Unions have always understood in order to have a strong voice on all levels of government, you must have a large voting membership. Cities and states that have large union density also have better wages and benefits, even for the workers who are not organized. Before 911, airline workers enjoyed better wages and benefits than many other industries because of the high union density. We must go forward and help organize the unorganized to survive as a labor movement. When American’s third-party vendors are organized with like wages, benefits and working conditions, it becomes easier for us to be cost competitive. Therefore, we have placed a priority on organizing those companies that American Airlines contracts our work to. As a labor organization we must work to insure the industry remains unionized. This protects our present and new members who will be union representatives in the future and protect our retirement and health benefits after we are retired.
“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are people who want crops without plowing the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning, they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will”.
Quote about labor organizing from: Frederick Douglass.