zippinbye

Perhaps I've missed something, but I recall seeing casual reference to Ron Mullins here on APC, not much more. I'm not on Facebook, but my wife is. She read this letter to me this morning, reposted on Widget Pilot TA/Contract Discussion FB page. As of this moment, it's posted on the guy's personal FB page, which also states he works for ALPA. It seems he disparages at least two thirds of Delta pilots, but at times his wrath is directed at everyone but himself. If he is one of our pilots, he must be a real treat to work with! With this sort of retained vitriol three weeks after the TA rejection, it's likely that he does not sleep well at night. Probably brings it to the flight deck too.

I give due respect to the opinions of TA supporters, especially when they are rationally presented. But this guy is off the reservation! In a nutshell, he overlooks the "sell your soul to the devil" aspect in order to embrace the concept of TVM. I share his rant in case anybody has missed it (it does not seem to mentioned on APC), and to set the foundation for some valid questions.

1) Is this guy the tool he appears to be?

2) Have our ALPA dues been consumed by him in any fashion? If so, can we get him fired?

Here is his missive - enjoy .....

Ron Mullins
2 hrs · Ellijay, GA ·

So, we Delta pilots are 1 month in the weeds. Cost: 30 million dollars. That’s 30 million dollars that are gone and will not be seen again. How close are these pilots to getting an agreement? No closer than the day after the rejected Tentative Agreement. In fact, farther away. That must be quite a surprise to the Rocket Surgeons who claimed CEO Richard Anderson would be back at the table within 48 hours to “sweeten the pot.” That stupidity is laughable.
The same idiots want us to believe that the shareholders will pressure our CEO because more money will be available to them via stock buybacks and dividends. LOL! Actually, the story goes that they will pressure the CEO because of labor disharmony. A similar fantasy is that the CEO will not risk the potential drop in profitability that would result from labor disharmony. This from a group who has huge exposure to profit sharing. So the thinking here is that we will hurt ourselves in order to hurt the bottom line. You just can’t make this **** up folks! Bottom line: US Airways had toxic labor relations for 10 years, American for 6. All the while, both airlines did fine and management showed no interest in saving their pilots from themselves. Southwest, Fedex, and UPS are all highly profitable airlines who are currently comfortable with letting their pilots go year after year without contractual improvements.
It’s been a busy month for Delta however. Cancelled aircraft orders for the 737-900 and the Embraer 190. Then a 450 million dollar investment in China Eastern Airlines. Finally, an announcement to rebuild LaGuardia airport in NYC. Delta is spending money that is now freed up due to the pilots’ rejection of 1.2-1.4 billion over 3 years. Soon enough there will be announcement that Delta is going to upgrade its regional travel experience through additional investment. Delta still wants to upgrade the quality of the travel experience on the connection carriers. Plan A was to transition more of these block hours into the mainline, via the EMB-190, where the corporation has direct control of the product. However, the pilots wanted no part of that and the additional 500 captain jobs that were coming to Delta with a ratified contract.
So why are the pilots farther away from a contract than the day after the rejected TA? Simple. The Rocket Surgeons are being led around by the nose by a focused and dedicated cadre whose last thought at this point is a succesful negotiation. Unfortunately, the Rocket Surgeons are not aware of this and believe this enlightened group have their best interests in mind. The cadre wants to dismantle the current union and re-build it in the manner they deem appropriate. They cannot do this if this negotiation succeeds. They are supporting a wholesale recall of the majority of union council reps as well as forcing the Master Chairman to resign. They also want to fire the current negotiating committee and replace it with another. All this takes time. Yet they sell these actions to the Rocket Surgeons without telling the truth, that it will be quite some time before the new union can launch. Time is money as they say.
Richard Anderson says he’s ready to engage, but there will not be any more money on the table. That should be good news to the Rocket Surgeons for a couple of reasons. First, management is ready to negotiate. Second, the Rocket Surgeons say it isn’t about money. This should align our interests with management’s, as they have said there will not be additional money available at the table. If it isn’t about money, we can simply buy the objectionable terms in the the TA. IOWs, we buy the status quo in those particular contract provisions.
Of course what the Rocket Surgeons say and actually believe are two different things. Of course they know its always about the money. They will reject the idea that they can have everything they want in this contract at the expense of lower pay. That is a mute point anyway. The union is too busy with demolition to actually negotiate. Further, the new leadership will not get religion and inform the Rocket Surgeons that we are in this for the long haul, and in the end we will sacrafice a huge pile of money.
Sadly, we have a new order scrambling to occupy soon to be vacant leadership positions. These panderers tell our pilots to reject the idea of time value of money. It either isn’t important because TVM doesn’t really exist (you can’t make this up folks) or that it is meaningless because this thing isn’t about money anyway (I’m not ****ting you here.)
My non-pilot friends may be wondering how such nonsense can emerge from such seemingly intelligent people? The answer is simple: pilots are no smarter than anyone else. Think of us as truck drivers. As such, the truck driving community has an intelligence bell curve. Some of those truckers are really sharp, some are really dumb, and most are average. No different for pilots. But, there is another aspect to pilots that makes them quite different and in turn far more stupider than truck drivers. Pilots are spoiled brats. They live in little bubble universes where they are special and privileged. They immerse themselves in their own skewed image of the world, where they are the epicenter. This leads them to make incredibly poor decisions that anyone on the outside of their bubble can see as folly.
So feel comfortable about turning over your life and the the lives of your family to these men and women when you embark on air travel. They are the best in the world at getting you there and back, safely. But, do not look to these people as beacons of rationality who are capable of making real world life decisions any better than a janitor. In fact, I would say a janitor is likely to have a better view of how the real world turns.