I read a few posts on another thread that supported the concept of having one or two Frontier Pilots on the Executive Board. I agree that nominating and electing a few Frontier pilots would be a step in the right direction towards building something that might actually work at this property.


Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to be possible. Here is why it will not happen.


The Local 357 claimed that they were going to delay the EBoard election until after the representation election in an effort to include the Frontier pilots.


The representation election ended on June 28th, the Frontier pilots received some membership information in late July and early August. To date, only a handful of Frontier pilots have actually joined as members. A number of pilots inquired about becoming agency fee payers and agency fee objectors. A number of pilots have since questioned the Local 357's computation of chargeable expenses. This process is still ongoing.


Since no one has joined, the IBT has not sent out ANY nomination/election information to the Frontier pilots. The nomination period has already started, and 16.C.2 and 16.C.3 of the Local 357 By-Laws state that a member is only eligible if they have continuous 24 months as a member in good standing.


I am confused how any of the Frontier pilots could have maintained 24 continuous months of membership in good standing if the election ended in June and no one was required to pay dues until August.


I am also disapointed that the IBT did not communicate any election information to any of the Frontier pilots . There was talk in early 2011 of a "Slate" that included some of the current Exco and some of the Frontier pilots. Apparently the IBT lost interest in this concept. There doesn't appear to be any real effort to "welcome" the new pilots from Frontier.


Even if a Frontier pilot joins and pays his due through September, he still can't be nominated per the Constitution and Bylaws.


Will the Local 357 Trustee grant an exception to the By-Laws or will the EBoard consist of seven Republic pilots and zero Frontier pilots?


On a related subject, the Local 357 has decided to conduct the E-Board Election via "mail-in Ballot". There is NO IBT requirement to use regular mail, nor does the Department of Labor require mail-in Ballots. In fact, most Unions use an online process. The following are some of the labor organizations use online ballots;

Airline Pilots Association (ALPA)
Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA)
Frontier Airline Pilots Association (FAPA)
Independent Pilots Association (IPA)
National Pilots Association (NPA)
NetJet Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NetJet ASAP)
Southwest Airline Pilots Association (SWAPA)
Transport Workers Union Locals - Air Transport Division (TWU-ATD)
US Airline Pilots Association (USAPA)
Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA)
Communications Workers of America (CWA)
International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE)
National Mediation Board (NMB)

The benefits are obvious, online voting is easier for the individual members, and the voters can change their vote up until the close of the election. Using an online process greatly increases the number of members that participate. I can't think of a reason why the Local 357 has decided to use mail-in ballots, unless they would prefer a low percentage of participation versus a high percentage of participation.

On a seperate but related topic, why does the Airline Division have to have two Locals and two Executive Boards? One of the primary reasons the Frontier pilots have avoided membership is the apparent waste and bureaucracy of the IBT.


We have the Airline Division itself, functioning as the administrative/PR/lobbying arm of the aviation Locals. Then we have Local 1224 and Local 357 (Both of which are affiliated with two entirely different IBT Joint Councils).


Why not just have ONE Local, with ONE Executive Board? As an independant union advocate, I can't imagine the amount of money that is wasted here when you consider the overlapping roles and positions between all of these unnecesarry moving parts.


Looking from the outside in, it appears that the Local 357 pilots want to be seperate from the other IBT pilots due to the fact they were screwed by their previous Local 747 leadership. It also appears that the Local 1224 gents are happy being seperate with their Airborn Express led EBoard. I would think their experience and leadership would be a huge benefit to the Local 357 pilots.


I don't understand the need for all of these layers, seperations and divisions especially when you consider the overall group itself claims to be wanting "one-ness".


In summary, the E-Board election at RAH is really just a "renaming" of the current Exco. There will not be any "outsiders" involved unless the Trustee decides to allow their participation.


Additionally, I think the IBT would be better served with ONE "Super-E-Board", with one or two representative from every certificate represented by the IBT. The result would be a more efficient, effective, transparent, and unified airline division.


Do any of the IBT members think the Airline Division structure is the best concept available?


Do any of the Local 357 members want one or two Frontier Pilots to be nominated?


Thanks for your time and thoughts.

Mike