NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #1/NN_1993_1.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9796

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From: New Liberation News Service <[e-mail]>
Subject: Militant IAM local roped in by Int
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/* Written  4:30 pm  Jan  4, 1993 by [e-mail] in
igc:labor.newsline */
/* ---------- "Militant IAM local roped in by Int" ---------- */
Reprinted from The Organizer, 4017 24th St., Suite #19, San
Francisco, CA, 94114 USA 1(415)641-4610 Subscriptions: $12(US) for
1 yr. International: $30

IAM International places Northwest Airlines local in trusteeship

By STEVE BRYANT

Editors' Note: Some of the information for this article was
provided by Peter Rachleff, a professor of labor history in St.
Paul, Minn.

In an effort to force the 26,000 Northwest Airlines (NWA) IAM
members to accept contract concessions, IAM Vice President John
Peterpaul and Bill Scheri, head of the IAM's airline division,
placed IAM Lodge 143 in the Twin Cities into trusteeship on Nov.
16.  Lodge 143 is one of the most militant IAM locals in the
country, and refused to cave in to major contract concessions when
their contract expired last May.  NWA is owned by speculators Al
Checci and Gary Wilson, who teamed up to acquire the airline
through a leveraged buyout (LBO) in 1989. The airline now faces
imminent bankruptcy because of interest payments that exceed $300
million a year.  Checci and Wilson used only $40 million of their
own money - acquired through driving up the price of NWA stock
through speculation - and borrowed more than $3 billion to buy the
airline. Then they began to bleed it dry. The ink wasn't even dry
on the purchase agreement when the airline signed a
$10-million-a-year contract with their consulting company. The
speculators also They also made $100 million from stock-trading
and through fee-taking from other investors.  The airline bust
After their 1989 buyout, and after the Gulf War ended, the airline
industry entered a major tailspin. Air travel plummeted and fuel
prices skyrocketed.  These factors combined with the deregulation
schemes passed by the Democrats and Republicans that have allowed
non-union carriers to undercut the unionized carriers.  To pay the
interest on their loans (now totalling $4 billion), Checci and
Wilson had another scam. They set up a "lottery," with states
bidding to be the site of NWA's "promised" new repair bases.  In
Minnesota, the capitalist politicians and the Minnesota AFL-CIO
leadership argued that these capitalists had to paid for the state
to win jobs. They conned the people of Minnesota into providing
tax breaks and outright loans of $750 million, with $270 million
paid up front by the state to NWA. That money was used to pay off
part of the Checci/Wilson debt. But NWA continued to bleed as the
economic decline of the past two years persisted.  (KLM was conned
by NWA into pouring $400 million into the airline, and then Checci
and Wilson begged for more - all the while selling off spare parts
and desperately begging suppliers to cut their prices.) Checci and
Wilson, giving up nothing themselves, then turned on the unions,
demanding major wage and contract concessions. In November, they
demanded that the unions give back $900 million in concessions -
amounting to a 12% cut in wages and benefits.  "We're going to put
in more money than the original investors put in [$705 million],"
said Curt Kruse, a spokesperson for the Air Line Pilots
Association (ALPA). "We're putting in more than KLM. Checci and
Wilson put in $40 million.  We're going to put in almost 1
billion. We want a fair return for the size of our investment."
After getting agreement from the ALPA Executive Board for $300
million in concessions, the focus of the press and the owners
turned on the IAM local, which represents the majority of the
workers at NWA.  IAM Lodge 143 became the "sticking point." The
position of the local was that they would not discuss monetary
concessions until NWA agreed to a contract with the industry's
standard language. Workers on the shop floor began wearing red
buttons that read "NO CUTS. NO GIVEBACKS. NO WAY." IAM
International buckles under It was clear that the IAM members were
not prepared to buckle under the Checci/Wilson ultimatum without
protecting their conditions. This, however, was not to the liking
of IAM International President George J. Courpias and his staff.
In a letter justifying the trusteeship, Courpias charged that
Lodge 143's democratically elected leadership of "failing or
refusing to comply with lawful directives" and alleged "operating
irregularities." IAM Vice President Peterpaul seized the local and
kicked the elected leadership out of office.  Two days after
putting Lodge 143 into trusteeship and removing President Tom
Pederson and the 23-member executive board, Peterpaul announced to
the press that agreement had been reached on a $900 million
concession package.  "Painful as it will be, the leaders have
concluded that the employees of Northwest must make concessions as
labor's contribution to the overall solution," said a letter from
