DALLAS The Teamsters unio is stepping up its campaign to unseat other unios in the airline industry.
Teamsters officials said Tuesday that they filed a petition with a federal labour agency to force an election against the Transport Workers unio to represent mechanics at American Airlines.
The Teamsters unio is also seeking to represent mechanics at US Airways, who are currently represented by the machinists unio.
The outcome of both elections will determine which unio will negotiate with the worlds biggest airline. American and US Airways expect to close their merger deal in the next few months and create a carrier larger than industry leader United Airlines.
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The Transport Workers and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, or IAM, said this month they would share representation of mechanics and other ground workers after American combines with US Airways. That plan, however, would be upset if either loses an election to the Teamsters.
By law, the Teamsters need the support of at least half the American Airlines mechanics to force an election. unio officials declined to say how many signatures they got. There are more than 10,000 mechanics at American.
Hank Rogish, an American Airlines mechanic in Fort Worth who is working on the Teamsters campaign, said workers are frustrated about concessions that the Transport Workers unio, or TWU, made during contract negotiations in the 1990s, 2003 and 2012.
Rogish said that when American Airlines, operating under bankruptcy protection since November 2011, closed a maintenance hangar in Fort Worth, there wasnt a word from TWU. The Teamsters, he said, just dont allow their members to be decimated like TWU.
A TWU official called the Teamsters a rogue unio that has targeted other unios instead of organizing nonunio workers.
Garry Drummond, the director of TWUs airline industry group, said the Teamsters lost more members than any U.S. unio last year and has resorted to raiding established unios at American Airlines and US Airways to gain enough new members to bolster its pension plans.
Drummond said the Teamsters had done a terrible job for other aircraft mechanics, pointing to Uniteds outsourcing of maintenance of its largest jets. He said that TWU had managed to keep most of Americans maintenance work in-house.
IAM vice-president Sito Pantoja said in a statement that the Teamsters continue to destroy the labour movement by dividing already unioized employees with hollow promises. They are doing nothing to bring new airline workers into the labour movement.
Teamsters officials defended their challenges to existing unios.
We didnt go out looking to organize at the Transport Workers unio or at US Airways, said Teamsters airline-industry organizer Chris Moore. The workers, he said, approached the Teamsters.
