BY ARLENE RUBINSTEIN AND MARY MARTIN
"The company is the winner," said Terry Tindall, a machinist
at Northwest's Atlanta maintenance base, when he learned that
the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) had
defeated the International Association of Machinists (IAM) in a
decertification vote. Northwest is the fourth-largest U.S.
airline. As a result of the election, 9,500 mechanics,
cleaners, and custodians now have the pro-company outfit AMFA
as their representative, while 17,000 ramp workers, customer
service workers, and others remain in the IAM.
According to the National Mediation Board (NMB), the government agency that supervised the November 20 vote count, the final tally was 5,160 for AMFA and 3,905 for the IAM, with 96 percent of eligible workers participating in the election. The IAM has challenged the results of the election. The NMB must investigate and rule on the IAM's challenge before certifying the vote. AMFA was defeated in three previous attempts to represent mechanics at Northwest. Its success this time is its biggest victory to date. Until now, AMFA's membership has consisted of barely 1,000 mechanics and cleaners at Alaska Airlines, Atlantic Coast Airlines, and Mesaba Airlines.
Tindall's reaction has been one response among Northwest workers. Other workers are describing the AMFA victory as a vote against corruption, and for something radically different - a "can-do," "grassroots" organization that can get the job done. A November 21 article in the Minneapolis Star- Tribune compared the AMFA win to the victory by the Reform Party candidate Jesse Ventura for governor of Minnesota.
AMFA's victory is a blow to unionism and to all workers at Northwest who are fighting for a contract. It gives the Northwest bosses greater leeway to implement layoffs, job combinations, and work rules changes for the 9,500 affected workers. While the pilots at Northwest won a favorable contract settlement to their strike in September, the majority of unionized workers at Northwest, including flight attendants, ticket agents, mechanics, ramp workers, cleaners, and stores agents, have been working under expired contracts since 1996. Members of the Machinists union overwhelmingly rejected the company's contract offer in July.
AMFA has a long history of preying on workers who are in a fight with their bosses, and becoming an obstacle to workers' advancing in their fight. AMFA is currently seeking to decertify the IAM or other unions and win the representation of mechanics at American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and US Airways. AMFA is also distributing authorization cards to nonunion Federal Express and Delta Airlines aircraft mechanics.
In a November 21 statement, issued the day after the ballots were counted, AMFA announced to workers that it will work on the company's terms. "We know a lot of you are skeptical and believe the only way to deal with NWA is to fight them. The Company knows what we can do to harm their business. They also know that we are some of the most talented and productive people in the business. We believe we owe it to ourselves and NWA to give this opportunity a fair chance to see if we can figure out a better way to run an airline."
The statement also rejects the successful "work safe" or "work-to-rule" campaign, that machinists, pilots, and flight attendants employed this spring to press their contract demands. Then, workers refused to take unsafe shortcuts or succumb to speed-up pressures at work to solve the company's problems of chronic understaffing related to its competitive drive for profit. Northwest was then forced to canceled or delayed flights, costing the company $60 million dollars in the month of June alone.
According to the AMFA statement, " `Working Safe' is something we should do everyday, not just when we are trying to negotiate a contract. So please continue to work safe, but with the intent of being as productive and efficient as you are capable of. Morale and productivity have been on the rise for a few months now. This is the direction we need to pursue."
As they gathered around a bulletin board at Northwest's Atlanta DC-9 maintenance base, AMFA supporters expressed agreement with the statement, saying workers who don't work hard should be fired.
Cleaners at Northwest's Washington National Airport station received the news of AMFA's win with apprehension over the future of their jobs. One of them was Maurice Myton, who commented, "With the uncertainty of AMFA, we don't know where we stand. We could lose benefits, jobs."
Supporters of the IAM at the Atlanta maintenance base are discussing why the Machinists lost the election. "This was a defeat. I wasn't surprised - there were too many people out there talking up AMFA. But unfortunately, the IAM shares some of the blame. The union leaders did not draw a clear enough line between the IAM and AMFA," said Tindall. "The IAM let AMFA seem like it was for change, while IAM remained the status quo. When the IAM takes on the Black rights questions, the human rights questions, it won't lose."
IAM officials maneuvered to try to match AMFA's promise of a separate, elite organization for mechanics by setting up a separate IAM district for the mechanics, custodians and cleaners, instead of leading a fight against AMFA's pro-company union busting centered on the need to strengthen and unify the union ranks in face of the employers onslaught. Had the IAM won the representation vote, the mechanics district was to have been set up in December of 1998. This move drew substantial fire from within the ranks of IAM District 143 members and signaled to the union tops the confidence within the ranks to take AMFA on.
"When I heard them celebrating and saying `We're free now,' I really had to laugh," said Thereatha Hill, an aircraft cleaner at the Atlanta hangar. "How can you say you're free, when the struggle is just beginning. The relations here are going to be different now. We're out on a limb. Something the worker's need is gone - the union."
Workers at Northwest are beginning to discuss how to respond to this blow.
Mary Martin is a member of IAM Local 1759 on the ramp at Washington National Airport. Arlene Rubinstein is a member of IAM, Local 2655 aircraft cleaner in Atlanta.