To reasonably consider and act on the matter before them our Reps have to ask for a meeting, preferably an Executive Council, but at least a Special MEC meeting. By convincing our Reps not to meet, ALPA National's attorney(s) are able to prevent action by our Representatives to ensure the Admin Manual, Constitution and Bylaws are complied with.

I ask you to consider where your verification comes from. If it comes from Bill Roberts, who does he represent? He gets paid around $350,000 a year as ALPA National's most senior staff attorney. Everything I hear is that he's a fine gentleman, but he is not our attorney and if asked, I am sure he would tell you the same.

Mr. Robert's legal opinions have not been entirely consistent over the years. I believe his opinions likely reflect the political will of his client. (not questioning his integrity, that's simply the job of an advocate ) In CC Air he reasoned that non compliance with the Administrative Manual, not performing proper economic analysis, undercutting other ALPA groups' pay and negotiating for airplanes they did not fly was reason to recommend ALPA's President not sign the CC Air agreement. At Comair, he interpreted Delta scope broadly, inclusive of all Delta code reasoning that although flying was permitted by the Delta contract, it remained Delta flying.

Now I hear second hand that his opinion of Delta permitted flying has changed. That it is "none of our business" what happens to flying we permit. Further that our scope section really contains a lot of stuff that isn't really scope and that isn't any of our business either, like Section 1 D provisions. It is my hope that his most recent opinion has been broadly misunderstood or misconstrued.

In any event, we need to get to the bottom of how another pilot group walked in the door and did a deal with our management without so much as a courtesy call. The only way we can figure this stuff out is to come together and have the meetings called for in our Constitution and Bylaws.

What I suggest is the opposite of yelling fire in a crowded theater. I am asking our Reps to come together for a detailed explanation of what happened and if we are making a major change to diminish the autonomy of the Delta MEC, then provide guidance to update our policies to reflect this new diminished role in our representational expectations. If we are going to start a new race to the bottom by allowing MEC s to whipsaw each other by turning national into a commodities trading floor, then we need to understand and prepare for the new reality.

It would be lazy of us to conclude this enquiry with "Lee's attorney says what he did is OK, so it must be." We have a higher duty to our Association. ALPA will outlast you, me and President Moak. Politicians come and go, but we must remain forever vigilant that our union is properly administered. It is too valuable a resource to see this issue of autonomy boil over into something which harms the association.

Recall the Pinnacle agreement is highly concessionary. It is in many ways reminiscent of the agreement Mr. Roberts recommended that Duane Woerth not sign.