"Northwest Airlines has conspired with the Bush Administration"

[Bluebear]

http://www.ilwu.org/longshore/upload/amfa_memo.PDF

ILWU Locals, IBU Regions, Auxiliaries and Pension Clubs asking "all ILWU members to do everything in their power" to help the mechanics, custodians and cleaners of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association 25 Aug 2005....

As many of you know, the mechanics, custodians and cleaners of the AMFA are on strike against Northwest Airlines over contract differences. The employer is demanding major concessions from the union that are completely unacceptable and should be to any Union....NORTHWEST HAS CONSULTED AND CONSPIRED WITH THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION AGAINST THE UNION IN PREPARATION. I ask all ILWU members to do everything in their power to help these workers in struggle as if it were your own.

[Bluebear]

1. .

[KitchenWitch]

2. Kicking this one. HARD

The executives at NWA are pure evil and need to be stopped. They fuck their employees, they have repeatedly fucked taxpayers in Minnesota...Fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

[KitchenWitch]

3. Kicking again

This is also important...collusion to bring down a union is reprehensible.

[WCGreen]

4. What do ytou mena one Union....

They are after tehm all.....

Kik HArd

[KitchenWitch]

5. True

The AMFA is the latest...they got concessions out of the pilots...the flight attendants are next.

[WCGreen]

6. they won't stop until every person outside of their

small circle of Uber capitalists are left to fend for themselves

[Bluebear]

10. You speak the truth. n/t

[sunnystarr]

16. The flight attendants didn't even back the mechanics

Wait until their heads are on the chopping block. Maybe it's time for every union to join the strike in solidarity.

[Bluebear]

22. They are definitely next unfortunately. nt

[annabanana]

7. NWA is despicable.. Couldn't believe what they're trying

to do. It's the workforce cutting that makes it 100% clear that union-busting is their intent.

[converted_democrat]

23. Kick, cause I agree with Annabanana....n/t

[LincolnMcGrath]

8. Solidarity Kick

[ClintonTyree]

9. Northwest is on it's way.........

to bankruptcy. The way they handled this, bringing in scab mechanics etc. and refusing to budge is just plain wrong. Public confidence is everything to an Airline Company. NW has very little public confidence right now, I know I don't want to fly on an airline with a bunch of scab labor working on the planes. NW is asking for MORE trouble if you ask me, and it's only a matter of time before they get it. One crash or life threatening incident and the entire ballgame is over for them.
Idiots, all. And conspiring with the bushistas makes it even worse, these evil bastards want to have a hand in everything that brings this country to the ground.
Boycott Northwestern!

[southernleftylady]

11. ugh... im a northwest filight attendant who just got back from being laid

off.. ugh.. i hate bush

[Tesla]

12. Do you want disgruntled employees at an airline company??

I mean, .....FLYING!!!!

[Southpaw Bookworm]

15. Where are you based?

My good friend is a NWA flight attendant as well. He was called back about a year ago.

[southernleftylady]

18. memphis

[ewagner]

26. I have nothing but praise

for the NW flight attendants ... especially the ones operating out of Memphis...NW REGULARLY overbooks the flights and by the time the flight actually departs there are a bunch or reeeeeaaaaaallllyyy cranky passengers on board the RJs....they were very gracious to me even when I was trying hard to be the biggest a-hole on the plane (it was a SAAB between Memphis and Tallahassee)...the lady was totally disarming and I found myself being nice in spite of myself.:hi:

That doen't change, however,the fact that NW Management is disgusting in what they're trying to do to the mechanic....

[Bluebear]

29. And those aren't even Northwest flight attendants!

Rather, those employees work for "regional airlines". In 1993 the Northwest flight attendants represented by the Teamsters gave wage and benefit concessions to the company to "save" the airline. In return, they received stocks for a guaranteed sale price WHICH THE COMPANY REFUSES TO HONOR NOW.

Moreover, the company took part of those wage concessions, bought those RJ's and are leasing them to the feeder airlines which are using cut-rate employees not on the Northwest Airlines flight attendant seniority list.

[ewagner]

30. Sorry...

the story is still true .....but I actuallly didn't know they weren't NW employees....

[Bluebear]

31. Nothing to be sorry about!

They are hardworking folks as well, just piecing another part of the puzzle for you :)

[Southpaw Bookworm]

32. He's out of Detroit

Actually lives in WV and commutes

[Vinca]

13. They want to kill the unions, pure and simple.

Remember Reagan and the air traffic controllers? The goal is to turn high paying jobs into slave labor, preferably without health insurance.

[Goldeneye]

14. .

[Bluebear]

33. .

[Puglover]

17. How many of you folks work for NWA?

I do. And I belong to the IAM. They've asked us for 2 percent plus some work rule concessions. Oh and Bluebear. Please provide some links that show where NWA has "consulted and conspired with the Bush administration" rather then this hyperbolic crap.

