Lies

[Vinny]

More Lies

In a recent letter to the Flight Options pilots VP, J.S. said the following, referring to the "Teamsters":


They are demonizing Kenn, leadership, and individual pilots in order to drive a wedge between us. Here are a few of the lies that they have used recently:

Claim: In recent statements, the Teamsters accused Kenn and his leadership team of interfering with and retaliating against the efforts of the failed Teamster organizing effort in 2002 at Raytheon Travel Air (RTA).


Fact: Untrue. I can personally attest that Flight Options had absolutely no involvement in that campaign. The RTA campaign was during 2001, and the actual vote occurred in January 2002. The merger of Flight Options and RTA didn't occur until March of 2002.

Really Joe? It looks to me like in March of 02, you guys were still trying to clean out the union organizers. You were Cc'd in on this one.

From: K. R.
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2002 11:03 PM
To: R. S.
Cc: M. R.; C. H.; J. S.
Subject: RE: Termination Letter

Can we go over the list?
(My thoughts)
Your recent visit to Flight Options headquarters allowed for interaction with several employees and a chance for Flight Options to assess whether you could learn to embrace the policies, culture and character of Flight Options. In particular our principle that "Employees are the foundation of a service company", is extremely important and requires the ability to respect and appreciate your coworkers and superiors.

It is our judgment, that you will be unable to espouse these principles and are left with no alternative but to terminate your employment with Flight Options, LLC.

----- Original Message-----
From: R.S.
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2002 6:26 PM
To: J.S.; C.H.; M.R.; K. R.
Subject: Termination Letter

All,
Please take a look at the attached letter. I used one of the effected pilots as an example.
I know we had discussed being vague for reason initially but, I believe this may be more fitting.
We will also have to amend for B****n who has not visited HQ.
Let me know your thoughts.
BOB

That saddest part of it Joe, is that you allowed the union-buster to trade on your personal reputation to prop up what he wrote in that letter you signed. But now that we know that you've been involved in breaking federal law not just once (back in 02), but twice (the arbitrators ruling from yesterday), I really don't think anyone's too surprised.

If you keep telling K.R.'s lies, we will catch you.

 

[GlorifiedCabbie]

Was this the same J Saladbowl that just forwarded JW's letter to the FO pilots containing his "revisionist history"?

 

[Vinny]

Why is management behaving badly?

Breaking the code
Many have speculated about why otherwise mostly upstanding managers like Rick, Joe and Jason have been behaving the way they have been lately. Sending out letters they clearly didn't write, spreading lies and false rumors and posting misleading and outright deceptive information on message boards like this one and on Yammer. Here is Martin Levitt's explanation from his book, Confessions of a union-buster. In these excerpts, Levitt refers to "foremen", this is because he's talking here about an anti-union campaign he ran at a coal company. The union-buster who is working the campaign an Flex/Options is using our supervisors, Rick, Joe, Jason and other management minions in the same way Levitt used the foreman in the campaign he describes here. This is how he explains the strategy for the campaign in his initial meeting with the coal company boss who has just hired him to bust the union:

"The entire campaign", I told him. "will be run through your foremen. I'll be their mentor, their coach. I'll teach them what to say and make sure they say it. But I'll stay in the background. This will be a case of over communication. I will make the foremen feel they have a postdoctorate degree in labor relations before this is through. They'll fill their employees with so many nasty little facts about unions, they'll all wish they'd never let this get started."

"We'll convince the foremen that when the National Labor Relations Board holds the representation election, the workers will not be voting for or against the union, but for or against the management, including all of them. To loose the election would be a humiliation, an indictment of their management abilities. Once they see it my way, the foremen will gladly join the war on the union."

The boss started to growl, but his attorney silenced him: "Listen to the man. We need him." The boss lifted a diamond-studded hand to his fleshy face, twisted his mouth, and asked my fee. It was $1000 a day per consultant, I planned to use several, plus a $10,000 retainer. The boss complained, "I've never known anybody worth a thousand a day." Then he barked to his secretary, Dottie, to make me out a check for $10,000. He offered his hand and commanded, "You're in charge."

 

[GlorifiedCabbie]

I always knew Uncle was a micro-manager, but now that the lawyers have stepped in, I guess they are calling the shots. The company spends millions on lawyers but there aren't enough crumbs left over to reinstate my 401k? And how about the overdue raises for the pilots AND the hard working people in the OCC? The Flex pilots got a fraction of their STIP bonus. I will have to get a double dose of blood pressure meds the next time I got to the doctor.

