Originally Posted by
AllenAllert
You keep repeating the CAL Unionism according to BB. You fail to see the big picture. Why do you think ALPA National installed Prater as head of the organization. - Hint: even though CAL was allowed back into ALPA they continued to act as if it was 83’ with management and scabs controlling the union. Over a lot of heartburn, National installed Prater as president to hopefully straighten it out. He didn’t, instead, he choose to promote a campaign for SCAB acceptance.
Why do you think JP continued to work with JS undermining UAL ALPA during integration. The combined unions spent all negotiating capital correcting inadequacy in the CAL contract and JP self promotion. The closes any union at CAL, post 83, came to being a real Union was in name only.
This continue well past integration when the IAH LEC Rep went to management to negotiate a special seniority carve out for CAL guys in IAH contrary to contract provisions - he was shot down. He, BS is a standup guy that unfortunately got schooled in the CAL form of unionism and didn’t catch the changes that were happening to bring CAL through UAL to the mainstream.
I was not pleased with the election of Captain Prater. I am also not pleased at forgiving Scabs to buy votes. Don't care about scabs anyway.....
I disagree with your comment "the closes any union at CAL....etc, was in name only." IACP was a positive step toward teaching the youngest new hires about unionism and returning a bargaining unit to the property. Please share with me your experiences with IACP, both internal as a member in good standing, and external as a bystander.
You fail to consider the obvious. Scabs and Lorenzo broke ALPA. After 1983 there was zero union at Continental. Why did the pilots look (in the early 1990's look to form a union)? Answer: Management was unchecked.
There is an old adage...You get as much union as you deserve. CAL Management (Captain Debbie McCoy) ruled with an iron fist. She rose to power and ran Flight Operations unchecked by anyone. The "ops group" was a small group of hand-picked cool aid drinkers, mostly scabs that advised Flight Ops and implemented the one-sided PEP. The pilot employment policy. Something had to give. The answer was IACP, or something....It could have been called Rose-Bud, it wouldn't have mattered.
Yes, there were some Ops Group people involved in IACP. Why? Because they got cross with Flight Ops. There were some Scabs involved in IACP. Why? Because of their domicile. Why did Cleveland send a scab as an ALPA rep? Why did Guam? Why did the Flight Instructors? Because the birds of a feather tend to flock together. They vote their base. Why do the liberal black voters in New Orleans keep electing liberal black Mayors? Because people keep supporting people whom they can identify with. I (or you for that matter) may not agree with that, but Identity politics is a reality at the local and national levels of politics and that includes National labor unions with local representation.
You use the term "CAL form of UNIONISM" in a negative light in your posts. It is an insult to all of those who started the IACP, served in IACP, and those that brought in ALPA, and served in ALPA. I am offended. However, that is your right to do so.
Unionism............Get this. It's something you learn. How many mentors were on hand to teach this when the scabs came to power? How many were available to teach the new hires when ALPA was run off the CAL property by Lorenzo. If you want unionism... Get this, don't get beat, don't get run off the property. I would much rather be talking about how ALPA was successful in running off Lorenzo and preventing the 1983 strike than I am at talking about all the super scabs that no one defends.
Unionism is a maturation of sorts. Your view and experiences in and around unions mold your knowledge of and opinions of unions. Therefore your concept of what it takes to improve and maintain solidarity on core issues changes with your knowledge of how unions work and what it takes to run a bureaucracy built on stability.
IACP was different from ALPA in one way that I can think of. Rapid Change. ALPA is like a giant Aircraft Carrier. It is built for stability in rough seas and it takes along time to make a U turn. IACP was nimble, cost effective, and got quick results. Smaller bureaucracy and tighter budget I expect. It wasn't better or worse, just built differently based on the C&BL and policy manual. It worked for the size of pilot group CAL was and it was certainly better than no union at all.