We got an email this morning from a member that attended the hearing. Maybe that is what Mel is talking about..... Here it is.
Fellow Dispatchers,
I apologize for not sending out an email sooner about the Trusteeship hearing, but I needed time to reflect on the hearing and gather my thoughts. I know that this will be forwarded on to members of our local who may not necessarily be in our office as well as members of Local 545, so I want to make a few points clear up front:
1. I am just a member of Local 542, I do not hold any position of authority nor have I ever held a position within the TWU; nor do I intend to hold a position with the TWU.
2. There is no need for anyone to thank me for attending the hearing on the former Local 542 executive boards behalf. As someone who believed that John would never sacrifice his future with the TWU for our membership, I felt compelled to attended in order to thank John and the former executive board for making such a big sacrifice on our behalf.
With that said, I have had an opportunity to read the statement by Gary Shultz pertaining to the Trusteeship hearing and I am going to attempt to fill in some of the blanks that Gary left out.
Here is a list of persons present at the hearing:
IEC Committee - John Feltz - Chairman - President Local 2001, Executive Counsel - (Salary UKWN)
Kevin Smith - Member - President Local 525, TWU Executive Board - (Salary UKWN)
Tony Utano - Member - MoW VP, TWU Executive Board - (Salary UKWN)
TWU Prosecutor - Gary Maslanka - Administrative Vice President - (2012 Salary $220,006 -
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Witnesses - Gary Drummond - International Vice President - ATD - (2012 Salary $193,389 -
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Gary Shultz - International Representative - ATD, Current Local 542 Trustee - (2012 Salary $181,656 -
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David Virella - International Representative - ATD - (Salary UKWN)
John O’Donnell - Chief of Staff, Director of Accounting - (2012 Salary $208,642 -
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Jose Galarza - International Representative - ATD - (2012 Salary $163,516 -
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David Moses - Director of IT - (2012 Salary $160,072 -
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Danny Pursuit - President Local 545 (US Air) - (Salary UKWN)
Additional Persons present:
Administrative Assistant to John Feltz
Independent Stenographer
Local 542 for AA - Scott Cunningham, Bob Koscheka, Alan Reich
Local 542 for Envoy - Ken Vogt, Reed Allen
Local 545 for USAir - Mark and Dave (Executive Board Members)
To call this proceeding a “Kangaroo Court” would be an understatement. How the TWU can hold a hearing where all but the Local 542 members present are on the TWU payroll is beyond comprehension and an insult to our countries legal system. No ability for the accused to defend themselves, no ability for the accused to cross examine a witnesses, no ability for the accused to object to material being entered into the record and the blatant allowance of facts to be taken out of context and entered as evidence is a true travesty of justice. While I was unable to stay beyond the first witness, Danny Pursuit (almost 6 hours to that point), one did not need to stay any longer to know where the TWU prosecutor Gary Maslanka was leading with his questioning. Mr Maslanka, through his list of supporting characters, was clearly attempting to discredit our former Local 542 executive board as well as prove that they knowingly misappropriated funds prior to joining ranks with NAAP. In his recent communication, Gary Shultz seeks to make a point that only (1) Local 542 member “stuck it out” to the end of the Trusteeship hearing. What Gary fails to mention is that statements prepared by the former executive board, Bob Koscheka and myself were not only entered into the record and received by the committee but they were also hand delivered by me to the members of Local 545 and the Envoy Local 542 members present (the only people who would have heard the statements during the hearing in the first place). John, Frank and the entire former executive board are 100% correct in their assertion that the only verdict emerging from this hearing was “GUILTY” especially when everyone involved is a
paid employee of the TWU. As members of the TWU we should all be appalled by this travesty of justice and waste of our monies to hold this "Kangaroo Court”.
Since I had the opportunity to finally meet members of Local 545 in person, I have been asked many times for my opinion about Danny Pursuit, current Local 545 President and his executive board members David and Mike. I am not one to judge a book by its cover, but I do believe that first impressions are often correct until proven otherwise.
With regards to David and Mike, they are dispatchers just like all of us here at Local 542. They appeared guarded in their position as it pertained to the merging of our two work groups but also looked forward to the move and transition into one membership. My personal opinion about both of them is that they understand that a unified membership will be necessary to protect all members interests against the company. They hope in the end Local 542 and Local 545 will in fact become a strong unified group that will achieve industry leading wages and work rules for its membership.
With regard to Danny Pursuit, my personal opinion was quite a bit more guarded. I am not willing to cast personal judgement on Danny from one encounter, but I can see how many dislike him based on my first impression. Based on discussion with Danny, here are my personal observations as openly stated to him in person:
1. Danny dislikes John Plowman with a passion and I personally believe that he is unable to separate his dislike for John from his obligation to represent his member’s best interests. As I told Danny, his testimony was politically geared towards discrediting John Plowman and gaining favor with the TWU International during a time when the surviving local has not yet been determined. He wants to have Local 545 be the surviving Local while John wanted Local 542 to be the surviving local.