 

[Vinny]

More Confessions

This is how Levitt describes his initial meetings with the supervisors/foremen:

For our individual meetings with supervisors to be fruitful, it was necessary for us to find out everything we could not only about the foreman, but about his workers. So one of our first demands was to the personnel director. At our request she drew up a detailed diagram of company employees, listing all workers in each division under the name of their foreman. The chart included the worker's date of hire, his pay, whether or not he was married and other details from the personnel files. Armed with that information, we immediately held the advantage over our prey.

When a foreman walked into the meeting room, sometimes after driving a hundred miles from the pit where he worked, he was confronted with two cool, well-rehearsed hit men waiting to work him over. He knew very little about us, yet we continually managed to surprise him with the information we had about him and his men. We kept charts on every employee, identifying each with one of five marks: a plus sign in a circle if he was staunchly anti-union; a plain plus sign if he leaned toward management; a minus sign if he was pro-union; a question mark for unknowns. Each time we interviewed the worker?s foreman, we updated the grade. We also kept notes on whatever anecdotal tidbits our informant proffered, from statements the worker had made about the company or union to details of his finances and sex life.

Each session lasted thirty minutes to an hour. Part of the time was spent on small talk and gossip, a planned informality that was meant to make the foremen feel that we were their friends and confidants. In fact, in my first meeting with each foreman, I assured him that whatever he said was confined to that room; no one else would ever see the notes I was keeping or hear the secrets he revealed. That, of course was a bold and cruel lie. Whenever a foreman divulged a potentially useful bit of intelligence about one of his troublesome pro-union workers, the word was passed to management, let our of the grapevine as a damaging rumor, or filed away for use in the future strategy.

Yet the assurances got many men talking. After a few meetings with each foreman, I knew who was sleeping with whom; I was privy to the details of personal conversations among employees; and I knew many of the workers' vices, fears, and passions. One foreman was so taken by the confessional mood of the sessions that he admitted to having killed a man in a barroom fight. Even I in my cynicism was astounded to hear a man confess murder to a stranger. Yet I understood. The foreman, the front-line supervisors, has the worst job in any business - watched and hounded by upper management, mistrusted by his workers. He is alone in the middle, with no one to turn to. The supervisor's isolation and vulnerability make him the ideal tool for union-busting campaigns. The union-buster shows up, and suddenly what the lowly foreman says and does really matters. I constantly reminded the foreman victory could mean an end to their job and possibly and end to the company. I insisted that they were responsible for both the job security of their workers and the well-being of the company at large.


I hope this helps you understand what we are up against.

 

[GlorifiedCabbie]

Vinny, you got that one right. RH/KR is treating the Flex pilots like royalty for now. After the vote, RH/KR will go back to their old ways. If Lord Farquad can giveth, Lord Farquad can taketh away.

 

[Imissmypilot]

Vinny, you got that one right. RH/KR is treating the Flex pilots like royalty for now. After the vote, RH/KR will go back to their old ways. If Lord Farquad can giveth, Lord Farquad can taketh away.

Anyone who doesn't realize that after the vote there will be no more Rick Handjob is delusional, especially Rick Handjob.

I have it on very good, impeccably trustworthy sources that Cleveland has admitted to some individuals (perhaps even 1108 hierarchy?) that Handschuch's days are already numbered with a definitive expiration either way.

More fire for the fodder regarding the timeline of the hostages (including Graff in my opinion) is what was Handjob trying to divert attention away from?

Awww man, I really wish that judge would unseal the trial testimony. Wanna know who will probably be the most surprised as a result? My guess is RH might actually learn a few things CGF has said about him in a not so flattering way that might cause him to question his very, very poor choices. I mean if they've been running their mouths to my sources, then it certainly would have been repeated in testimony. I'd love to confirm it. I'd love to be a fly on the wall of Handjob's office when he reads it. Talk about popcorn worthy.

 

[flexible]

Ricks not going anywhere but I here you are. Don't let the door hit ya.

On 2nd thought please do.

 

[993_Pilot]

Ricks not going anywhere but I here you are. Don't let the door hit ya.

On 2nd thought please do.

You sure seem to defend any bad post about RH. Did you pony up for a second login here on FI Rick?... or are you just a RH fanboy?

 

[warlord19]

All you lemmings who think those of us who don't want the IBT in are RH.
Kinda funny, kinda sad.
WL