[Bluebear]

20. Quite a few people here work for NWA.

And it's not my duty to provide you with a link, I didn't make the assertion. Ask the original referring page.

P.S. Who is the current secretary of Labor and what board did she sit on until being appointed by Bush?

Oh and puglover, just curious, why do you suppose they haven't hired replacement workers for IAM...yet?

[Puglover]

36. Well Bluebear

one of the reasons (see my post below) that NWA hasn't hired replacements for the IAM is that the IAM hasn't agreed to let them OUTSOURCE 38 percent of the jobs as AMFA did thus screwing their own junior people for the big bucks.
Yeah yeah yeah...Walter Mondale has sat on the board too. What grand conspiracy do you suppose that was tied too?
Again you think AMFA is all cozy in solidarity?
www.amfanuts.com
Also, who do you think most of the replacement workers are? Former AMFA people that AMFA fucked over in the 1st contract.

[Puglover]

19. Once again....

AMFA signed a contract with the company with a 26 percent pay raise 3 years ago.

When they signed it they also agreed to 38 PERCENT farmed out work thus SCREWING the lower 38 percent of their own union members. What do YOU think a company would do with that kind of language in a contract?

I'm not saying that the execs at NWA are pure as the driven snow far from it but once again this isn't a black and white situation and it really pisses me off when people who don't have a clue about what is happening at NWA post this stuff.

[Bluebear]

21. Why do you think you are the only one with knowledge of NWA?

Just wondering.

[Puglover]

35. I certainly don't think that Bluebear.

But you keep posting this crap and have yet to provide any facts about it other then, "Northwest is going to break all their unions." And on and on and on and on. Give me some facts and I'll respond in kind.
Again....do YOU work for NWA? Do YOU know the local presidents of TWU? IAM? PIFFA? I do. Have you been punching the clock at NWA for 27 years? I have.
I think I may have a wee bit more reality and fact based knowledge of just what's happening with MY company then you do.

[Bluebear]

37. I have exactly the same reality and fact based knowledge that you do

In fact I think I have a wee bit more concept of reality since you seem to want to defend management and their total disregard of labor as anything else but a liability and anything else posted is "crap".

[Puglover]

38. Again, no facts, just ad hominen attacks....

man, I bet you're a lousy poker player. You seem to be the type that would sit with a pair of dueces and jut your jaw and and thing that's enough to win when the smart thing to do would be to fold and wait for another hand. And that's what AMFA should have done. But thanks to their arrogance and short sightedness those poor folks are out of a job possibly for good. And you like AMFA don't get it.
I should show your post to my managers. They'd get a kick out of your notion that I sympathize with them.
Now Bluebear, as Barbara Bush said to Al Franken.
"I'm though with you!"

on edit add body of message

[Bluebear]

39. Don't you have an LSE flight to see off down at the G gates?

[Bluebear]

24. NWA strike a "BLOW TO LABOR"

NEW YORK - Northwest Airlines Corp.'s success in keeping its planes flying even after its mechanics walked off the job early Saturday could embolden other companies to play hardball with their unions.

While the No. 4 U.S. carrier could still hit turbulence in the coming weeks, it has so far effectively used replacement workers and third-party contractors to replace some 4,400 striking mechanics, cleaners and custodians.

Its apparent success could send tremors through other unions at Northwest, its beleaguered airline rivals and even other U.S. corporations, further weakening the organized labor movement.

"American employers, looking at this, can be very much emboldened," said Gary Chaison, a professor at Clark University. "They will think that if they see such a situation, they can regain the offensive in bargaining."

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9043611/

[hang a left]

28. This is exactly what Vons, Ralphs, and Albertson's did in California.

They wouldn't come to the table, they locked out workers, they hired replacement workers at 1/3 to 1/2 of the pay the union workers were receiving with less health benefits. Eventually after they starved the grocery workers out. When they finally reached a deal it was only for the tenured workers. It went on so long many employees were forced to get other work and did. My local market is full of new people that I haven't known for years and years.

IMO they took their lead from the supermarket strike here.

[walldude]

25. It's all part of the class war they are waging.

Trying to turn us all into slaves. And the fuckers are succeeding. Maybe thats what it is going to take. A national strike. We have one advantage over the ruling class. They can't do anything for themselves. They can't cook, clean, build, repair, refine, or create anything. They are however good at lying, cheating, stealing, and most importantly crunching numbers...

[obxhead]

27. kick

[Nothing Without Hope]

34. The WalMarting of the Airlines - squeeze every penny out of employees and

producers, do everything you can to undermine unions, reduce benefits, and generally screw over EVERYONE except those at the top of the corporate ladder.

America, this is NOT "good business." This is, in fact, ANTI-business in the sense of support of a healthy, responsible company. Squeezing out more profits doesn't work past a point. And that point has been passed.