Other unresolved issues or questionable behavior from Sapa including more Sapa meeting minutes:
Executive Board Elections – Mike Eisenstat, SAPA Secretary, conducted the vote for SAPA Executive Board position of President as per SAPA Bylaws paragraph 5 C. By majority vote, incumbent Chris Abell was elected to serve as SAPA President for another term.
Oh good, the “board members” had their vote and decided on a president for the unsophisticated line pilots again. Thank goodness we have these guys and the bylaws they wrote to take care of these challenging elections.
“50-90 and 91-130 Seat Pay Scales – Expected counter proposals from Management were not ready. This discussion was deferred.”
Wow, this is the first time we have seen any reference to the new pay plan. You would think something this important would deserve more headline news and input from the whole pilot group, yet here it is summarized in a two sentence paragraph.
Pay Negotiation Progress: Discussions continued at length with respect to the latest counter proposal from Management. The group formulated a SAPA counter proposal that the Executive Board will present to Management at the next flight ops meeting.
Details, Details, Details????!!!! Why are the line pilots always kept in the dark during pay discussions only later to get the “hard sell” on why we must take the proposal at hand otherwise if we vote no we may lose ground? What kind of negotiating is that???!!! Its almost as if they are lowballed by management on what will be given and some of these guys get afraid that if they question any of the proposal they may screw up that future management job….so like good little yes men that they are, go and sell the H out of whatever they given to the pilots? Just doesn’t sound right.
Discussion ensued with regard to the current organizing efforts. The group’s final consensus is that SAPA will continue to remain neutral during the current pilot efforts to attain collective bargaining. Discussion ensued with regard to the letter and petition to the NMB sent by the organizing committee members stating their names as the current SAPA officers. A motion was made to send a letter to the NMB stating the fact that the executive board that now exists are the only true officers of the current organization that is known as SAPA (as recognized by the pilot group and Management). It was seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried.
If this wasn’t one of the most ridiculous and childish things this group (the “real” Sapa) has done I don’t know what is. Sapa somehow turned into patent law attorneys overnight and right along side McDonalds and other major corporations had to lay down the law regarding the use of their copy protected name. Of course it had nothing to do with trying to disable the SkyWest pilots that were looking for certification. Of course not, because after all Sapa has always maintained that they continue to be neutral on this subject. Puuuuleeeeese! I think it is more fair to say Sapa sent a statement written by Skywest management’s attorneys to block the certification of a legal Sapa that might actually be able to bargain/strike.
Reps. will make a diligent and reasonable effort to maintain a board in their respective hubs/domiciles, which contains printed copies of SAPA emails/postings
How well have these been maintained outside of union drives?
The following report was produced by Tom Coyle: For March, the testing of the bucket system was inconsistent from the start. This is due to the Crew Support policy of assigning trips to reserves weeks in advance during transition, as well as throughout the month assigning trips weeks in advance. The bucket system will work best when all trips are assigned systematically at a set time prior to the trip. This is due to parameters in reports used to determine the status of reserves in the buckets and trips available. Because of this I don't believe the bucket system worked in favor of the pilots or the Company for the month of March.
We know it didn’t and hasn’t worked in favor of the pilots. What did we get in trade for having this forced upon us? Sapa???
The Secretary will make available the general meeting agenda no later than the day prior to any meeting, and will make available minutes no later than one week after the day of any meeting.
Hmmm, how’s that working?
“Bob Donohoe suggested that we select a SAPA Representative Board member to act as a liaison between SAPA and UPA in order to correlate on common issues and dispel the competition pretense that exists with some in the General Membership. A discussion ensued with respect to the pretense that SAPA is in competition with UPA. This is a false pretense. SAPA is not in competition with anybody. SAPA is not a union. As a result we do not do all things that unions do. The argument was made that the selection of a liaison would be a breach of trust between SAPA and those of the General Membership that do not support UPA, in that it would give the appearance that SAPA has endorsed UPA. It would also be a breach of trust between Management and SAPA; a trust that has taken a very long time to develop. It must be made very clear that SAPA is neither for nor against UPA or any other formal organizational efforts. Each pilot must decide what is best for him/herself with respect to collective bargaining. SAPA will continue to represent to the best of its ability each and every pilot at SkyWest Airlines.”
Ha Ha, could this be the most ridiculous item of the day. Probably not, but funny none the less.
Tom and Trisha Warmsley, EMB Crew Planner, spent time in DEN in response to a letter that was signed by a majority of the DEN crewmembers and sent to Management regarding the poor DEN schedules. Tom and Trisha brought the scheduling program and computers and made some effective changes which seemed to be acceptable to the majority of the crewmembers that were present at this meeting in DEN.
How long did this last? Is this still true today? Unless it is a permanent change what’s the point?
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