Can the afa-CWA Really Deliver?

DOUBTFUL

The Association of Flight Attendants - Communication Workers of America ("afa-CWA") is promising us the "dignity and respect" of a contract.  It says that it can protect you from management.  It says that it can improve your lives and give you safety and security.  We have compiled a few comments from flight attendants already represented by the afa-CWA. 

Mesaba

These comments were by a Mesaba flight attendant.  Mesaba is a smaller carrier similar to Frontier in size and importance to the afa-CWA.  This is what  the Mesaba Flight attendant thought about afa-CWA representation:

Post One

We at Mesaba have a tentative agreement reached 2-15 by the AFA. They have been negotiating for almost 2 yrs. A lot of people think its a crappy contract (me included) Pay raise is a dollar which leaves us with about 30 bux a month extra after dues and taxes. Also the majority of the contract is what our manual says, just now put in writing so they have to enforce it. MEC is supporting it, b/c they are all tired of negotiating and AFA is tired of not getting paid.

The company wants to get it done, b/c NWA said no CRJs till our and the Pilots contracts are done and they don't want to deal with both of us at the same time (pilots contract is up in June)
Personally I think they [AFA] are a bunch of crap and I hope it gets voted down and we get them out. The Teamsters may be a bunch of mobsters, but they get stuff done.

Post Two

By the way unions go, AFA is probably pretty good. I'm just not happy with how they represent smaller airlines. We have had a tentative agreement since 2-15 (which i think is CRAP) and they haven't mentioned it on their main page yet. It seems like AFA is ruled/controlled by United. Delta is getting a lot of news right now b/c AFA was voted down with them.
Like I said before its a Money game. United has sooo many thousands of FA's that it seems they are going to fight harder for them. With us, they wanted to hurry up and get something done so they could start getting money from us. This I don't agree with. Then they are telling us that if we don't sign this contract we will lose everything and won't get any thing better. The pay alone for anyone thats been here is a joke. We haven't received a cost of living in over 2 years (rampies non-union have gotten 19%) and when we started negotiations they pulled our bonuses. And they want to give us a dollar and tell us its great? I don't think so. An extra $30 dollars a month ($75 gurantee-40 for dues -5 for taxes) is pure crap after getting nothing for over 2 years.
I agree with the Union but I think they need to fight for the little guy more, even if they don't get as much money b/c that's what they are there for.

Another thing to consider, once AFA was voted in at our company, all of our performance bonuses halted, no raises no nothing. We haven't got a thing since we started negotiating and things have actually got worse, b/c we have nothing but our manual to go by, and they don't even follow that, b/c "we don't have a contract"
It took almost 2 years for our small airline to reach a tentative agreement( WHICH IS CRAP)
Imagine how long it would take at DAL
I don't know what kind of raises/bonuses you guys get or other benefits, but you better believe most of that would get yanked as soon as AFA was voted in.

Read this thread for yourself

Midway

The afa-CWA says that it will protect you.  Midway airlines went bankrupt after 9/11.  When the Federal Government came forward with the bail-out money, Midway restarted.  Here what one flight attendant said about how the AFA protected them:

I can verify that Midway is recalling flight attendants based on criteria other than seniority. In fact, the local LEC president is number 6 on the seniority list and has not been recalled; the secretary is number 39, and both number 38 and number 40 were recalled. The inflight department at Midway has notified the elected reps from AFA in writing that they will not honor the tentative agreement regarding furlough and recall, and has also stated that they are not willing to resume mediation which was asked for prior to the ch. 11 filing. IMHO, this is blatent union busting tactics, and I feel that any flight attendant who accepts a recall position at Midway out of seniority order is no better than someone who crosses a picket line. For the record, all flight attendants at Midway were qualified on all types of a/c that Midway flew, including the 737.

Read this thread for yourself.

United Airlines

Even at UAL, flight attendants are not happy with afa-CWA representation.  There is one group at UAL that wants to decertify the afa-CWA and start their own independent union, the United Flight Attendant's Union.  Visit the UFAU website information about just how popular the AFA is with UAL members.  Here is what one UAL flight attendant said:

I don't know if there are any f/a's at UAL, myself included, who can say they actually support AFA 100% muchless respect them. I am flying for over 10 years and found out AFA's true colors a while ago. If you need AFA's help, GOD help you.

They are an antiquated system that is in it for themselves and themselves only. Our $39 goes towards what? In all my years of flying I have yet to receive a statement of what my dues ($39 x 12 months) goes to. No one can actually account for it. It is the biggest sham going. At at UAL you better believe that AFA sleeps with Management. AFA is working for "their" best interest not ours. It's sad and it's going to take some time to get rid of them.

All I can say is Delta Flight Attendants, you don't know how smart you are to have voted AGAINST AFA. Bravo to you. Believe me, you will come out on top by not letting them destroy all you have and will have.

All I can say is UAL Pilots 40% raise, UAL mechanics 40% raise both have five year contracts -- AFA represented flight attendants --
10 year contract - 0% raise. Oh I am sorry, I think it worked out to a 2% raise over the 10 years.

Did I ever say THANK YOU AFA?

Need I say anymore?

Another United Flight Attendant

Here is what another UAL flight attendant said:

my take on this. I am greatly moved what happened to the world on sept 11th but I am trying to forget and move on as I had friends involved in the crash. Each week I get mail from AFA "using" the united Flight Attendants involved in the crash to raise Money when I found out that not ONE family of the victims has received a check from AFA yet. I know AFA does not give a crap about Flight Attendants as all we are to them is $39.00 a month. AFA is a multi million dollar business now not even a union. And getting these manipulating mail using innocent victims pictures to "REFRESH" our memories and playing mind games with us is not helping us recover but push us more in to depressed moods. What do you guys think of this? Do you think AFA should stop using these tactics to collect money as so far they have not helped any families and to think they made millions from us that when our fellow crews got laid off, they would have been given at least a $200 dollar check to help buy food for furloughed crews. They got NOTHING. AFA.....FOR or AGAINST? I believe this is morally WRONG for a union to do this to their own members. I wish they would STOP using my friends photos to manipulate us. Your comments please...........

Is that the kind of union that you want to represent you?

At Delta, we have already said no once.