Don't Let Tilton Do All the Talking

Today is Thursday, March 15, 2007, and this is an editorial comment from the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA at United Airlines.  This is retired Flight Attendant volunteer, Jerry Butz reporting from Chicago.

Nearly fifteen years ago, there was an issue generating heated debate in the U.S. Congress.  It was called NAFTA, which stands for North American Free Trade Agreement.  The idea behind NAFTA was to remove most or all barriers to the free exchange of goods and services among the three countries which comprise North America: Canada, Mexico and the United States.  The promised result was a vigorous new prosperity for workers and consumers alike in all three nations.  So, NAFTA was approved.  It was predicated on the classic conservative economic theory that if you just get government rules and regulations out of the way and let the genius of private management operate unfettered, the payoff will be a workers’ paradise.  Good jobs will be abundant and this rising tide of globalization will lift all boats, so to speak.  It almost sounded too good to be true.  And it was.

NAFTA was the proverbial camel’s nose under the tent.  Since then, our government, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has crafted new agreements with Central America and China.  Those deals were sold to us with the same glowing promises of an economic renaissance for everybody involved.  The U.S. middle class standard of living would grow and spread across the hemisphere and around the world, we were told, if only the government would get out of the way and let private industry work its magic. 

You may recall that organized labor passionately opposed NAFTA and all subsequent trade deals and continues to oppose them.  Our concerns were that there were no provisions in these deals to protect against private companies from taking their operations out f the United States and setting up shop wherever they could get the work done more cheaply.  That is, sweatshop wages, no benefits and –this is critical—NO UNIONS!  Nobody to speak for the workers.  No restrictions whatsoever on how the bosses can run their show.  This is the reality of work life today in much of Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and much of the United States.  And it’s getting worse by the day, even as corporate profits are soaring.  U.S. trade deficits are at a record levels and rising, as places like Wal-Mart pack their shelves with imported crap which Americans are buying as fast as they can whip out their credit cards.  It’s hard to blame consumers for trying to stretch their diminished wages to cover living expenses.  But this accelerating race to the bottom has got to stop.  The promises of the global capitalists have turned out to be lies.  They’re the only ones benefiting from this new world economic order and they still want more.

People like Glenn Tilton continue to beat the drums for “open skies” agreements and greater International investment in United as our ticket to job security and personal prosperity.  He’s using the same arguments that were first trotted out fifteen years ago to sell NAFTA, and we all know how swimmingly that has worked out!  We make less money and that money buys less.  Pensions are gone.  Workdays are longer.  Healthcare is sky-rocketing and millions more are uninsured.  This is the American Dream turning to ashes.

Last November, U.S. voters generated a political earthquake by throwing out a Congressional majority which had grown greedy, corrupt and indifferent.  And it felt good.  But that isn’t the end of our responsibility as citizens.  There are hopeful stirrings in this new Congress to redress the gross imbalance of the past quarter-century against labor unions and the people they represent.  All of it will be vetoed by George W. Bush, to the surprise of no one.  But he won’t always be president; it just seems that way.  You have a telephone and, most likely, a computer.  You have two senators and one representative in this Congress.  If you don’t give them a piece of your mind, they’ll assume that you’re happy with the job they’re doing.  If you are, let them know that.   If you’re not, let them know that too.  Our Union’s website gives us the information on a host of issues which are vital to our careers and our future.  It’s up to us to take advantage of it.  Don’t let Glenn Tilton be the only one talking to Congress.

We’ll be back on March 29.  Thanks for checking in.

Return to Industry Editorials