Sky’s the limit for union chief

FISCAL YEAR SHOCKER

JOHN SAMUELSEN is aiming for the sky in his new role as head of the Transport Workers Union.

The former track worker who now heads the 140,000-strong TWU is looking to organize nonunion airlines — starting with New York-based carrier JetBlue.

TWU has already organized two other airlines, Allegiant and Southwest, but there’s still a lot of work to be done to improve conditions for employees there, according to Samuelsen.

Focusing on airlines that “act like the robber barons of the 1880s” is a main priority for Samuelsen now that he’s got a fouryear term ahead of him, he told the Daily News.

“We are investing huge amounts of resources into JetBlue, it’s top of our list,” he said. “I have my own way of doing things, and we’re going to bring that style to the national union, and we’re going after the nearly 5,000 unorganized JetBlue flight attendants who have no union working for them.”

JetBlue’s management has not been welcoming to the Transport Workers. It began distributing flyers and emailing staffers with its own messaging — namely, that inviting in a “third-party” union was a bad idea.

“TWU is an opportunistic and negative third party,” the airline wrote to inflight crew in a recent “Note from John,” a message from Vice President John Culp.

The flyer blamed Transport Workers Union “corporate strategists” in D.C. for stirring up drama and said the TWU’s leaders have a history of “criminal behavior” and labor violations.

“Keep in mind that a card is a legal document that you can’t take back: If you sign one today and change your mind tomorrow, you can’t get it back. You do not need to sign a card to participate in a union election,” the “Note from John” said.

“Expect to hear lots of empty promises from the TWU,” it added, and warned that TWU union members are “known to harass” and use “extremely aggressive tactics.”

Samuelsen (inset with workers) said the negative messaging from management was a sign his campaign was gaining ground.

“We don’t organize from the top down — this whole drive is from the ground up. We’ve met with various organizing committees in JetBlue, and the JetBlue workers are doing a really good job of standing up for themselves,” he said. “This is no third-party outsider coming in to stir up trouble, it’s an employee-driven campaign to get better rights and working conditions.”

JetBlue’s note also criticized the Transport Workers Union for abandoning other workers it organized in airlines out West and in the South.

“Other airline employees have been left high and dry by the TWU,” JetBlue wrote, pointing specifically to Allegiant and Southwest.

Samuelsen said his union had seen and already issued a rebuttal to JetBlue’s “misinformation” campaign.

The TWU has two solid contracts with Southwest covering 12,000 ground workers and 15,000 airline attendants, he said.

In a scenario familiar to him from his time as a track worker for NYC Transit, he said the airline had too heavy a hand with discipline of its crews.

“The ground workers in particular are having big disciplinary problems . . . the bosses think they can run the crews into the ground with an oppressive management style,” he said. “Until now, they’ve not met with the proper resistance, they have had it their way. Now they’re going to run into a new TWU leadership.”

At Allegiant, TWU successfully organized the workers but has yet to get the airline to the table to hammer out a collectively bargained contract.

At all three airlines, Samuelsen said, the union was planning to pour in additional resources.

An Allegiant spokeswoman confirmed that the TWU had organized its flight attendants but had not yet gotten a contract.

JetBlue declined to comment. Emails to Southwest were not returned.