One of my two democratic opponents in the general election on November 3rd recently posted on the topic of unions and Right to Work (RTW). Matt Towne (currently one of our Barrington reps) has shown himself, through this and many other of his posts, to be lacking in many of the traits needed to be an effective legislator and representative. This post is the first of many examples I’ll highlight over the next couple of months.
In this particular case, Matt displays a very shallow understanding and simplistic view of unions, their purpose and the political affiliation (make-up) of the members within a union. Many of those who reside in the radical left adhere to the philosophy of “if a person is a union member, that person MUST be a democrat”.
The following is a speech (bullet points) I gave on the floor of the State House during debate of Right to Work legislation in February of 2017. I received favorable feedback for the speech, even from democrats who would ultimately vote against the bill. Hopefully, this will enlighten many on the issue of RTW.
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Thank you Mr. Speaker and good morning fellow Representatives.
32 years ago, I joined and became a member of the Allied Pilots Association, an independent union that currently represents the 15,000 plus pilots of American Airlines. I remain a pilot and member of that union today and if I continue to fly until mandatory retirement age, I still have a little over 9 years to go.
When I joined the Allied Pilots Association, it was an open shop….meaning if you joined, you paid union dues… if you did not join, you did not pay union dues. Without coercion, intimidation, or pressure, 98-99% of the pilots voluntarily joined the APA, as did I.
During those 32 years, I have held many national union positions and performed around 8 years of nearly full-time union service, ¼ of my career at American Airlines.
I have worked for APA as a negotiator, a contract specialist, one of 18 National Board of Directors and as the Chairman of the Boston pilot base…which is the equivalent of a local union president. I have represented pilots in termination hearings and their subsequent arbitrations, worked for months with national mediators, testified in multiple contractual arbitrations as an expert witness, sat on arbitration executive boards and negotiated or approved two seniority integrations.
In January of 1999, while my daughter celebrated her 1st birthday here in NH, I along with a dozen other pilots from our union leadership, sat in a Dallas Texas federal court room in a contempt of court hearing arising from what the judge would later rule an illegal job action. Our pilot’s union was fined a record $42 million dollars. As a negotiator at the time and viewed by the judge as APA union leadership, I was held “jointly and severally” liable for that $42 million dollars, it was the biggest fine ever levied against a union in the United States.
In May of 2001, I was elected as the Boston Chairman (of 550 pilots), again, the equivalent of a Union local President. Just a few months later, two of the pilots I represented were operating flight 11 to Los Angeles when it became the first plane intentionally flown by terrorists into the Twin Towers on 911.
I relate the two last instances and my 8 years of union service to illustrate that one cannot, and should not, automatically label a Republican as being anti-union. In fact, in the first instance, you can see I found myself on the pointy end of a very sharp spear financially while in the service of my fellow union pilots.
There is no one on this House floor, or up in the gallery, and probably even in this state, who can “out union” my union affiliation and work.
So for over 32 years now, I have paid between 1 and 1 ½% of my pay to the Allied Pilots Association in the form of union dues.
Many of you are probably thinking “Why would anyone voluntarily give away up to 1 ½% of their pay annually?”
The answer, for me is simple, it is about value received. Or put another way, I have and continue to receive an adequate “return on my investment”.
I know the return on investment has been good for a couple of reasons. First, the pay, benefits, work rules and quality of work life I receive as a pilot are very good.
Secondly, I have seen how my union dues are spent and utilized first hand as most of my union time was spent at our headquarters in Dallas Texas. Those paid with my union dues work hard and the union dues are used solely for the benefit of our 15,000 pilots.
BUT, if I ever believed I was not getting a good value, that the money I give to the union each month was not giving me an adequate return on my investment, I or anyone else, should have the freedom to exercise their individual choice and discontinue paying those union dues until such time as their union was again performing adequately.
You will hear, or have already heard, that RTW is about union busting. It is not and I hope my short time here in the well has proven as much. For me, RTW is about two things: value received and freedom of choice.
In this NH House of Representatives, there are two other members who have or currently belong to my union. The Representative from Kingston was a member of the APA for his entire career at American Airlines. And the Representative from Wentworth, like myself, is a current union member. We all support our union, the Allied Pilots Association. And we each support RTW.
I would ask that each of you join me in opposing the committee report to ITL by pressing the RED button.