Originally Posted by
DeadHead
Leine,
Let me just segue this by saying that I am not a DPA supporter and can't see myself backing the group in the near future. My gripes with ALPA are just that, with ALPA and in no way translates into support for DPA. It's tiresome to hear when a criticism is made against ALPA it is assumed that the person making the critque is throwing their support behind DPA.
My apologies. I made the leap when that's not what you were talking about. I've been having the DPA discussion a little too often lately huh? My bad.
You draw a distinction between ALPA National and our MEC, but I consider them one in the same as it seems the direction/influence of ALPA National is echoed through our MEC and trickled down to our LECs. While I realize administratively the MEC and National leadership structures differ, I still find the relationship tightly woven.
While there is a relationship between our MEC (and all MEC's) and National, we do not take direction from them. There was a large shift (although it may have been subtle to the average pilot) when the new administration took office in January. It signaled, IMO, a shift in direction based on the reps displeasure with how C2012 went down.
You'll notice a change in the communication that's coming out since KR took over - and while you probably won't see the contract survey results anytime soon, there is a strong push from the very top of the Delta MEC to be more inclusive and transparent. The PUB program is a perfect example of this. Even in this "downtime" your MEC is going out on the road frequently and has visited every single base, to collect your feedback. I'm confident that capn's experience at the PUB was an outlier, and not the norm. It may have been 1 ALPA guy having a bad day - we're human.
The perception (to me at least) is National passes down it's influence to the MECs who in turn pass down the guidance to the LECs who must then get the pilot group on board. I feel that this process is completely backwards and it has evolved into this because their is an assumption that majority of pilots are selfishly out for themselves and incapable of deciding the appropriate direction for this profession.
I have actually noticed very little interference from National in the several years I've been doing this stuff. For the most part, we call them when we need something. They exist to support us, and it works that way 99% of the time. Lee Moak does not call down to ATL and tell us how things should be.
I have always been impressed with the knowledge, expertise, and feedback that I have gotten from the Reps I have interacted with, but I still can't help to ignore the MEC direction/guidance that the LECs are left to defend and justify. I'd like to see the tone change with ALPA.
Not trying to attack you or anything here, just offering up this junior guy's opinion.
Understood. I'm also a junior guy, which is why I'm so invested in where this thing is going. We all want the same thing. It just boils down to (usually) a very small difference in opinion of how to get there.