Hey Tony, I'm going to quit with the quotes, it's just a pain to do that. I also really love you on the boards. Your knowledge and ability to quote the contract and past events is a great addition to these boards. You are Wikipedia for FDX pilots. You know like Tonypedia...I like that. Your Delta Tau Chi Fraternity name is now Tonypedia!!
We met long before you were a purple bubba so you can't count that. I guess you are correct, I do get lots of emails via my reps, most are just the same that every other member in every LEC gets. Reminding all of us of events, meeting minutes, upcoming elections and canned updates. I was referring to getting an update that was written by my rep for his group. Anything canned is basically, making my point. It is the same stuff I would get regardless of who my rep is. I’m pretty sure that every other member is getting exactly the same information via their rep. So back to my main point previously, why should I care who the other reps are, they pass out the same canned information. Anyone's name can be on the bottom of a canned email. It does not matter who the bubba is, just be the man/woman and focus on our top issue right now. Focus on the big picture, instead of spending time on who likes who or who didn’t like who.
No more than it matters whether or not FDX has someone on the national board. Is ALPA national going to all of a sudden make a rule that cargo pilots must be paid 75% of passenger pilots if we don't have someone on the board? Are we no longer going to be part of the insurance plan because they forgot we were here? NOT. Of course we get lots of great benefits of being a large union. But do we at FDX feel we have been getting short changed for the last 20 years when we did not have a board member? Was the age 65 not going to pass if we had a board member? Were we going to get a cargo exemption? I'm not saying it not a nice thing to be part of the process and have a member on the board. That’s a really good thing for us; it shows we are being included like “real” pilots. But to get so caught up in getting elected that we have secret phone votes, or "knitting circle" cliques that spend time talking about what other members think about them, it is just a complete loss of focus.
If they have to get together, then spend time dissecting the company’s proposals. Decide if that “should” needs to be a “will”. Review proposals from a schedulers point of view; how can I get around what this says. Get in the dirt and dig around. Don’t get in the dirt to smear it around. (see where I went there)
No meeting schedule in Oct? Then our team should have stood in uniform outside the gates at Hacks Cross and waited. Call the commercial Appeal and tell them the pilots are trying to avoid any contract difficulties from causing disruptions during peak. Tell the press, we want to meet, but the company does not want to solve the issues. Have the paper take pictures of the negotiating team standing outside the gates and win a PR battle. Instead, we ramped up in Sept and then wasted all that effort from all the fellows and took the month off. What did the company do? Exactly what you would do on the other side. Called a time out that delayed the process through peak. And we rolled over and let it happen. Our MEC has spent time on stuff that does not matter. Who cares who the hall monitor is?
The time is now to get mean and nasty. Or at least be prepared to be mean and nasty. I don't even think our leadership has acknowledged that the kinder gentler kumbayah negotiating did not work. Of all the pilots, the MEC are the ones that should be ****ed and maddest. They are feeling the brunt of our frustration. They should be walking around AOC with handfuls of lanyards and looking hard at who is not on our team. Stir the pot. Be vocal and loud. The MEC should be more in your face. Of course it would help if the Captains were all aboard the boat also instead of sitting in lots of little rafts and hoping they are floating in the same direction. We should hear loudly from across the room, three or four Captains calling out to guys without lanyards, “where is your lanyard, do you need mine?” Or “hey Mr Blutarski, have you decided to join the union yet?” They are not your friends if they cannot support you with your desire for a better contract. The crew bus should not be old home week with your non-union buddy. Lead from the front and make not being a team member uncomfortable. Print out the schedules with pay status for the console. Lots of ways to start the ball rolling, just get it moving. I’m just not sure, worrying about who is hall monitor is helping us at all.