In a Monday letter, Transport Workers Union international official Garry Drummond stepped into the dispute between the top officers at the Southwest Airlines flight attendant union and the union’s executive board.
He came down on the side of the executive board, calling “completely untenable” the position of president Stacy Martin and first vice president Chris Click that they could “displace the Local 556 Executive Board from its position of power and authority in administering the affairs of Local 556.”
Drummond, director of TWU’s Air Transport Division, wrote a “to whom it may concern letter” after a rocky week, which we won’t bother recapping other than to say it allegedly involved an executive board member rekeying the locks to Martin’s office, and Martin rekeying them after that. Read this previous item.
Drummon said he wasn’t taking sides in the underlying disputes, but was asserting the TWU’s position on who runs the union.
“The local officers are clearly without any authority to attempt to take over either the property of the Local or the power and authority to administer it,” Drummond wrote. “Any attempt by them to do so falls outside of, and is contrary to the language of the Constitution, and the manner in which it has been consistently interpreted.”
We also note that Drummond’s refers to Martin and Click as “suspended officers,” in contradiction of Martin’s assertion that he and Click had been reinstated after suspension.
Martin’s message to members Sunday recounted the position that Click was reinstated when a trial board found him not guilty of charges, and that Click then reinstated Martin as president. The board had suspended Martin last week after he refused to delay the trial board for Click and another officer.
Keep reading for the entire letter.