Mr Moak your term in office has done nothing but push me towards decertification. Bite me! This association is flat out rotten!
Pierce's response:
Lee,
We have known each other and fought too many battles together to BS one another. Of course, most of those battles came while you were an MEC chair. I understand that you do not like to be criticized so let just work off the facts. First off, let me be very clear about one major point. Until Tuesday, January 16, 2013 it was never suggested that the 40% option was available to us. You did not communicate that in December and you never made that offer prior to your letter this week. I challenge you to show me one email or letter suggesting otherwise. It did not happen. From a practical standpoint, based on the distribution method established for the CAL pilots such an option was not even possible until after the January 8th pay close.
Second, I never said or implied that ALPA has the money. As a matter of fact, when asked I have been very quick to point out that the company is holding on to it and will until you and I authorize its release. I am ready, how about you? And third, I have not attacked our staff. I have the utmost respect for their dedication and work. Our lawyers and those we hire from outside ALPA are paid to be cautious to the extreme. But, just as I do every day leading our pilots, I would expect you to listen to legal advice but to make the decision yourself.
Let’s also spend a moment on omissions and disappointment. I was pretty disappointed that, following our phone conversation last week, in which I spelled out our reasons for you to consider my request to approve distribution of 95% of the first tranche you have not returned my call or answered my email except to have someone from legal forward your denial letter.
On omissions let’s start with your assertion that the reason for risk management caution comes from your belief that every time a large carrier has had a lump sum distributed it has led to litigation. If my memory serves me right, there has been only one such case where there was litigation resulting in substantive losses incurred by ALPA. That came from the Mansfield case. I would like to remind you of another time where there was a large distribution (approximately $400M) of equity to pilots. I do not think there was any loss from litigation on that one. Granted equity and lump sum payments are not exactly the same but I think they are both covered under the same ALPA Policy now. That one occurred at DAL while you were MEC Chairman there, I would think that you would have remembered it.
I am not sure if your claim that CAL pilots have submitted 44 claims to the methodology dispute process should fall into the omission or rhetoric category. I do know that it is misleading as heck. As you well know, all but one of the disputes received are over a single issue; exclusion of months of availability for military pilots. The other one is for exclusion of months on availability for pilots receiving LTD. Both of these were expected and analyzed by ALPA legal prior to the CALMEC method of distribution being accepted. This is the irony I refer to in my Friday brief.
Lee, you can be disappointed that I do not always tow the ALPA line all you want. I can live with that. Our pilots want advocates, not puppets. You should also be mindful that I have a pretty good idea of the CAL pilots desires in this situation. I will reiterate my request for you to reconsider increasing the initial lump sum payment amount. It is in all ALPA pilots interest to see that the President understands the need to protect the Association, but also understands the needs of pilots.
Please feel free to call me if you would like to discuss this further. While it is not the optimum way for us to do business, I felt I had no choice but to advise our pilots of where the holdup to their lump sum money was. That is why I published both our letters on Friday. I do not think it is appropriate to continue this in public. I did not sign up to fight with pilots, only for pilots.
Fraternally,
Jay