We Have Options and We Always Have
You get what you negotiate, not what you deserve
Having worked for a labor strategist for the last eight years I've learned a lot about how the corporate/political system works. In short, banks run corporations and corporations elect politicians. That's why corporations get bailed out and why employees get handed the bill. One needs only to look at the TARP bailout to see how the system works. The very same banks that are throwing families out of their homes are the ones getting taxpayer bailouts — in other words, those they force into homelessness are the ones paying the bill.
Sally Field in her role as "Norma Rae."
(Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox)
There's a strategy called the "corporate campaign" which was developed by my cousin in the 1970's. It's the strategy that led to the victory against J.P. Stevens & Co. on behalf of the Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers Union (ACTWU). They made a film about it called "Norma Rae," and Sally Field won an academy award.
The corporate campaign is the only strategy with a proven track record of forcing a corporation to do something it doesn't want to do — negotiate in good faith. It accomplishes this by placing pressure on the banks, politicians, institutional shareholders, insurance companies, etc., which in turn places direct pressure on executives and board members so as to demonstrate that employees can play just as agressivly as executives if pushed far enough.
As AMR lead into bankruptcy, we firmly believe that if APFA doesn't hire some real bankruptcy professionals our careers and retirement could be obliterated. The seriousness of this can't be understated.
I urge everyone voting in this election to take a moment and peruse the Corporate Campaign, Inc. website, particularly the history section as there's two campaigns dealing with APFA and American. At present, we have two attorneys representing us at APFA who have gone through the bankruptcy process, however in both instances the employees lost just about everything. The airlines were Northwest and United. We can't afford to have these two representing us in bankruptcy.
