Originally Posted by
Fly4hire
I recommend you and BB get hold of a copy of Comair Letter 2005 Between ALPA and Comair Inc, look at the fleet guarantees and who the signatory's are. That doesn't mean it wasn't rotten then, but PNCL is definitely not precedent setting. Of course if you want to tilt at windmills you could ask who was the common denominator between the DAL MEC then and National now.........crap.....[/IMG]
Good point and agreed, although did the Admin manual read in 2005 the way it does now? My copy shows the applicable section was clarified "SOURCE – Executive Board October 2007; Effective July 16, 2008."
Not to parse words. I think the founders of our union realized we needed to work together to reach consensus, then take a unified front to management. The Administrative Manual provides a format for us to work together. By going at it separately and individually, we are not as strong and there is the obvious risk of one pilot group negotiating against the interests of another. The internal mechanisms for our union governance were important then and they remain important today. I believe we have improved our governing documents by our experience and the thousands of smart men who have worked on them.
So some will ask "why can't Bar just accept the consensus view?" Well, because, our MEC has never met on the issue nor reached a consensus view. We know the opinion of national and those who work for national.
Our union was built by and
exists because of the work of the hands of its members. We members pay for what goes on at national and national should be responsive to us. I will be a bit surprised if the final determination of our MEC will be to remain silent while ALPA National does a cram down for a regional (or any) pilot group without our participation.
If you look at the general trend,
our MEC has been moving in what I consider to the
the right direction every March 1st. The movement is slow, but each progressive Delta MEC has been more receptive to the ideas and concepts that ALPA was founded on. We now understand outsourcing for what it is and how we facilitate it. That is a much more honest discussion than we could have had a decade ago. (... and while we disagree, I am deeply impressed with honesty of our MEC Executive Admin)
There are good people throughout the organization. Many of the veterans are nearing the point where we will thank them for their service and others will fill their responsibilities. In the next five years not only will Delta have a lot of retirements, ALPA will have a lot of retirements.
Our time horizon is a whole lot longer than those who would silence our voices.