United workers seek alternative leadership

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For forums, classes and other activities, contact the Socialist Action SOCIALISTACTION MARCH 1992 19 Although members of the International Association of Machinists' union (IAM) at United Airlines (UAL) ratified a new five-year pact in December by a systemwide margin of 71 percent, there is a lot of dissatisfaction among many union members and activists. This includes workers who voted for the contract who saw no alternative leadership in the union to lead a fight against the weak contract.

The sentiment for change in leadership, and more, has been especially true here in San Francisco, where over 12,000 of the IAM's 27,500 members at United work. Unlike most other locals, Local Lodge 1781 had a high "no" vote-46 percent. This opposition was strongest among mechanics. We objected to the "lump sum" bribe for the first two years of the contract and new take-aways in the agreement, including higher medical costs.

Since the agreement, UAL management has indicated that 1991 financial loses could lead to retrenchment and layoffs. Plans for capital expansion particularly purchases of new aircraft-are being delayed. Scores of part-time and full-time ramp service workers have been laid-off.

Looking for a change In this context, some IAM members in San Francisco who opposed the contract are talking about the need for a change. Unfortunately, the direction these members are heading will not strengthen the union.

A group of workers in my work area (1 work as a mechanic at the San Francisco airport) are now circulating flyers promoting the idea of mechanics forming our own union. This outfit, called the "Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association" (AMFA), calls for the decertification of the IAM and the installation of AMFA to represent mechanics (and cleaners) only. Other IAM members would be on their own.

AMFA supporters say the reason for the bad contract is that the IAM is a "catch-all" union that allows baggage handlers, kitchen workers, storekeepers, etc., to vote on a contract that affects mechanics. Thus, the IAM is representing their interests and not those of the mechanics. AMFA wants a craft union.

This stance of AMFA supporters is wrong and if carried out will strengthen the company's attacks on all United Airlines' workers. The IAM leadership needs to be changed, and the policy of the union significantly altered. But decertification is no solution. Craft unionism undermines solidarity, a key element to winning struggles today.

Why industrial unionism While most members are upset with the top leadership's functioning, to throw the baby out with the bathwater is a big mistake. Unions are strongest when they organize the most employees, whatever their skill at a workplace (industrial unionism). They are most effective when the membership controls the leadership. That should be the goal of union activists in the IAM. It is a realizable goal, as the recent overthrow of the Teamster top leadership shows.

Craft unionism, however, is a sign of weakness for the labor movement. To believe that if only all the mechanics were alone we would be better able to fight UAL management, without the support of other classifications, is an illusion. The employers are already playing divide and rule against industrial unions. Smaller craft unions would face even tougher opposition.

In the 1930s, the rise of industrial unions, in fact, was in response to the failure of craft unionism—an elitist concept. The crafts refused to organize the unskilled and poorest sections of the working class, especially if they were Black. Rank-and-file revolts by these workers led to the formation of "catch-all" industrial unions. These unions—auto workers and steelworkers, for example-strengthen the labor Craft unions like the IAM began to shift their narrow policy under the impact of the industrial union movement. Today, it is more than a machinists' union. That's its potential power. The IAM's strength is precisely because we organize most United ground employees. Unfortunately, we failed to organize reservation and customer service representatives last year. If so, we would be even stronger.

Pilots example

The main argument of AMFA supporters is that mechanics are paid less because baggage handers and other workers are paid too much. This is wrong. What UAL management pays mechanics is based on what we are strong enough to force them to give us. Of course, the company would love to pay ramp workers less, and mechanics too!

That's the case at Continental Airlines today, which broke the IAM in the early 1980s. Ramp service workers make 50 percent less than ramp workers at United. Mechanics at Continental also make $5 an hour less. This confirms the historic axiom that wages gravitate downward, not upward-that is, to the lowest common denominator.

That's why it's in the ic interests of mechanics to support our brothers and sisters with less marketable skills and at the low-end of the wage structure. Mechanics will get more wages and benefits if they support higher pay for lower-paid classifications.

Moreover, skilled labor should always use its leverage to help the weakest sections of the working class. Why? Because the more they get paid, the more we get paid. Unless such solidarity is given, we will only turn against each other instead of using our collective power to fight the common enemy (the employer) to advance the interests of all working people. Any mechanic's prejudice against ramp and other workers only helps the employer.

AMFA points to the pilots' high wages to say that's what mechanics could get if we were by ourselves. This is also false. When the pilots first set up their own associations (not unions) in the 1940s, it was to tell management they were more like them than labor. Pilots' associations began to function like unions only after the employers (Frank Lorenzo for example) began treating them like other workers, demanding concessions.

The Eastern Airlines strike had the biggest impact on their ranks. At United, not surprisingly, the pilots, flight attendants, and IAM are now in a loose alliance to deal with the company. This coalition, while tenuous, is a step in Cloveland P.O. Box 6151 Cleveland, OH 44101 (216) 429-2167 Dotrolt P.O. Box 1613 Detroit, MI 48231 branch in your area! Kansas City P.O. Box 32543 Westport Station, Kansas City, MO 64111 For information about other areas, contact the national office of Socialist Action at (415) 821-0458.

By Malik Miah the right direction. The three unions know if they stand alone they stand divided against top management.

Prospects for changing the direction at Local Lodge 1781 and the entire district representing United employees' systemwide, can be seen in one small example. Carl Finamore, a ramp service employee (a baggage hander), was recently elected chair of the 250-plus shop stewards' committee. He is the first ramp service person in the history of the local to be elected chair of that committee.

Although some mechanics have openly questioned having nonmechanics in the IAM, and Finamore ran against two mechanics, most stewards voted for Finamore because he stood out as a militant during contract report-backs. He spoke out and tried to organize a large "no" vote. He also explicitly rejected attempts to divide the union along craft lines, explaining that the broadest unity was needed today to fight the company and defend our interests.

What happens next in the local will mainly depend on what new attacks against the contract and union are undertaken by the company. Without a doubt, however, a layer of United unionists are seeking to strengthen the IAM against the wrong policies of the top leadership and the divisive challenges by outfits like AMFA. not go in much for the advanced designs in the exhibit.

In any case, congratulations on keeping your paper on the high level of quality and content it had attained under your previous editor.

I trust a two-year subscription will help you carry on as ably as you have done since his leave-taking.

Martin Ponch Oakland, Calif.

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