As you consider whether to support the Association of
Flight Attendants-Communication Workers of America (afa-CWA), another issue to consider is the issue of strikes and scabs.
Union members define a scab is someone who has
either refused to join a union, or who has crossed a
picket line and gone to work during a strike. Once a person is
labeled a scab, the label remains forever. How is this
relevant to us? Well, if the afa-CWA can successfully organize a unified Delta, we will be expected to walk out.
As a union member, our ability to make an individual
decision to continue to work during a strike will be foreclosed.
If you do not believe in the
reason for the strike, afa-CWA will require you to walk out.
If you could lose your house, the afa-CWA will require you to walk out.
If one of your parents is sick and you
need money to purchase medical supplies, the afa-CWA will require you to walk out.
If
your child is in school and you have to fly to pay the tuition, the afa-CWA will require
you to walk out.
Get the picture?
Before you vote for the afa-CWA, think very carefully. Do
you want to be in a situation where the afa-CWA can dictate whether you work? Do you
trust our afa-CWA activists to make the right decisions for you if they win
the election? Do the premerger NWA afa-CWA officers look like they can be
trusted to be rational? If the afa-CWA comes
into power and calls a strike, can you afford not to work? If your personal
situation will require you to work, you will be labeled a scab and ostracized
for the rest of your career.
You may feel that conditions at Delta are not bad enough to cause a strike,
right? However, the very same activists who have been telling you all of these years
that you have horrible working conditions and you are abused by the company will
be the same union officers making the decision, directly or indirectly, on
whether to strike. These are the very same activists who are participating on
the afa-CWA Jointogether listserv. Join it and read it. They take a narrow, one-sided view
of the issues. While their mean-spirited posts will not hurt us now, these same
activists with the same mentality will be holding our lives and careers in their
hands.
They will be joined by the existing afa-CWA group
from premerger NWA. These afa-CWA officers have a history of hating
their company. Do you trust them not to force a strike?
During a strike, the most extreme of them will be the self-appointed
enforcers harassing you if your personal conditions require you to work.
They will take a one sided view of your decision to work, and will not consider
personal circumstances. If you want a background on union violence,
read this article by The National
Institute for Labor Relations Research
Do you trust these activists with power over your life and
livelihood? Consider this issue before signing the ballot.
To see how the ex-NWA mechanics view replacement
workers visit the NWA mechanic
scablist
To see how the American Airlines Flight Attendant union is
still harassing its scabs from the 1993 strike, go to the following very public website to read their names.
The American Airlines Flight
Attendant ScAAblist. (note: since the original version of
this article was published, the list has been removed. We have
linked to the internet archives so you can see the site. Although we have an
archival copy of the actual APFA scab list, we do not feel that it is ethical to
reproduce it.)
The pilots maintain an industry wide scab list going back
many years. To view this scab list, follow this link Industry
- Wide Pilot Scab list (note that this site has been taken down - this
view is from the internet archives. Expect to scablist.com go live when the next pilot group begins bargaining)
The best example of an airline industry scablist can
be found at www.exnwa.com. It
comes complete with pictures. Remember, if we allow the afa-CWA to
organize us and you know that your personal situation would require you to
work, your picture could end up on a site just like this.
Scary.
To see other scab lists and scab links, visit:
Spirit
Airlines - the most recent of the scablists.
Spirit
Scabs on YouTube - Spirit goes YouTube. Scary. Crossing
the picket line goes viral.
A
TWA Scab Story - quasi-literature meant to make a point
Letter
Carriers - mail men sometimes are not nice
More
Letter Carriers - notice how this one asks members to
"recruit" non members
IAM Scablist - Non
airline - We hope the IAM at Delta goes away.
Some thoughts on
moving people on and off the ALPA Scab list
Pictures of NWA
Potential Mechanic Scabs
Non members of
Local 7048 Note: This link highlights an important point.
If our coworkers elect the afa-CWA, and you do not join, you are a scab,
even without a strike.
Article on strikers
posting names, e-mail addresses, and home addresses of replacement workers
and the court injunction to stop it
There are hundreds of these sites try a Google
search using "scablist" or scab
list
Do you think that we would never have this type of
situation here at Delta? Try this experiment on your next afa-CWA
activist. No matter how you feel on this issue, tell an activist
that you would never join a union. You think strikes are unethical,
and you would cross a picket line with a smile on your face. See how
they react.
Most rational people will find this mentality and these websites scary, but
the mentality evident in these sites is the very real, very dirty reality of how unions enforce
solidarity.
Remember, you will sign away your individual right
to choose if you do not mark "no" and mail in your ballot.
The threat of a union is better than actually having
a union!