the Labor Leadership Forum, which represents the IAM and other
unions. Wrote Peterpaul in a letter, "While our negotiating
committees do not welcome the prospect of any contract reductions,
they understand the necessity of such measures if Northwest is to
become solvent and the jobs of the employees protected." The IAM
International, which actively supported union-buster Bill Clinton,
has clearly joined with the union-busters by putting the NWA local
into trusteeship. Rather than fight the Checcis and Wilsons, they
are ready to sacrifice the livelihood the 26,000 members of Lodge
143 - supposedly to "protect jobs." Suspended IAM Lodge 143
President Tom Pederson stated that the International should not be
making decisions for the local. Said Pederson, "The union should
accept no pay cuts and offer no concessions without obtaining a
piece of the company.  "The message is that I was elected by the
members, and the message I'm getting from them is: Don't let the
international get involved." Also supporting the International
takeover was Democratic Congressman Jim Oberstar, who in the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune (Nov. 20) called the deal with the unions
"the most significant union-management agreement in the airline
industry in a decade. He said that Peterpaul's personal
participation in the discussions indicated that the unions were
committed to the agreement." Oberstar and the Democratic Party are
part and parcel of the attack on NWA workers in Minnesota, just as
they were some years back with striking Hormel workers of P-9, who
faced the National Guard called out by a Democratic governor.  And
Al Checci is a member of the "Managing Trustees" of the Democratic
Party.  Each member of this select group kicks in $200,000 of
their own money to a fund, and played a part in "approving" the
candidacy of Bill Clinton. (See last month's issue of The
Organizer for more on this group.) Reality of the airline industry
The conscious looting of the airline industry through LBOs, and
the use of deregulation to destroy wages and working conditions,
is no accident. It has been an organized plan of major capital -
supported by both the Democrats and Republicans. As one longtime
flight attendant told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "LBOs are like
gang rape. We had nothing to say about it. They used the money to
buy a company that was very healthy, and look where we are now."
The reality is that further givebacks will not save jobs. This is
the crystal clear lesson from the Eastern Airlines workers, who
through one giveback after another ended up with nothing.  The IAM
local leadership want equity in the airline if it agrees to the
concessions. But the ownership of the airline by the workers is a
ultimately a political question. This was the lesson of the effort
by workers at United Airlines to buy that airline. At United, the
union leadership - after spending $7 million of union dues -
discovered that the banks that really own the airline would not
lend the union the money to purchase the airline even with major
union concessions.  The union-busting deregulation that was
supposed to allow more "competition" has led to the domination of
the entire industry by three major airlines:  United, Delta and
American. The workers who built the airline industry are now told
by the IAM International, the owners, the politicians and the
press that they must pay the cost of capitalism gone wild.  IAM
members must rally to overturn the trusteeship and begin to
challenge fundamentally the criminals who are looting the airline
system.  Instead of "stock for concessions," NWA should be
nationalized under workers' control. And to restructure the
airline industry to serve the workers and the people of the United
States, the IAM, the UAW and the entire trade union movement must
prepare to run independent labor candidates that will put working
class rights ahead of the interests of the banks and corporate
bosses.  Labor solidarity is key U.S. airline workers have the
power to challenge the airline bosses and the Clinton regime head
on. If NWA workers strike against the takebacks, they could reach
out quickly to all other airline workers to join together on the
picketline and close down the whole system. During the Eastern
Airlines strike, thousands of pilots called for a suspension of
service to back the Eastern workers.  This same power has been
held back by the IAM international in the past. When IAM members
called on former president William Winpisinger to back the PATCO
strikers with solidarity action, he responded was that it was
"illegal." This from the same union leadership that applauded the
workers of Eastern Europe and Russia when they went on strike and
challenged the Stalinist bureaucrats.  Only mass action and a new
path independent political action can truly take all airline
workers forward. The lessons of today's NWA struggle are critical
to this task. A good start would be for IAM locals across the
country to protest the trusteeship. This action by the IAM
International leadership threatens every local that seeks to
defend the interests of its members.