company was violating the Scope clause of the contract.
When the pilots protested the company simply ignored them. The company claimed that it would be too expensive for them to comply with the contract.
For the pilots to bring this to court would have meant a long legal process that would have taken years to come to a conclusion. This would have been extremely demoralizing to the pilots union because it showed how the company could violate their contract “at will’. It would weaken and threaten their union. So the pilots rebelled. They did the same thing that the company was doing. They violated the agreement. While legal intervention on behalf of the pilots to force the company to live up to its agreement would have taken years, legal intervention on behalf of the company was immediate. The court immediately took the side of the company. In effect, its as if you tied the hands of one Boxer and allowed the other Boxer to beat the crap out of him for a couple of rounds then you claim it’s a fair fight because you promise to cut him loose in the 10th round. While the court issued short phrases criticizing the company’s labor relations they worked in obvious behalf of the company. The obvious goal of the company was to weaken the pilots union.
While the company claimed that they could not afford to live up to its agreement they were willing to lose a far greater amount in order to show its pilots that it did not have to live up to the agreement and could violate it at will. And, that if the pilots did the same the government would stop them. If unions are stripped of their ability to effectively enforce collective bargaining agreements in a timely manner then they will eventually cease to exist. Without enforcement collective bargaining agreements are thereby rendered useless. Our government aided the company at every turn; they claimed that they were not taking sides. They claimed that they were acting in the “publics” interests. Over the years we have seen how the “publics” interests are only considered when their interests coincide with “corporate” interests.
The company has not singled out the pilots contract for violation. It violates other contracts as well. Those of us in the TWU saw a perfect example back in 1997 during the pilots strike. The company had decided that because they could not get concessions from its pilots that they would shut down the airline. They also decided that they would no longer have to live up to its agreements with other workers. In the event of a strike the company still would have had to keep a certain amount of mechanics on duty to maintain the aircraft. Obviously there would have been layoffs. We have language that covers how layoffs are carried out. They are done on a seniority basis. The company decided that it would be “too inconvenient” for them to comply and decided that they would just layoff without regard to seniority. While it end up being cancelled due to Presidential intervention it revealed to us (or should have) that this management has no intention of complying with its agreements when it doesn’t suit them.
As we can see, the government unevenly enforces contracts. Its only when we look back to the eighties that we can see how obviously biased our government has been when it comes to airlines labor disputes. The first example we will cite is Continental Airlines.
Frank Lorenzo had purchased Continental Airlines by means of a hostile takeover. Prior to the acquisition Continental was in about the same financial shape as any of the other carriers during the severe recession that had taken hold as a result of Reaganomics. The future of the airline was however, sound. It had survived economic cycles before. The acquisition however saddled the company with a huge debt. A debt that did nothing for the airline or its employees. A debt incurred not through investment in the company but instead to high interest junk bonds. This was a divestment as far as the airline was considered. In order to pay this debt to the purchasers of Continental, Lorenzo demanded a 50% pay cut from his workers.
The first to be fleeced were the IAM represented workers. Lorenzo made his demands and refused to negotiate and called for the NMB to declare an impasse. They promptly obliged. This was highly irregular and the IAMs request for mediation was denied. The government claimed that even though this was obviously going to lead to a strike and thousands of stranded passengers that the market must be allowed to run its course. If the “hard working people” of the country were going to be inconvenienced, well, that’s the price we pay for a free society. Due to the severe economic conditions and the fact that unemployment, particularly for airline workers was very high and Reagan had given the green light for union busting and scabitry the IAM strike was destined to fail. Lorenzo got his way. He busted the union and cut pay by 50% to the joy of the business community and Ronald Reagan.
The pilots however were going to be a harder nut to crack. The pilots willingly crossed the IAM picket line because they felt that they were safe.
They had a contract that was good for an additional couple of years. They misjudged the power of the combined forces of industry and the government.
The government allowed Continental to declare bankruptcy, thereby voiding its contract with the pilots. Lorenzo declared the contact void and offered the same to his pilots as the Machinists. You can have a job, but a half pay. Even though the RLA has provisions and language to protect workers from such things the government chose not to do so.
