TTD President Ed Wytkind
We have come to expect that corporations will do whatever they can to borrow from Wal-Mart’s low-road, anti-union playbook. You know that playbook: low wages, lousy health care and paltry retirement benefits, if any.
But we did not expect American Airlines, with its mature collective bargaining relationships with several unions, to use these same tactics to avoid unionization by its passenger service employees. Read more about AMR’s tactics by checking out my Huffington Post piece.
The 9,600 passenger service workers at American are going through the pain and agony of a bankruptcy with all the uncertainty and fear that bankruptcies bring. The threat of job cuts, reduced benefits, outsourcing and part-timing. And even worse, these employees are fending for themselves without a union voice.
These workers have a chance and a right to change that. They filed for an election late last year to be represented by the Communications Workers of America (@CWAUnion). The National Mediation Board (NMB) ordered an election in May. There’s only one problem: American won’t hand over the employee mailing list to the NMB in complete defiance of the law. It has even filed suit to block the election.
Why? Because the airline believes it can run out the clock and stymie the election. The company should be ashamed of itself. This is unbecoming of a company so intertwined with the airline industry’s history of providing opportunities not just for any job, but for middle-class careers.
Join me in telling @AmericanAir to stop stonewalling. Join me in telling @AmericanAir to comply with the law and hand over the employee list. The passenger service employees at American have the right to decide if they want a union — American management has no right to interfere with their decision by gaming our federal laws and rules.
– Ed Wytkind
Twitter: @EdWytkind