Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 15:17:19 -0800 (PST)
Subject: AUT: United Airlines Mechanics


Hi list,

United Airlines mechanics voted to reject a contract and to
go on strike.  They could go out on the 20th if Congress
doesn't pass a specific law against it, and if the union
doesn't find a way to prevent it (unless of course, the
whole thing is some kind of trap the union and management
are plotting).

An excellent place to read some expressions of these
workers' subjectivity is www.the-mechanic.com, hosting a
bulletin board of United Airlines and other airline
mechanics' anonymous opinions.  There are apparently 13,000
of them, 7,000 in the Bay Area alone.  This bulletin board
gets up to 100 postings daily.  The people writing on it
are mainly opposed to the current union, IAM, but
supportive of a different one, AMFA, taking over, which
might be given a vote later this year.

I just joined this list last week.  Have there been (m)any
discussions of unions here?

Also, in terms of class composition, I just started reading
the reformist-minded book of statistics "The State of
Working America."  I find it a really great treasury of
facts about American class composition.  Anyone else?

Saul

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