AMFA Does Not Have Resources to Fight Grievances
By: Mikey Albertin, UAL mechanic, San Francisco
As a shop steward, my role is to represent my coworkers to try and resolve issues through the grievance process. I was also a steward with IAM and became an AMFA steward when all of the IAM stewards quit after AMFA came in in July 2003. I am a steward with AMFA because I know that whatever union is representing you, you will always need representation on the floor, no matter what.
When AMFA won the election in July 2003, one of the selling points from National Director Delle-Femine (featured in a June 2003 AMFA question and answer sheet) was that AMFA would have full-time attorneys to eliminate the backlog of IAM grievances and process new grievances.
I still don’t know who these full-time attorneys are supposed to be, despite asking questions at general membership meetings and asking the Airline Representative, Malik Miah.
I have been persistent on pursuing grievances, but
all I’ve heard back is excuses from AMFA. First, it was, “Well, the
company is in bankruptcy,” followed by, “We are still working on
discharge cases” to “The company is restructuring labor relations and
the human resources department.”
To this day I’ve only had two grievances resolved
and that was not due to the AMFA leadership, but from me strong arming
local management and calling them out on things. When the company
cancels a hearing, all I hear from AMFA is, “Well, we really can’t do
anything about the canceled hearing because the contract is so vague.”
Why doesn’t AMFA get some of these ghost attorneys to take the
grievances to the next level?
I filed a grievance on my shop (the brake shop that was farmed out during bankruptcy) and was initially told that this grievance was going to be expedited to the third step. Three years have gone by and nothing has been scheduled despite all of the information I turned in. I was even told to re-file the grievance after the company was busted by the independent auditor for going over 20 percent farm out. And there are still no full-time attorneys handling the case.
When United was caught with their hand in the cookie jar for being over 20 percent farm out, I immediately filed grievances on everything outsourced from my shop that we used to do in house.
After filing 20 grievances, I am now being told that the grievances are being rolled up into one big 20 percent farm out arbitration. The best way to handle them would be to file on an individual case basis, not as one.
I even have a Consent Decree Seniority grievance written by AMFA for a utility worker that was sold off by AMFA in bankruptcy negotiations back in August 2005. To this day there has been no scheduled hearing. Meanwhile, this person is out on the street not knowing what is going on.
I also had a workers’ compensation grievance for a person I represented that was appealed to the third step. The member and I were never informed of the status of the grievance. It took me over one year of asking the status on this grievance to find out that it had been appealed to the third step. To this day there has been no scheduled hearing.
The company knows that AMFA does not have the resources to handle grievances and the company will stall AMFA out and make them spend money they do not have. What good is a union if it can’t enforce the contract in place?
I know with the way Teamster chief stewards are able to deal with department heads that grievances will process more quickly and efficiently. The Teamsters have the money, resources, support from 1.4 million members and experience to combat corporations. Their legal experience is light years ahead of AMFA. I don’t hate AMFA, but I really think AMFA is overwhelmed by United. We are the biggest local in AMFA, and our national director, Delle-Femine, has not made an appearance at SFO Local 9 since bankruptcy. I will be there to support my fellow coworkers whenever they need help on the job, and I look forward to being able to do that in an effective manner and from a position of power, which will happen when we become Teamsters.