2. Due to previous dealings between John and Local 545 with regard to the America West and US Air merger, Danny is still believing that Local 542’s position on seniority list integration is something other than “date of hire, class and craft”. As I previously started, I am just a member and I have seen this “date of hire, class and craft” position by Local 542 in many documents as well as heard it from John, Frank and the rest of the executive board personally. No one at AA expects anything different and this is the current position of NAAP. I have to ask the question, why is Danny still presenting that Local 542 is trying to negatively affect the members of Local 545’s seniority? I can only surmise that it is to keep Local 545’s membership riled up since seniority has always been the biggest hurdle when merging two or more unionized work groups together.
3. During our discussion Danny brought up how his members wanted to continue with their current work schedule. I was well aware of this position since the original proposal from Local 542 included both work rotations currently utilized at AA and US Air as a compromise. What highly concerned me was that Danny wanted to “grandfather” his members into their work schedule essentially allowing only US Air dispatchers to bid their current work schedule first, then allowing AA dispatchers to bid on those US Air lines that were not taken. Considering item #2 above, would a reasonable person not considers this “grandfather clause" a violation of ones seniority rights? I know that I do and so would nearly every person at AA as well, but Danny tried his best to no avail to convince me otherwise. Would US Air dispatchers feel that their seniority rights were being violated if it was AA who was trying to protect their work schedule by attempting to negotiate a “grandfather clause”?
If this is what Danny considers a fair merging of the seniority list then LOOK OUT! Danny can preach “whats best for the entire membership” but what he really means right now is "whats best for Local 545".
4. Finally, Local 545 has enjoyed a very autonomous existence to date within US Air and the TWU. With US Air headquarters based in Phoenix and no large TWU represented group (like fleet service) on property at US Air, Local 545 has existed on their own island. This has allowed Local 545 to negotiate mostly as a single group with little to no TWU International intervention. Unfortunately, Danny mistakenly seems to believe that Local 545 will continue to maintain this autonomy when they make their move and transition to DFW, headquarters for the “New AA”. What Danny fails to realize or consider is that AA and the TWU will not allow this autonomy to continue (unless he has a side deal that we are not privy too?) if they did, does he not think that John Plowman, a 5 term president for the TWU, under pressure from his membership would not have been successful in achieving autonomy for our group? Danny needs to check his history as it pertains to the relationship AA has with the TWU International. After the unsuccessful 2003 PAFCA raid on the Local 542, John Plowman understood that separation from the “big group” was the biggest factor leading to the PAFCA raid and he was determined to make peace within our group by attempting to gain autonomy for Local 542. Unfortunately even after a PAFCA raid, John was only able to achieve partial autonomy from the TWU International which now allowed him to separately negotiate wages and work rules. Regrettably to this day, Local 542 still has been subjected to the TWU International and its most significant flow through items such as Pension, 401k, health care, vacation, sick time, holiday pay etc… These are the very items which have lead to the current NAAP raid after the latest round of give backs once again sacrificed our group to save other TWU groups within American AA.
If the membership of Local 545 wants to continue with the autonomy they have enjoyed at US Air, the only answer for its members is to vote for NAAP. Otherwise, they need to be prepared to receive a very small piece of the "TWU PIE" during negotiations as has been the case for the 23 years I have been with the TWU at AA. Do not say that you have not been warned!
In closing, I appreciated the opportunity to attend the Local 542 Trusteeship hearing as it opened my eyes even more to the TWU and their business practices. I enjoyed meeting our fellow workers from US Air and look forward to working with you in our new office. In the mean time, I would ask each member of Local 542 and Local 545 to not sit back and allow your future to be determined for you. Don’t be afraid to ask the questions that need to be asked and demand answers from your current or proposed leadership. Do not take vagueness as an acceptable answer. We all want the same thing in the end and we all should understand that there will be growing pains during this process. For those at Local 545 who may read this email, we look forward to merging offices and you will see that ours is not unlike yours in its composition. Before you turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to anything related to NAAP and believe the rhetoric from the TWU, please become informed and ask yourselves these questions:
1. Why would the leadership of a Local 542, with a clear majority in membership numbers over Local 545, resign from the TWU at such a critical time in our future? Political ploy or best interest of their membership?
2. Has your local leadership been completely honest with you about the facts as they pertain to the proposed AA / US Air merger agreement? Political ploy or need to know basis?
3. Do you clearly understand the positions NAAP holds as it pertains to the merger and integration of our work groups? You might be surprised.
4. Are you prepared to put your trust in a false belief by Local 545 leadership that you will remain an autonomous group not subjected to TWU flow through items at AA? Check the history!
5. Like him or not John Plowman was a 5 term President with Local 542, a few years from retirement and a very lucrative future, all he had to do was just stick it out with the TWU. Why did he sacrifice all of this for the membership? Why has he stated that he will not run for office following the merger unless demanded to do so by the membership?
Remember that eventually elections will be held and we will all be represented under one group. Unfortunately, no matter how unified we are as a group, under the TWU rules they ultimately have full control over our destiny. Only under NAAP will we be truly in control of our own future with no one to blame except ourselves if it does not turn out right.
Thank you for your time,
Scott Cunningham
Member
Local 542
