C11DCA

Joe,

Because for her, you are the cute new hire, even if you have been here for 18 years....

flybynuts

At least it's your arm she's rubbing.

uaav8r

"Fashion mistake or not. Many can't use Velcro due to ptsd and the nightmare of Velcro sounds coupled with a 70 yo woman rubbing your arm through a curtain to wake you up."


..... It was at about 0230 THIS morning over the Amazon jungle for me!!!......

unitedflyier

Unfortunately there was some effort to stop the junior guys from voting. No idea if that has changed but it should be shared pain and shared gain, not looking after number one.

Most complain about top management taking all they can from the company with bonuses positive space travel for their families and plane swaps to go on vacation so they don't have to sit in coach, but they will grab whatever they can at any opportunity. Shame on us.

socalflyboy

Where else is one supposed to rant??

unitedflyier

Certainly not at a union meeting!! My point is it's all about us. Get it!!We got what we made, and we made a selfish hash of it.

Where do you see the me in that?

baseball

Slick ties divide us? Not sure how that can be, when one group of pilots is prohibited from wearing it. That to me demonstrates that the group's union leaders do not want unity. Why would you prohibit unity on the one hand while stating that we demand it on the other?

The Pin means different things to different people. To some it is all about the mother ship. To some it is all about unity. To some it is all about conformity. To some it is a genuine spirit of solidarity. To some it brings back bad memories from airline X, Y, or Z. To some it brings back bad memories from absolute bafoonery in their current airline.

I do wear my pin, but not for the obvious reason of unity, or because of some need for conformity. I wear it because it's all we got. Despite ALPA's numerous imperfections, it's age 65 failures, its history of failed seniority integrations, its conflict of interest between mainline and regional representation, its failures to represent military dues paying members properly, its concessionary contracts and its inability to drive results when it counts I still wear my pin. Sometimes I am not proud of ALPA, but sometimes I am. I do think ALPA does a good job in representing a pilot in need and in the safety arena, but politically, ALPA is playing the varsity game at the JV level.

I sometimes wonder why ALL of the airlines aren't ALPA, but then I go out and talk with folks that don't mind sharing their carrier's history with me and I get some good answers.

Again, it means different things to different folks. I hope ALPA really does a better job in being a better union. I do think it costs too much. But, it's the price of admission to the profession, so that is what it is.

I wouldn't give people a hard time about the pin. It shows immaturity. Why bother a guy if you knew he had a family member in the hospital? Some feel that bad about the history of the union. Why bring it up? You know the measure of a person after a hand shake and a look in the eye. You don't need a pin or any other badge of courage to prove who you are or who you are not. Wear it if you want to, don't if you don't want to. I do think as we approach contract negotiations it is important and maybe some folks can get over their hard feelings for the sake of the pilot group at large, but more often than not it is blown out of proportion.

I realize that we fish are smarter and safer in a school, and from my seat in the rear corner of the classroom it seems wiser to wear my pin and swim with the other little fishies. Call it survival, or unity, or solidarity, but whatever you call it it's ok with me. Sometimes I do feel funky and wear an American Flag, Christian Cross, or sometimes my old College pin, or an old military squadron pin. if you see one of those pins on me, I am not flipping you off, but also showing respect and reverence to things that are dear to my heart.

This is just a job after all, not a marriage, not an emotional attachment. It's just business. Heck, I like it fine, but its not as much fun as catching fish, or playing baseball.

Setopbug

Nice post, Baseball.

Those of you who think the pin is all about unity and that unity is important but mentally condemn anybody you see without it to "*******" status?

Might want to check yourself. Pot meet kettle.

worstpilotever

Is that guy on Flying Together sitting in his fancy new plane a scab?

baseball

Well, that wasn't just business. That was anything but.

But, this company and this profession for that matter treats you and your services as a commodity. One very senior Captain, hired in 1977 explained it like this.

Management treats us as an "economic widget". We are an expense, a part of the business model. An expense like fuel, or spare parts, or like paying the light bill. Management doesn't give a flip about me or my family. In that regard, I treat it like any other job. I have no emotional attachment. When a OBGYN doctor sees a patient, all he or she sees is a vagina. It's just one more of the thousands of vagina's he or she will see.

I don't take this job home with me. That is what I am saying. The people we fly with in the pointey-end of the jet are a different story. We do need to depend on one another because as I said earlier we all swim together. In that regard there is a solidarity factor that we should strive for, but that solidarity is not found in a pin. It is really found in how we treat one another.

I have never refused a jump seat to someone who wasn't wearing a pin. I also never asked them where their pin was. I might keep a few extra pins on the pedestal and offer them one if they want one, but I don't need to shove anything down someone's throat. It's sort of like religion. It's not my place to press. That's me. That's how I approach it. I prefer to down play it, I think you get more positive results that way by not bullying people and creating an oppressive mood in the cockpit by talking about ALPA pins for 7 hours. I'd rather find out what we have in common and work from there.