people can have various take-aways and opinions on it. there was never a loss of "cool." It was a deliberate and premediated movement that was directed to get the attention of the union and management.

Management can manipulate a union to good effect by running the act and by using the CBL/and RLA against it. However, it does a poor job in this regard if the union does not have firm control over all it's pilots.

The FUPM movement was also about getting ALPA off its butt and advancing the cause of the pilots.

In many parts of the country, colloquial terminology, slangs, slogans, short-hands, etc work to good effect in building grass roots support and in gaining and maintaining momentum.

At that particular time, a change in approach both internally and externally was required. Internally within CAL ALPA, and externally with management.

You may consider it rude, but that's OK. It may be unprofessional. And that's OK too. Just realize the best predictor of future performance is past performance. Playing nice all the time gets you squat. We were really good at staying in our sandbox and coloring between the lines.

FUPM kicked it up a notch and I don't think anyone at any level ever took it personally or was in anyway long term harmed or got their feelings hurt.

Remember, ALPA pilots for the most part aren't Enlish majors, they aren't technical writing geeks. They just want to be paid for their services and in a fair manner. That's the goal. Get paid!

FUPM says what it means and means what it says. it's direct and to the point. 30% of the stock price is labor stability. A bunch of FUPM bracelets at stock share holder meetings would certainly get the attention of the board and the institutional investors. It could have made a big difference if that got into the news that the CAL pilots had such loathing and disrespect for Fred Abbot and his minions that we were willing to wear the bracelet as an outward and visible expression of our discontent.

I for one was out of patience with the CAL MEC and CAL management. All grass roots movements start somewhere. If there had been any viable alternative I would have been more than interested in pursuing it, but none seemed apparent and I don't recall much discussion about alternative approaches. You gotta be willing to rock the boat sometimes, especially if its for the right reasons.