I will buy that. I have changed the wording to say, "...the trouncing you took...."

Yes, you were trounced (or, trounced yourself, perhaps). By a vote of 93%, wasn't it?

I believe that it is dawning on an increasing number of pilots that ALPA is not a union in any meaningful sense of the word. They can elect anyone they want as block reps but it will not change the direction that the profession and the FedEx pilots are heading. Everyone that is elected is constrained by the ALPA "model" itself; the system is incapable of change and it is damaging your profession. If you wish to keep paying for this...well, you really have no choice now...you will keep paying for this.

Oddly enough, there are members of the MEC who know that the LEC system of leadership is obsolete and cannot change itself. Unfortunately, none have been willing to put themselves at risk in order to force change because that would take an act of rebellion. One prominent member of the MEC told me over lunch that, "I do not want to be known as a renegade." When that idea is one's primary driving motivation in life, there is little possibility that one will engage in the kind of "civil disobedience" that is required to knock things off of dead center. Indeed, it is only those who are willing to "embarrass" themselves over the short term who may be catalysts for change of the magnitude needed in this case.

It is kind of like being an AerisArmis, never willing to stand up for what he believes in by putting his name on his ridiculing statements. After a while, people figure out that it is all talk just as the company has figured out that the pilots are all talk. Or, you can see the resignation in recent posts by RedeyeAV8r as he attempts to rationalize the MEC's actions and the FedEx pilot position in the industry. It is just too hard for many people to get out of their comfort zones and address reality straight up: This MEC, this "union," and this profession are a mess because of their persistent unprincipled behavior. This needs to change, and you are, at the moment, impeding that change.

Labor lost another 360,000 members last year and now represents only 7.4% of the private workforce, the lowest in modern recorded history. ALPA is strategically impotent and everyone knows it. What more evidence is needed that something has to give?

Bob