Following the disasters at Continental the whole industry went into a feeding frenzy on its employees. Huge concessions were won. Workers knew that they were in a vulnerable position and after witnessing Continental they were not willing to take a chance and fight back. They knew that the government was also against them and the AFL-CIO, their only hope, under the pitiful leadership of Lane Kirkland was not about to take on the president.
The press painted Reagan as an American Hero and the Hollywood machine made him larger than life. Playing his greatest role ever this B actor enamored the population to his voodoo economics based upon the concentration of wealth and the assertion that once the rich get enough it will “trickle down” to the rest of us. It was the greatest sales pitch ever. Within 10 years the combined forces of government and capital were able to reverse the progress of the previous 50 years. They were able to do so with our consent.
Like children following pied piper we willingly went to our doom because their sweet tunes pleased our ears.
The next challenge came at EAL. The economy had rebounded by then and the supply of mechanics had diminished considerably as the airlines rapidly expanded and many who had been displaced earlier found less demanding jobs in other industries. Labor was now in a slightly better position, both politically and economically. Lorenzo followed the same tactics, however the workers stood together this time. Once again the government came to the aid of industry. They forbid the machinists from picketing the railroads. This secondary picketing was allowed under the RLA in an attempt to show that the act was fair. Unfortunately a judge’s injunction supersedes the law and renders this so called right useless. In the end EAL ended in a draw. The workers lost their jobs and the investors lost some of their investment.
The 90s saw further consolidation of the industry. This led to more uncertainty for workers and the airlines continued to win concessions. The few times that labor fought back and appeared to be headed for success the government intervened. First the American Airlines flight attendants, then the pilots.
That brings us up to today. After 20 years of concessions the airlines have successfully created a shortage of labor. This shortage is most acute among the pilots and mechanics. While the pilots had been able to recover most of their losses through the 90s the mechanics did not. Their economic slide was in fact greater in the 90s than the eighties. The shortage has put mechanics in a position where they can fully restore their wages to a level that they once enjoyed. The airlines are not likely to just allow us to get back what they have taken from us. If we go on strike we know that they cant get enough trained people to replace us. In fact we can’t even accomplish all the work we have now. For that reason the government will not allow us to strike. President Bush has already stated that he will not allow us to strike. That he will use the full force of his office to prevent us from obtaining the maximum value of our most valuable asset. OUR LABOR.
Justice and legality are not interchangeable terms. Justice is the principle of moral rightness. Legality has no moral basis, only a statutory one. If the authors of the law have unjust motives then the law will be legal, but not necessarily “Just”. Are we “Just” to use the fact that the market favors our restoration? Is it “Just” that the legal system that refused to protect us from the market forces of twenty years ago now protects those who benefited from our loss, from those same market forces?
One thing is clear. Not much has changed when it comes to the struggle between Justice and greed. On one side we have people who are trying to take care of their families, willing to work, willing to be fair, just trying to survive, on the other side you have those who have more than they will ever need, but yet still cant get enough, they make the rules but change them as they see fit. Under these conditions there is no way we can achieve Justice.
As long as the masters know that we will comply with what is legal, even when it is unjust we deserve to be slaves. As long as we limit ourselves to legal means we must be prepared to accept failure.
What can we do? Well first we can tell our leaders that we will no longer be bound by legality, only by what is Just. We must tell our leaders that in answer to the Presidents decision to legally inflict injustice they must inform the government that leaves us no alternative other than withholding our labor. From Hawaii to Maine, every union worker will walk off the job and the nations air transport system will cease to operate. We should start our General Strike in honor of the founders of our nation the week of July 4th. While it may not be legal it will most certainly be just for us to carry out the first ever General Strike in our nations Air Transport industry. If the government responds by using economic terrorism in the form of fines against our unions we should remain out of work until the fines are removed. Our demand will be simple. Allow the market to determine our wages without government interference. Just as they did in the eighties. Allow us to use the same market forces that the airlines used to drive our wages down, back up.
Bob Owens
