Originally Posted by
Timbo
What my reps tell me is, we (the 30% of us who care) are "In the Minority". They speak of the "Silent Majority", ie. the 70% who won't put down their golf clubs for an afternoon to attend a LEC meeting.
They figure they pay the LEC guys to "Take care of it" so what ever they come up with must be "The best deal they could do..." and they then vote Yes, with no knowledge of what they are voting for!
When I ask them WHY would you vote YES to that??! They say, "Well...the MEC told me to!"
When I ask the MEC guys why they voted YES to any crappy T/A, they say, "Well, the pilots didn't show up at the meetings in any numbers strong enough to make us feel confident in a job action."
And you know the company usually has a guy or two in there to monitor attendance and report back on the "mood of the pilots", right? Well if nobody shows up, I guess there is no problem, right?
Timbo;
I know you commute, but you and Tsquare are fortunate to also have MEC roadshows that go to MCO - which is reasonably close to where you live.
I am also a commuter. No roadshows come near me. I only go to the meetings when it works with my schedule. Basically (from memory) 60% of the pilot group commutes by air to work. Meeting attendance is a poor indicator of sentiment.
IMO, and I agree with you, the pilot group, the silent majority, is apathetic and uneducated. IMO this is why the MEC acts the way it does...a few of us throw stones thru their windows, but the larger group doesnt seem to care. (Just watch, this is the paragraph the apologist will latch onto and try to discredit...)
The issue I have with DALPA is pilot education and I ask myself "why is DALPA spinning the company viewpoint rather than educating the pilot group on their range of options?" The answer I come up with is that DALPA likes an apathetic and uneducated populous. For the life of me I dont know why. I have to assume reps ran for office because they were fed up. I have to assume that all of DALPA wants a super contract because who doesnt want more money?
Then we get the contract comparison. Glossy, expensive to produce, real nice quality magazine...one of the lamest, expectation managing pieces of dung I have ever seen DALPA produce. Management might have printed a more upbeat document...forget SWA, forget AF/KLM, forget whatever you expected to find from your union and collective bargaining agent.
The contract survey was similar. For me, maybe the biggest omission was the turboprop scope piece. My union gently bending me over the table and ...well you know the rest. I have said before and I'll say again, turboprops are the future ... period! Domestic, international, ultra long haul. Fuel is expensive and mr. fusion is a pipe dream.
I dont know why I am ranting, all y'all know this stuff. Conflict of interest is real. Crew pass/ KCM ...someday. Emirates will kill everybody because ALPA wont fight for a contract that attracts US pilots back from them.