The Independent Federation of Flight Attendants

by Victoria Frankovich-Gray

 

IFFA was born in the late summer of 1976 in a series of meetings at the midtown Manhattan apartments of Arthur and Joan Teolis and at other times in the apartment of Pat Conway Bass.  But that’s really when it was named.  We listed words that we could use to form the name of our new organization.  International, Independent, Union, Association, Coalition, Alliance, Federation.  What words would convey our intention to stand on our own; be strong, improve our lives and careers and create the possibility of expansion if we chose that route in the future?  Association and Alliance seemed too wimpy – like we didn’t want to admit we were a union.  Independent was a good word for the work force but not a good word in the labor movement.  International would show our long range intention to be more than we were at that point in time but it might result in confusion for our troops because we had hostilities between the International Division and Domestic Division of the airline operation and didn’t want those long term internal conflicts to create confusion among the members.  In the end we decided the statement of Independence was more important to enable the members to accept the concept of controlling our own destiny and making our own decisions.  Federation allowed for the combining of our current diverse membership and create of future expansion with Flight Attendants as the conclusion of the title allowing for other carriers than just Trans World Airlines, our carrier.  So Independent Federation of Flight Attendants it was.

But the conception of IFFA was earlier.  We were in the final phase of collective bargaining.  Our last contract in December of 1973 had been in the middle of Nixon Wage and Price controls and the 43 day strike that we engaged in had cost us individually loss of wage and seniority but yielded little.

Now we had another chance to improve the wage, work rule and benefit situation of the Trans World Airlines Flight Attendants.  We intended to meet or exceed the contract of our competitors: United, American, Pan Am.

We had received a release for a countdown to a strike.  Our strike date was set July 4, 1976 – the 200 hundredth anniversary of the United States of America.  Impeccable timing.  How would you ever have a more perfect position of leverage?  There weren’t that many issues.  We were sure the likelihood was that we would reach agreement, more on our terms than ever before. 

It was the culmination of 2 years of working together toward this goal.  We (Arthur Teolis, Richard Wagner, Jim Tuller, Bill Numrich, Mary Ellen Miller, Pat Conway, Jane Crimmons, and me, Vicki Frankovich), had all been elected in 1974 sweeping out the old guard to introduce what we believed was a new, young, aggressive set of negotiators.  We were focused on trying to improve the life of the people who had always received second best.  This was our golden opportunity. 

But this was not to be.

As the date drew close for our deadline for a strike the Company went to federal court to seek an injunction.  There was no way they should win.  We had an absolutely legal strike planned.  We had dotted all “T’s” and crossed all “I’s” and had been released by the National Mediation Board.  There was no legal reason to grant an injunction. 

Sometimes truth and rules have nothing to do with the outcome.  As we prepared for the court hearing we learned that our International Union (Transport Workers Union) would be supporting the Company’s position.  How was that possible?  Truth is they did not believe we could pull off a strike.

After a futile session trying to reach agreement, the negotiators sat in Central Park mourning the decisions of the International Vice Presidents of the Transport Worker’s Union to side with the Company.  We knew this would make the ultimate difference in court.  A split in our ranks of deadly proportion.  Why did they do it?  They never believed we could pull it off.  That we didn’t have the dedication or stamina to take on the battle.  We felt they were wrong…but we didn’t get the chance.  The federal judge decided the it would be un-American to strike when the tall ships were in port for the celebration of independence.  The legal maneuvering took away our forward movement and our opportunity.  Ultimately, we reached agreement on terms that were not acceptable to the negotiating committee but that were all that could be accomplished without an economic threat to force the carrier to alter its position.

So the conception of our independent union was our commitment to improve our situation by taking over decision making and bargaining rights.

In the fall of 1976 the entire Executive Board of Local 551 came out in support of leaving the Transport Workers Union.  The TWU demanded a pledge of loyalty from or Executive.  When we would not agree to that pledge the fight was on.

Most of us supported the idea of affiliating with the Teamsters but were concerned that the members might not be easily able to identify with the organization (although they would be happy about the image of strength – which we were acutely aware we lacked).  None of us liked the politics of AFA who had been a non voting ALPA affiliate only recently was granted its own charter (after all we had previous experience with that group having left there in 1960 to join the TWU).

The next few months went very quickly.  We printed and gathered cards requesting a representation election.  We professionally printed a number of handouts and mailing then flooded the group with our perspective on why our current situation was unacceptable.  We responded with letters signed by the former Executive Board members.  Every document put out by the TWU was immediately addressed by our central communication group.

We were well received and the popularity of our ideas was proven when our election was held in March of 1977 and by overwhelming majority the Independent Federation of Fight Attendants was certified as the new collective bargaining agent April 1, 1977.  For the next twenty years we formed a solid unified union, pushing for improvements in wage, work rules and benefits.