Originally Posted by
TonyC
If you're talking about the ratification vote, you're absolutely right. One man, one vote.
But when you talk about people representing you and your interests, the Negotiating Committee is in a very unique situation. Their mission, their work is at the cutting edge of doing what they "think they do know what is best for people they've never even met before." Do you think they've met every pilot on the seniority list and they're intimately familiar with each one's personal needs and desires? What about the Block Reps? Does not knowing each member of their Council make them unqualified to vote on their behalf?
I simply disagree with your assertion that one must have met every pilot in the airline before he can make a judgment about whether a deal is good or bad. I don't need to know you to be able to identify a concession. I don't need to know you to be able to identify improvements.
Like it or not, you have people working on your behalf who don't know you personally.
.
Of course I have people working on my behalf who don't know me. I would never argue otherwise. But you are giving them authority they don't have if you believe they have the ultimate determination to dictate our contract. They don't. You do. And I do. And every single one of the pilots who belong to FedEx ALPA do.
The NC is charged with presenting us a TA. I am charged with determining whether or not what they present is acceptable to me. By asking for my approval, they are affirming my authority to agree or disagree with their assumptions. They are NOT taking the arrogant position that they know what is best for me. They are not "voting on my behalf". Instead, they are required to give me the opportunity to make that determination for myself and that's exactly what they did.
The only people in this process who believe they are smart enough to dictate to the pilot group what is best for them are people who believe they have the responsibility of voting on behalf of other people. Those people believe they are the "smartest man in the room". They have somehow convinced themselves that they have the responsibility and authority to dictate what our contract should look like. In this case, against the will of the majority of their "brothers." It's a gross overestimation of their own wisdom and authority. And it's something that not even our much maligned NC tried to do.