I've been trying for the last four years brudda! I all but pleaded to this group to see through ALPA and their inability to do anything but sell more of our flying to the regionals due to their conflicted representation structure. We came close with our in-house union, but we didn't quite get there before openers were exchanged. As I've said before, once that happened, this is now ALPA's deal. Any attempt by another union to influence things would fail in the eyes of the NMB, and would provide ALPA with the perfect excuse of why they failed.

To un-Foxtrot this nightmare, we have to come to grips with the fact that our bargaining agent does NOT bargain for us. For far too many folks, that's a reality that is just too painful to accept. They invested too much trust and history to turn away now.

That doesn't mean we can't still fight. We should vote this horrific TA down by a huge margin. Then recall every rep who voted YES. Not because they didn't vote the way Carl wanted, but because they IGNORED the survey that they touted for so long. And as such, they ignored us. Then the new reps should immediately recall the MEC chairman and the entire MEC bureaucracy except the negotiating committee. Then we should give instructions to the negotiating committee to tell management we accept the TA with the following exceptions:

1. Keep the 255 hard cap on large RJ's
2. Keep the current profit sharing percentage.
3. If you don't agree, we'll let you know when the next opportunity is for us to send a negotiator to talk to you. Thank you, and enjoy flying those 50 seat RJ's.

That's my hope. It's still possible...but only if we vote this down.

Carl