AFMA is just one big Mistake

One big Farce

For more than 50 years, airline workers enjoyed a level of solidarity and support unmatched in the labor movement. Pilots, Flight Attendants and Ground Workers all shared the same goals: better wages, benefits and working conditions. We also had a common enemy – airline management.

Management spent decades trying to shake our solidarity, but was never successful. Although at times we had our differences, we were able to work them out and our solidarity produced positive results. Our solidarity could not be broken.

Consequently, airline employees received pay, pensions and benefits far greater than workers in other industries, both union and non-union.

In 1998, however, that solidarity was fractured. Lured by lies and fed by greed, some licensed aircraft mechanics decided to break away from all other airline workers.

First at Alaska Airlines and then Northwest Airlines, brother turned against brother, and what management couldn’t do, airline workers did to themselves. We went from a single group of Ground Workers to divisions by classification. The results have been disastrous.

The Raid

In the midst of IAM negotiations with Northwest Airlines in 1998, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) preached that licensed aircraft mechanics were elite professionals who would fare better if they negotiated on their own, without relying on “unskilled” workers. Their propaganda struck a chord with two groups – elitist Mechanics and Northwest management.

During the ensuing representation election between the IAM and AMFA, Northwest Airlines was required to remain neutral. The airline’s management, however, permitted AMFA to distribute hate literature and intimidate voters on company property while expelling IAM Representatives, in violation of National Mediation Board (NMB) election rules.

Northwest knew that AMFA was providing an opportunity to divide their employees and were eager to help crack the wall of solidarity.

AMFA promised the mechanics’ skill would be their strength, not numbers, and offered unprecedented democracy in a mechanics-only union. The NMB, however, forced AMFA to also accept unlicensed Mechanics, Cleaners and Custodians as part of the Mechanic & Related classification.

In reality, the democracy AMFA promised was a myth promoted by its founder and only National Director in the organization’s 40-year history, Olivio Vincenzo Delle-Femine. The association is controlled from the offices of Kevin McCormick, a New Hampshire-based real estate manager who bankrolled the raid and anointed himself AMFA’s non-elected, non-removable National Administrator.

The Machinists Union warned Northwest’s Mechanics that by isolating themselves from the IAM and the rest of labor they would become easy targets for management. Unfortunately, they did not heed the IAM’s warnings and the NMB certified AMFA as the collective bargaining representative for Northwest’s 10,000 Mechanics, Cleaners and Custodians on June 1, 1999.

Northwest Airlines got the divided workforce it yearned for, and they developed a two-stage, multi-year plan to take advantage of their new found luck.

First Contract

Job security and scope provisions are the bedrock foundation of any collective bargaining agreement. The contract AMFA inherited from the IAM prevented Northwest from farming out any maintenance work if a single member was furloughed. Wages and benefits are worthless if there aren’t any workers to earn them.

When AMFA assumed representation of Northwest’s Mechanics, Cleaners and Custodians (MCC), their membership numbers totaled nearly 10,000 and no members were on furlough. That amount of workers was far too large to replace in the event of a strike. Reducing the number of MCC members was the first step in Northwest’s plan.

AMFA’s untrained negotiators had misplaced priorities, and the airline took advantage of their inexperience. Northwest offered the Mechanics substantial wage increases in exchange for eliminating the IAM’s strong scope language. AMFA’s leadership and members were blinded by the dollar signs and failed to realize that when they signed that first contract and allowed the airline to subcontract work while furloughing members, they sealed their own demise.

In spite of AMFA’s claims that it negotiated “iron-clad” job security language, Northwest immediately began the systematic dismantling of its Mechanic & Related workforce. Engine and airframe overhaul work and scheduled maintenance checks were subcontracted to firms around the globe. Line maintenance Mechanics were replaced with vendors.

Furloughs quickly followed the signing of AMFA’s first agreement with a major airline.

Thousands of Northwest Mechanics, Cleaners and Custodians lost their jobs due to a contract AMFA negotiated in early 2001, before the industry downturn caused by 9-11 and before the surge in fuel prices.

Even at carriers where AMFA did not represent anyone their presence was felt. The Northwest contract became the envy of airline management throughout the industry. Soon, other carriers were demanding the same outsourcing flexibility AMFA conceded to Northwest.