=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/chronicle/archive/2003/03= /11/BU203881.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, March 11, 2003 (SF Chronicle) United mechanics weigh union switch/Machinists authorize vote on changing t= o rival labor group George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer A majority of United Airlines mechanics has signed cards authorizing a vote to determine whether they want to abandon the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in favor of a smaller rival union. A vote is possible in June if the National Mediation Board finds nothing improper in the organizing effort by the Aircraft Machinists Fraternal Association, based in Laconia, N.H. AMFA, which represents mechanics at Northwest Airlines and Southwest Airlines and those of several smaller carriers, has made several attempts to woo United's mechanics away from IAM district 141-M, based in South San Francisco. Scotty Ford, the union president and general chairman, did not return a call seeking comment Monday. But Steve Jones, a machinist at the UAL maintenance facility at San Francisco International Airport who favors a change in union alliance, said, "We feel the union is not representing us fairly. We do not trust the people running the show." Robert Roach Jr., the general vice president of transportation for the IAM, attacked AMFA's overture as a raid and called it a selfish action that "places United Airlines and its workers in peril." "AMFA's intrusion at this critical stage (of United's bankruptcy proceeding) introduces a potentially fatal distraction into an already precarious situation." United's mechanics, like other employee groups, are being asked for more wage concessions than those they have already agreed to as the nation's second- largest airline struggles to emerge from bankruptcy. They had ratified a five- year contract on March 5, 2002, and, at that time, had not had a pay raise since 1994. The mechanics had given up the raise in favor of an employee stock ownership plan. But the workers' advantages under the plan were automatically eliminated last week when union ownership in the company fell below 20 percent. The drop resulted from the sale of company stock by the company's employ= ee benefit plans. The decline triggered elimination of the 55 percent shareholder voting power of the ESOP. UAL shares fell 0.04, to 99 cents, Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. E-mail George Raine at graine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 SF Chronicle