Playing Outside the Lines

By Bob Lemire, NWA

  Somewhere between the  union busting consulting firms that are flourishing in the Bush period, and the AFL-CIO organized unions lies the so-called independent craft specific associations.  These are the core groups of individuals that for a variety of reasons are dissatisfied with the collective bargaining unit they happen to be involved with, or not involved with as the case may be, and seek remedies in other directions. They view organized labor as old school and ineffective in this modern era.

Their argument  is pretty much the same from group to group and that is general dissatisfaction with representation, with contract specifics, and what they claim is a lack of democracy in the day to day operations. It is the belief of some union members that by splitting away from other employee groups they will become more valuable in the eyes of the company. They are willing to ignore the fact the very same corporations are consolidating and forming alliances and collations for strength and security. This dedicated core group makes their argument to the 60 to 70% of the employees who care little or  nothing about  union membership and involvement and wish only to punch in, do their job and punch out period caring little about how things are run as long as the pay check is there. This apathy coupled with the dogged  campaign waged by the dissidents leads to the ousting of the established union.

In the short term these associations flourish but it remains to be seen if they are able to stand the test of time. Take Northwest Airlines for  one instance, here the IAM was ousted by the independent AMFA on the promise of higher wages, democracy in the workplace, and freedom from the rigid rules and regulations of the old guard AFL-CIO union. After months of protracted negotiations the association did produce a significant pay raise, but what was the cost? In the course of the negotiations the association  trashed years of language modifying agreements saving the corporation literally millions of dollars in work rules. Their inexperience in negotiations and representation lead to what is in effect a bid freeze on jobs. The association in a effort to stem the outsourcing of bargaining unit work negotiated a “farm out cap.” However their  willingness to make deals that benefit the corporations caused them to settle for an unenforceable 38%  outsource cap. To date, and largely due to outsourcing, the association membership at Northwest Airlines has fallen from 10,500 + or -  when the association took over representation, to under 4500 today. The same job loss scenario is taking place at Alaska Airlines and is about to take place at United Airlines.

Going forward  many labor observers feel that the inexperience coupled with the isolation will cause the associations to lose favor with the members they represent. Setting up shop outside the house of labor  allows the associations to play fast and loose with the established rules of operation. In the case of the AMFA the National Director with the blessing of a hand picked executive council outsourced the entire operation of the association , financial and administrative, to an outside for profit group. Flying in the face of the democracy preached by the leadership a National Administrator from outside the association was appointed and the membership was never consulted. It is behavior such as this coupled with the inability  or unwillingness to enforce the simplest of contract provisions, the inability or unwillingness to file and peruse grievances, the inability or unwillingness to arbitrate the majority of serious discipline grievances  that will eventually lead to the downfall of these splinter groups. Many clichés apply not the least of which is “the grass is always greener”. However after playing outside the lines for nearly six years I can tell you first hand, with the AMFA at NWA the association “grass” is thin and brown.