TWU: Insurgent Unions Start Organizing Drives at American

From the Tulsa World Newspaper:

Two insurgent aircraft mechanics unions have started organizing drives at American Airlines’ Maintenance & Engineering Center in Tulsa and at other American facilities across the country, union executives said Wednesday.

The two unions, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, are launching membership drives to win support from American mechanics represented by the Transport Workers Union.

The TWU has represented American mechanics since the M&E base was founded in 1946.

In 2004, an AMFA organizing drive at American fell short of calling for a union representation election.

Representatives of AMFA and the Teamsters said their organizing drives were inspired by widespread dissatisfaction among American mechanics toward impending wage and benefit cuts in American’s bankruptcy restructuring.

American executives said the company must reduce TWU labor costs by $390 million a year, cut 4,300 mechanics and maintenance workers, and outsource up to 40 percent of aircraft maintenance now performed in-house to emerge from bankruptcy and compete successfully in the airline industry. The company has lost more than $10 billion over the past decade despite $1.62 billion a year in wage and benefit concessions agreed to by unionized mechanics, pilots and flight attendants in 2003.

To see original story in the Tulsa World click here

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