BY LARRY LANE
SAN FRANCISCO - Supporters of the Aircraft Mechanics
Fraternal Association (AMFA) leafleted entry gates at the
United Airlines Maintenance Operation Center here October 12.
AMFA is a company-minded outfit that is campaigning at United
and Northwest Airlines to split mechanics away from the
International Association of Machinists (IAM).
They distributed a leaflet entitled "Official Declaration," which proclaimed, "The 1998 United Airlines campaign for the Mechanics and Related to obtain freedom through independent union representation is officially on." The leaflet, signed by AMFA national treasurer Steve Kadziulis, points to a "large quantity of signed Authorization for Representation cards already submitted," and lists arguments why mechanics at United Airlines should join AMFA.
This campaign at United Airlines, as well as an October 16 representation vote by mechanics and cleaners at Northwest Airlines on whether to join AMFA, has started a discussion among IAM members here about the role of a company-oriented grouping like AMFA. More workers are starting to question AMFA's motives.
AMFA seeks to separate the aircraft mechanics into a separate "union" from members of the IAM who work on the ramp, and in the kitchen, stores, and customer service.
After years of not seriously fighting AMFA's union busting, IAM officials recently published two articles in the IAM District 141 Messenger opposing AMFA. IAM District 141 includes all IAM members working for United Airlines, U.S. Airways, and some smaller airlines.
One article explains that the IAM officials are dividing the district that all members at Northwest had belonged to into separate districts by job classifications. It quotes IAM International President Thomas Buffenbarger as saying "it is time to turn up the heat on this phony group," referring to AMFA's campaign at Northwest.
Another article by District 141 president Kenneth Thiede talks disparagingly of the contract that AMFA negotiated at a small carrier called Atlantic Coast Airlines.
Union-busting logic
AMFA claims that since mechanics are highly skilled and
trained professionals, they should bargain with the employers
by themselves to get the best contracts. On AMFA's web page,
called "The Mechanic," an article by mechanic Steven Carey
states, "In the past when unskilled industrial workers were
unorganized, the Industrial Union offered a very positive
alternative to the exploitation that they labored under.
However, the skilled workers, once they were captured by these
huge groups, served only as juicy bargaining chips to elevate
the conditions of the unskilled workers beyond what they could
normally achieve by virtue of market value."
Nowhere in AMFA literature can one find any criticism of the employers - that they are to blame for low pay, poor training, and lack of safety.
At United Airlines Maintenance base in San Francisco, a leaflet by Scott Williams, who identifies himself as a concerned mechanic and a strong supporter of AMFA "seeking to keep his dignity and honor intact," writes that " We are not machinists." In this he argues that machinists ("one who is skilled in operating machine tools") is not a mechanic ("a worker skilled in the making, using, or repairing of machines, vehicles and tools").
Williams argues that machinists, because they don't have Airframe and Power Plant (A&P) licenses and are supposedly easily trained, really belong in the ramp service, storekeeper, and cleaner classification. He says, "A&P mechanics need their own elite union, and they need it now. Without a bunch of unskilled machinists riding on our coat tails." By this logic, welders, platers, electricians, millwrights, and building maintenance workers could also be split from the bargaining unit. This is not union building. It is union busting - fracturing workers into competing groups that would be at the mercy of the employers, their government, courts, and banks.
AMFA undermines fights against boss
AMFA has a long history of showing up when workers are in a
fight with the bosses. This was the case in the Machinists
strike at Eastern Airlines in 1989-91. AMFA did not support the
strike, but sought to split off a layer of workers at the Trump
Shuttle from supporting the strike.
This year, as pilots waged a successful strike at Northwest Airlines and IAM members there overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract, AMFA petitioned for a representation election. This gave Northwest management the pretext to break off contract negotiations with the IAM, which represents 27,000 ground employees.
Within a week of the vote by 19,000 United Airlines customer service workers to join the IAM, the largest union organizing victory in the United States in 20 years, AMFA kicked off a campaign to sign up mechanics for a decertification vote.
There are other examples in the San Francisco Bay Area of groups who use similar union-busting tactics. One such outfit, called the "Coastal Berry Workers Committee," forced an election in July to represent the workers at the largest strawberry producer in California, Coastal Berry Co., by intimidating workers to sign cards for it. This company- inspired campaign took place in the context of a nationally known United Farm Workers (UFW) drive to organize the strawberry industry in California.
This fake union portrayed the UFW as a bunch of greedy bureaucrats who are forcing workers to pay dues to support the officials' opulent lifestyle, similar to a lot of AMFA's propaganda against the IAM. Their pro-company campaign included thug violence in which farm workers who supported the union and UFW organizers were beaten and driven from the fields.
Since then, UFW supporters have had to continue defending themselves against attacks from the bosses and the fake union. The UFW is challenging the representation election, arguing that the Coastal Berry Workers Committee is not a union.
Another attack has been against the members of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Local 2, who are trying to organize the large Marriott Hotel in downtown San Francisco. The hotel workers won a majority in a representation election two years ago, but Marriott management has not signed a contract with the union. There are biweekly mass pickets and boisterous rallies in front of the hotel, which are a focus for the labor movement in San Francisco.
Last November a group calling itself Associates for a United Marriott made its debut. The San Francisco Bay Guardian reported that the group held a reception November 14 at the building where Marriott's lawyer has his office. They reported that the following day petitions began circulating in the hotel to decertify Local 2 and on December 30 they filed with the National Labor Relations Board for an election. That petition is on hold, pending the outcome of charges by HERE of Marriott's involvement in the pseudo union.
Discussion among United workers
The decision by the IAM officials to divide the workers at
Northwest into separate districts, one for mechanics and the
other for the rest of the ground workers, gives credence to
AMFA's claim that mechanics will be better off separate from
the rest of the workforce. It weakens workers' unity just when
we need to stand together against the company's attacks and
AMFA's operation.
On the ramp at San Francisco International Airport, the discussion over the AMFA campaign is just beginning. Ramp service worker Dwight Kacher stated: "The mechanics who are for AMFA don't understand that management is trying to bust all of us. We shouldn't think short term. We should stick together because we're stronger together."
Another ramp worker, Christopher Korp, commented that AMFA supporters "believe that the ramp is holding them back because they are lumped in with us unskilled workers, even though the sheer numbers is the only thing that will help them in the coming labor battles.... There are at least three schools in the Bay Area alone that are training people to be aircraft mechanics. They are just as disposable as rampers. We all need each other to be a good fighting unit."
AMFA's brand of union busting also must be explained within the context of the larger events in the world. Deep economic uncertainty and the declining rate of profit have led corporations to attack the living standard of millions of workers over the last two decades. There have been take backs, layoffs, and the loss of democratic rights.
The years-long retreat of the working class in face of this offensive has come to an end. Over the last two years, strikes at UPS (United Parcel Service), General Motors, Caterpillar Corp., several regional phone companies, and the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, as well as the Northwest pilot's strike, the IAM contract rejection at Northwest, and the IAM organizing victory at United all show that workers more and more are deciding to fight for their interest against the bosses' profit drive.
AMFA and its ilk attempt to short circuit this process and strengthen the employers' hand in these struggles.
Larry Lane is a machinist and a member of IAM Local 1781 at United Airlines.