Meanwhile, in another terminal, the same two unions objecting in tandem to the Delta elections are locked in a blood match over the flight attendants of newly merged United Continental. The Machinists union (IAM) represented 8,000 Continental attendants while 13,000 United attendants were represented by the AFA-CWA. The new airline is still operating as two separate carriers awaiting go-ahead from the FAA but the NMB election to determine flight attendant representation is already underway (voting ends June 29) and bringing out the worst in both unions, not to mention enough hypocritical hot air to make even Andy Stern blush.
In one of the latest dust-ups, the IAM objected to the AFA instructing its supporters to notify the union after they voted, presumably so the AFA could tout how well things were going for them. In a letter dated May 19, IAM VP Robert Roach wrote, “How a Flight Attendant votes is a personal choice, and directing someone to reveal how they voted is a flagrant form of intimidation…Flight Attendants are guaranteed by law that their votes are confidential. They should only reveal how or if they voted if they freely choose to do so.”
So, it would appear the Machinists Union, champion of the Employee Free Choice Act, is accusing another union of voter intimidation, which EFCA supporters would have us all believe is the exclusive province of bosses, union busters and other corporate evildoers. And what’s this? Directing someone to reveal his or her loyalties is flagrantly intimidating? Is that also true when one is home alone with a union organizer, a pen and a card?
Meanwhile, the AFA has accused the IAM of “underhanded dirty tricks” in gaining a video endorsement from a delegation of Japanese union representatives. “It is shameful that the Machinists would be so deceitful as to try to trick a sister union… This example may be applied to every single IAM mailing or communication in circulation… For anyone who may have taken the IAM at their word in any other instance – apply this example and then ask questions to get the facts. You cannot count on truth from the IAM. “
But apparently you can trust a pile of signed IAM authorization cards.
