Old 08-03-2007, 03:32 PM
  #31  
CAL EWR
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Joined APC: Nov 2006
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These types of comments are totally unacceptable from an MEC officer.





As I stated earlier, we all know that the economic reality of the airline industry is ugly. I don’t blame the union or even the company for this situation (with the exceptions of spending money pre-9/11 like a drunken sailor, not saving for a rainy day and not hedging fuel in the current environment). Nobody could have foreseen and prepared for the cataclysmic events that have occurred on and since 9/11. In the seventeen years I have been at Continental, I can count on one hand the number of good years we have had and I suspect much of my remaining twenty-one and half years until retirement will be very challenging to say the least.

We have little or no control over the economic environment, however, I do expect, no, I demand, my union leadership do whatever possible to represent our interests with vigor and do everything legal under the sun to protect and enhance our careers no matter how difficult the economic landscape gets. This can’t be done with union leaders who have the same current mind set as some.

I think we all can agree that the future of US Airways is dismal at best. Yet, their MEC is doing everything possible to represent their pilots to the best of their abilities as long as they have pilots to represent. In the recent past they have recalled their negotiating committee and published a press release about their MEC’s no confidence vote in their former CEO David Siegel. This is a perfect example of how I expect CALALPA to act, like a union, not a social club.

As you are all aware, we have a significant staffing problem on the line this summer. To quote Mike Bowen, “You really want to know how things were last weekend? We had every chief pilot and instructor pilot flying.”

Since it’s obvious at this point no more furloughed pilots are going to be recalled this summer, I would like to make the following suggestion: In the spirit of “working together” and sharing the load, since we aren’t currently planning on negotiating the “A-list sections” we should send all non-essential union personnel currently on full-time trip loss back to the line for the summer months. Maybe our reserves that have been literally beaten up will get rolled and turned less and may actually be able to spend more time with their families.

If I wanted to think only of myself, I could keep my mouth shut about all the problems I see with our MEC. No one has more to gain with the current MEC philosophy of survive at all cost, than me. As the only captain under age forty with twenty-one and half years to go until I retire at projected seniority number one, I certainty have a lot of time to make up for any concessions or any additional gains not reached in contract ‘02 as long as the airline survives in one form or another.





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