One Airline One Union 55,000 Members - District 141

ORGANIZING
Retiree’s experience with other
union: Cut the horses
Jensen Chun, a retired ramp service lead, has a question
for United and Continental employees.
“Why on Earth would anyone vote for a union other than
the IAM?”
“The IAM knows the airline industry better than anyone
else,” Chun said. “For the sake of its Members, this union has
stood up to the carriers and fought the battles.”
Chun was a teamster when he began working for UPS as
a ramp loader in 1975. He left UPS in 1978 to work for PSA in
SFO, which at the time was also represented by the teamsters.
“I was there in the late 1980s when PSA merged with US
Airways and later with Piedmont,” Chun recalled. “In the representation
election that followed, the teamsters were voted out.”
“Not surprisingly, as soon as the union was out, the carrier
drastically cut staff. Management cut the entire West Coast
operation, laying off people left and right. They also eliminated
the pension plan and cut holidays.”
Chun said it didn’t surprise him that those things happened
after the union was gone.
“Workers need a voice,” he said. “Unions are the only way
to have a say on the job.
“After that election, there was no one who had our back.
Everyone just did what he or she was told because there was
no one to call if you had a problem.”
With Chun’s experience in both unions, there is no doubt
in his mind which union to choose.
“The airline industry is so sensitive,” he said, “you have to
go with the union that is battle tested. That union is the IAM.”
Chun said that the IAM, unlike some unions, provides training
for its stewards that enables them to be highly effective.
“I was a steward and committee chair for eight years prior
to my retirement,” Chun said. “The IAM doesn’t just appoint
stewards in name only, it gives them the training they need to
do the job.”
Chun also praised the IAM’s defined-benefit pension plan.
“There is nothing like having a real pension when you
retire,” he said.
“A defined-benefit pension plan is becoming increasingly
difficult to find these days. And the IAM has just such a plan
for its Members. The teamsters don’t.”
“It’s one more reason to vote IAM.”
Job security ends at midnight December 31, 2011
under the teamster negotiated fleet contract
IAM141.ORG Messenger 4